CHAPTER 1
STARTING POINT
NEO's Opening Keynote
Friends, let me welcome you to this marvelous island wherewe have given ourselves the pleasant task of thinking aboutthe world and proposing feasible solutions to its problems. Iwill lead the debate throughout, but will entertain all sorts ofquestions, comments and challenges in the spirit of the PlatonicDialogues which have inspired this three week seminar.
You will note that Plato conveyed all of his philosophical andpolitical ideas through dialogue with characters. Successivegenerations of philosophers have preferred straight analyticalprose to popularize their theories. I myself have written all mybooks and articles in straight prose. This time, let us experimentwith dialogue.
The Agenda is ambitious. We resolve to consider the 2008Financial Crisis as a major world event which has revealed bothsevere cracks within, but also great opportunities for, the WorldEconomic System.
Today, in mid 2013, we are living the major sociopoliticaltsunami which has followed the financial earthquake of 2008.Other crashes are sure to come, but even if there were none, thehuge effects of the 2008 Crisis will be with us for a long time.
Our goals therefore are as follows:
1. To understand where we are and how we got to what wewill call POINT A.
2. To try and define where we want to go, which we cancall POINT B (in the singular or plural).
3. To identify paths that are both feasible and desirable ingoing from A to B.
Our first week will be devoted to the analysis of Point A; thesecond, which will take place in a few months, will define thecontours of one or more Point Bs; and the third week will dwellon the strategy necessary to help realize these objectives.
In essence, a think-tank for two weeks, and a do-tank for thethird, lest we be accused of just being dreamers on a dreamisland and nothing more.
QWERTY
Don't you think, O.T, that it is presumptuous for us to try anddo ourselves what has evaded the scores of experts at the IMF,the World Bank, and the OECD for decades?
NEO
Possibly, but I say, why not? We are not mandated to changethe world by anyone but ourselves. We are just a bunchof citizens, and if I may be so bold as to mention withoutarrogance, we are of high intellectual caliber, willing to applyour intelligence and knowledge to contemporary problems.
I believe that there are three features of our Athena Trilogywhich make it worthwhile and not just another me-too seminar,like the hundreds that take place all the time.
• First, by the very composition of the group, we arecombining a think-tank and a do-tank. We have assembledboth thinkers and actors in this gathering, which is a goodthing. It will ensure that we will stay on track.
• Second, we are dealing with a variety of issues whichgo well beyond the `plumbing aspects' of the worldsystem, i.e. financial regulation, deficit to GDP ratios,unemployment statistics, into the realm of philosophy.We are trying to connect the dots, uncover hiddeninter-dependencies and conversely highlight theuncoupling of previously closely-paired variables. Inmost of the other meetings, the dots are not connectedat all, and...