We know of the portentous and manifold risks we face, both now and in the future. The global environment is fragile, under severe assault, and it's vulnerable to genetic engineering for short-term profit. Viruses and bacteria are subjected to increasing stress that yields deadly mutations, and weapons of all kinds are more widely and easily available than ever. As a species, we are learning more and more but are less and less able to keep up with what's happening to us as human beings, and to our world, its land, water, and air, Many solutions have been proposed, yet even at the basic level of abolishing massive poverty and advancing public health, they are applied too slowly and haphazardly to achieve any real human betterment. And this at a time when we have more powerful global tools than ever before. Never in history has there been a greater opportunity to effect change.
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To the Meliorists, their advocates, beneficiaries and all those who follow to broaden and deepen their pioneering footsteps in reality.
He knew exactly what he had to do- now, fast, fundamentally, and unyieldingly!
I had planned to go on increasing the value of my estate and use it to establish a huge posthumous charitable foundation, but now I realize that's just a rationalization for continuing to do what I do best while escaping responsibility for what's done by others. Besides, why rely on the smug foundation world, which has brought forth so few innovations while spending trillions of dollars? Why bequeth to unimaginative people? I want to go out having advanced and implemented a grand design, and I want to do it now with the best talent available. I suspect that similar feelings are stirring in your minds and souls as well, and that's why I put out the call to you.
... but only in the thousands. It doesn't cross the charity-to-justice line - the old palliative versus the systematic divide.
Quotes from Only The Super-Rich Can Save Us
Think global, revolutionize local. ~Bill Cosby
History has taught us that well-meaning impositions grafted onto the body politic or the political culture do not take readily and sometimes backfire ferociously. Believe me, as someone who's contributed nearly three billion dollars to further a global vision of open societies, I know what I'm talking about. ~ George Soros
Whatever we put forward must have a multiplier mechanism attached. We'll have to multiply ourselves, as we'll have to multiply what George called the assets, approaches, and structures we intend to advance. Otherwise, it will just be more of the same. ~ Peter Lewis, Progressive Insurance
"Deja vu all over again," Warren said.
We must challenge bigness wherever we find it. Bigness is a curse. It is too bureaucratic, too autocratic, too top-heavy in making decisions, too remote from the ground, and too ubiquitous in our present state of corporate socialism or state capitalism. ~ Seymour Melman
Bigness is too addicted to concentrating power, and too inimical to competition and democratic processes. Our economy is being crippled by all these companies that are "too big to fail". ~ Bernard Rapoport, or B
People tend to care more about their children than themselves, and will often sacrifice anything for them. Children draw out our better instincts and make us take a longer view of matters. Our country is mortgaging its future in many ways, not just with huge debts and deficits on the economic front. ~ Ross Perot
I suggest that we assume a one-year life expectancy for all of us - that is, we need to do what we're going to do as if there were only one year left on Earth. ~ Max Palevsky
yet corporations control what the people own against the people's interests. If we're looking for Redirections, this is one giant Redirection of existing assets toward the common good. It's a matter of what is fundamentally right and fair. ~ Barry Diller
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This book is not a novel. Nor is it nonfiction. In the literary world, it might be described as "a practical utopia." I call it a fictional vision that could become a new reality. Some known and not-well-known people appear in fictional roles. I invite your imaginative engagement. ~Ralph Nader, Washington, DC
