Quality of life is supported by a complex social, political, economic, resource and environmental infrastructure. Any flaw in that interdependent system endangers the whole system. We can conduct a quick stress test to estimate systemic risk and vulnerability.

Stress Test

Quality of Life Support System

In this illustration, we use a bridge to represent our social-environmental system based on the holistic philosophy that all parts of our global system are interrelated. As you can see in the illustration, the individual parts each have a specific function, but they also act collectively to form and maintain the bridge.

Can we depend on this bridge to successfully carry us into the next century?  Let’s subject each element to a quick stress test.

1  One of the primary pillars supporting our society is Capitalism. The closed and finite system of our planet cannot support the exponentially expanding needs of our current economic model for materials, energy, space and life support capacity. This pillar is under high stress.

2  Our society’s other primary supporting pillar is Democracy. The tilted playing field, on which individual citizens vote only on election days but special interests push their votes every day in the lobbies of congress, corrupts democracy. This political system has become a partisan, overly centralized and often gridlocked, ineffective institution.

3  World population is nearing 7 billion. Rising demands are depleting available resources. Resource depletion is threatening the global economy and social order. Earth’s ecology is highly disturbed and its carrying capacity is over-stressed.

4  Peace is both a critical part of this bridge and an outcome of the state of the other elements upon which it rests. Rising tensions in many parts of the world are diminishing prospects for lasting peace and increasing the probability of conventional and nuclear war. Terrorism is further increasing instability and anxiety within and between nations.

5  Like an earthquake or avalanche, when a complex system – such as our socioeconomic infrastructure – is stressed to capacity, a nonspecific failure can lead to its sudden collapse.

6  A tide of wealth is receding from the West and is moving to the East. The vacuum forming in the wake of that transfer of wealth will soon threaten global order and civilization.    

7  The philosophical foundation of Western civilization (gone global) is reductionism, rooted in ancient Greek atomistic philosophy. Without holism, that foundation is highly compartmentalized and deeply fragmented, therefore unable to produce holistic and synergetic solutions.

The bedrock upon which our entire global socioeconomic system rests is the carrying capacity of our planet and the laws of nature –  absolute, inescapable and unforgiving of abuse.

Securing Quality of Life

The above quick test of the infrastructure supporting quality of life suggests elevated stress in each member of that infrastructure. This indicates a high degree of systemic vulnerability. Partial or compartmentalized fixes of the conventional kind cannot remedy the threat arising from such complex and Multi-Dimensional Challenges. This also makes clear the need for a shift to a holistic philosophical foundation and worldview. The Holigent Proposal offers a holistic-systemic and synergetic solution. The proposed Holigent Solution will provide more detailed stress tests and monitors to provide continuous programs for the workers and residents of Holigent communities in the interest of securing quality of life.