Beyond Tomorrow

Foreword

(wrote the foreword)

Otto Scharmer

“Christopher Nye recalls Einstein’s assertion that we can’t solve problems with the same kind of thinking we used in creating them. What then are new ways of thinking? What kind of economy do we imagine for the future? What could be our relation to each other and to nature? And what about farming and education? This book offers thoughts on what it would mean to fashion what the author calls a new civilization.”

George K. Russell

“Elders often reminisce about the past, the good old times or bad old times, but they rarely imagine the future in a vivid and hopeful way, as Christopher Nye has done in this visionary book. Now in his ninth decade, he refuses to give up on our species. Instead, he celebrates our capacity as individuals to become morally responsible, creative, and caring, and he documents our ability as members of groups to collaborate peacefully and fruitfully on scales ranging from families, trade unions, and co-ops up to cities. The key to releasing this potential is education that nurtures the whole person, body, brain, and soul, beginning in early childhood and continuing all through life. The author whom we meet in these pages illustrates the generosity and wisdom such an education can yield.”

Scott Russell Sanders

“It takes patience and care to befriend one’s ideals as Chris Nye has done in Beyond Tomorrow, and I admire him for it. This book makes it clear: It is time to declare our utopias. What is offered here is not wishful thinking, but an articulate commitment to the world we love and a future we can still believe in.”

Jonathan Rowson

“Chris Nye applies his fine analytic mind, lived values, and earned wisdom to the seemingly intractable issues facing—dare I say it—the future of humankind. Beyond Tomorrow is an audacious undertaking, but it is delivered with a prescriptive clarity and grace that ultimately assures readers that we shall prevail.”

Jed Horowitz

“In this period of great uncertainty, when basic principles of a just and healthy society are under attack, Chris Nye’s book, Beyond Tomorrow, is a fresh look at the foundations of what is truly important. His analysis of the ills of our public educational system where data and compliance are often more important than actual learning is profound. He makes a passionate call to educate the whole child so as to truly engage students in their learning. He gives many examples of schools, such as Montessori, Waldorf, and Scandinavian schools that do just that. He writes that if we are to save our schools from the oppressive weight of endless testing and rigid curriculums, we need to give our students the freedom to learn in different ways and we need to give our teachers the freedom to experiment with new teaching methods in the classroom. Above all, this book is a storehouse of ideas to generate deep thinking and robust discussion about how to make our world better.”

Mark Philips

“Chris Nye’s vision contains the wisdom of an elder—in the revered spiritual sense of the term. He sustains our hope for a more just and beautiful world. This text, with its refusal to view idealism and pragmatism as mutually exclusive, presents a compelling road map for civilizational healing and the rebirth of a culture attuned to the deepest desires of the human heart.”

Philip Francis

“For anyone committed to the long journey toward a more sustainable and equitable world, this book is an indispensable resource—a compassionate manifesto for the new civilization we seek to create.”

Armando Zanecchia

“With inspiring insight, Christopher Nye’s new book delivers exactly what it promises—a plan for a new civilization. Our cruel, extractive economy is on track to destroy itself, as it destroys the planet. It must be radically reformed or, more likely, replaced, and something new will have to be imagined into existence. Engaging what Nye calls the ‘muscle of moral choice,’ we can choose new lifeways that empower human potential and dignity, while healing the reeling world. With Nye’s new book, hope is not just a feeling, it’s a plan.”

Kathleen Dean Moore

“Filled with the warmth and wisdom of [an] interesting and dedicated life.”

Jacob Hundt

“A soaring vision bolstered by research, cogent thinking, and beautiful writing . . . a profound critique of our current civilization and a hopeful, practical vision of how it could evolve, grounded in [Nye’s] experience and research.”

John Bell

“The book does a phenomenal job of focusing on the ‘for’ rather than just outlining how things fell apart.”

Grace Greenwald