Macroshifts happen when cultures reach a critical turning point in their evolution. Such profound systemic shifts are triggered by technological innovations that destabilize the established structures and institutions of society. A macroshift, therefore, is a civilizational transformation in which technology is the driver, and the consciousness-evolution of a critical mass is the decider.
When a complex system such as a society or civilization reaches its limits of stability, it enters an era of transformation-known in chaos science as a "bifurcation" point. The extreme instability means even minor influences can decide the direction the system will take. Thatís when a macroshift occurs. The outcome is ultimately decided by the nature of the fluctuations within that system or in its surroundings. In human societies, these fluctuations can be consciously governed.
As consumers and clients, as taxpayers and voters, and as public opinion holders, people can create the kind of fluctuations that can decide the outcome of their society's macroshift. If they are aware of the power in their hands, and if they have the will and the wisdom to make use of it, they can become conscious agents of their society's bifurcation, masters of their own destiny. We are at such a time today.
Our impending macroshift will move toward a successful conclusion if, and only if, a critical mass of people evolve their mindset: If we generate and embrace values, worldviews and ethics that mesh with the conditions inadvertently spawned by the technological innovations of our predecessors. How soon, and indeed whether, a critical mass evolves the necessary values, worldviews and consciousness is not written in the stars: It depends on the creativity of the people and the flexibility of the dominant institutions.
A macroshift brings either breakdown or breakthrough. Society either restabilizes following the evolution of a more adapted mindset, or it heads toward crises and breakdown. The choice is ours to make.
The Old Testament told us, "where there is no vision, the people perish." Today, we need the vision to move from economic globalization to a new and sustainable civilization, shifting from the world of modern-age Logos to the postmodern civilization of Holos-from a paradigm of rational analysis to one of holistic vision and action. For such a shift to occur a new consciousness is essential. In a democracy we cannot change the direction of our collective evolution by dictates from above; the insight and the will must come from below-from the people.
Fortunately, a new consciousness is already surfacing at the creative edge of our society. A quiet but significant groundswell is building up today, made up of people who change their preferences, priorities, values, and beliefs. They shift from a gross increase of consumption toward selectivity of quality defined by environmental-friendliness, sustainability, and the ethics of production and use; and from lifestyles marked by energy-wasteful ostentation to modes of living guided by voluntary simplicity and the search for a new morality and harmony with nature.
Ervin Laszlo is the founder and president of the Club of Budapest. He currently edits World Futures: The Journal of General Evolution, and is the author of Macroshift (Berrett-Koehler Publishers, 2001).