Omschrijving
A journalist is dispatched at a low point in his existence to cover a bankers' conference. There he becomes embroiled in a search for a new economic paradigm. For the world. This quest takes you from brutal neoliberalism, from earning models based on crises and wars, to an inclusive economy. Past the complementary emotion- and knowledge-based economy views. Along the fallacy that permanence and flux lie on the same x-axis, likewise with the concepts of freedom and security. And to the appalling discovery that Earth is warming up so fast because the cooling system – based on cloud formation, i.e. water – is getting way out of control due to desiccation and desertification. Collateral damage from ill-considered economic action.
Follow Jonathan Fonck on his intense journeys into the outer and inner worlds. Outwardly he is the successful top journalist of an economic daily in Amsterdam. See also his inner struggles, victories and defeats.
He has been seen, weighed and found fit to provide the world with a new paradigm lest the planet, the life bearing Gaia, remains habitable.
Jon is an astute analyst; you can follow him in dialogues, expositions, reflections, lectures and letters, from himself and from the people he meets. His considered views on circular and human scale economics, embedded in an ecology-protecting paradigm, may seem familiar to you. After all, they are so obvious.
Parts I and II play out in 2019.
Part III, set in 2020 and 2021, offers innovative insights into how an economy, based on think global, act local not only brings ecological salvation, but also returns self-determination over production and consumption to human communities, thanks to new technologies, sustainable transportation and proper education.
Actually, the only fictional thing in this thriller is the benevolence with which big money finances small-scale enterprise with a 25-year return horizon. An incentive. In search of a new normal. But not that of the technocrats, who want to "reset" the world to their model, that of the World Economic Forum. The authors advocate a softer new order, a "Beautiful reset". From analyses, confrontational viewpoints, old and new visions of sustainability, they end up with innovative social and technical innovations. Bottom up instead of top down. PART I CONFRONTATION: THE BANKERS’ CONGRESS
0 2021. PROLOGUE: ESCAPE FROM CRISIS
1 2019. I’M STRUGGLING... WILL I EVER RISE AGAIN?
2 EXCHANGE OF THOUGHTS
3 IN FREE FALL... AND THEN THERE’S A PARACHUTE
4 A SURPRISING LANDING
5 GENERATION GAP
6 LEAP OF FAITH
7 FLOUNDERING TO KEEP FROM DROWNING
8 RECOGNIZED
9 THE CIRCLE
10 SHOCKING
11 INSIGHTS WITH ESTHER
12 NERDS AND PAW HOOKS
13 ESTHER AGAIN AND A STRANGE INTERVIEW
14 ON THE CUTTING EDGE
15 BYE BYE TO BASEL
16 GLOBAL WARMING
17 REDUCTIONIST VS HOLISTIC
18 SAVED BY ‘LA BELLE’
19 KICKBACK
PART II CONFLICT: ECOLOGY > ECONOMY
1 BACK TO NORMAL AMSTERDAM LEVEL
2 LONDON
3 SUMMERHOUSE - AMSTERDAM V.V.
4 SUMMERHOUSE II - COMING CLOSE
5 EDITORIAL WORK
6 FRANKFURT
7 ESTHER ESCAPES
8 CRISIS WITH ANTON
9 FURTHER JAMMING
10 EMMA’S INITIATION
11 THREE WOMEN
12 DAVOS CIRCLE II
13 THE SECOND DAY
14 THIS DID NOT GO WELL
15 ANGER, PANIC AND NEW ORDER
16 TRACKING IN VERMONT
17 LIBERATION
18 BACK TO AMSTERDAM
PART III CRISIS AND NEW WAYS
1 FLIP OUT
2 MIAMI, THE SHIP
3 GROWING TENSIONS
4 BREAKING
5 SAN FRANCISCO, EMMA
6 DISCLOSURES, HOME
7 COHESION
8 LETTERS
9 CRISIS CONSULT
10 SURPRISES, PLEASANT AND UNPLEASANT
11 “NACHT UND NEBEL”
12 GOING HOME
13 ESTHER INCOGNITO
14 OPENLY ON TARGET
15 TO EUROPE
16 HYDROGEN AND FORESTRY
17 DEEPER AND DEEPER
18 WATER RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
19 WORK IS LOVE IN PROGRESS
20 THREATS AND BRIGHT SPOTS
21 WITH MARC
22 WITH ANTON ON CHANGE AGENTS
23 WITH LODI AND VIC ON “ISLANDS OF CHANGE “
24 MANIFESTO
25 A NEW STRATEGY
26 TEAM
27 BIOMASS SYMPOSIUM
28 THE BIRTH
29 BACK IN THE LOCKDOWN
APPENDIX: THE PARLIAMENT OF THINGS
EPILOGUE