Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
Now in paperback--an urgent call to save ourselves and our planet that gets to the root of the current crisis: society's extreme shortsightedness "Are we being good ancestors?" So asked Jonas Salk, who developed the polio vaccine in 1953--but refused to patent it so that more lives could be saved.
Leading philosopher Roman Krznaric believes the fate of our societies (and species) depends on our living up to Salk's exhortation to radical generosity. Krznaric asserts that our exploitative mindsets have "colonized the future"--that the mounting existential threats we've left unchecked have brought humankind to the precipice of disaster. And yet, he sees room for hope
Yes, the urgent struggle for intergenerational justice calls for hugely ambitious solutions, but at the heart of all these changes is one we can enact within ourselves: We must trade shortsightedness for the long view. With The Good Ancestor, Krznaric inspires us to shift our allegiance from this generation to all humanity--in short, to save our planet and our future.
Synopsis
From leading philosopher Roman Krznaric, an urgent call to save ourselves and our planet by getting to the root of the current crisis--society's extreme short-sightedness When Jonas Salk developed the polio vaccine, he refused to patent it--forgoing profit so that more lives could be saved. His radical generosity to future generations should inspire us, but leading philosopher Roman Krznaric sees the opposite happening: Our short-term, exploitative mindsets have "colonized the future," leaving an inexcusable chasm between the haves and have-nots--and mounting existential threats--that have brought our species to the precipice of disaster.
Yet Krznaric sees reason to hope. The urgent struggle for intergenerational justice calls for hugely ambitious solutions, from rewiring our growth-at-all-costs economy to giving voters of future generations a voice in our democracies. But at the heart of all these changes is one we can enact within ourselves: We must trade shortsightedness for long-term thinking. In The Good Ancestor, Krznaric reveals six practical ways we can retrain our brains to think of the long view and to shift our allegiance from this generation to all humanity--to save our planet and our future.