THE CHRYSALIS EFFECT
The Metamorphosis of Global Culture
224 Pages
Sussex Academic
Published 2008
SYNOPSIS
The Chrysalis Effect shows that the chaos and conflict experienced worldwide today are the result of a global cultural metamorphosis, one which has accelerated so rapidly in recent decades as to provoke fierce resistance. Many of the changes that have taken place in the last fifty years—the feminist movement, the rapid spread of democracy, the global economy, quantum physics, minority movements, the peace movement, the sexual revolution—are part of this cultural transformation.
Contrary to accepted opinion, the conflict it engenders is not a struggle between Left and Right, nor between the West and Islam, but one taking place within the Left, within the Right, within the West, within Islam, within everyone and every institution. Currently, the world is in the middle of an adaptive process, moving toward a cultural ethos more appropriate to a species living in a shrinking world and in danger of destroying its habitat - a world that increasingly demands for its survival, integrative thinking, unlimited communication, and global cooperation. Philip Slater—author of the bestselling The Pursuit of Loneliness and nine other nonfiction books—explains the metamorphosis of global culture through the analogy of the transition from caterpillar to butterfly—the Chrysalis Effect—whereby old cultural assumptions are challenged while innovations are seen as a social ill, a critical moral infection, and attacked as such by the upholders of tradition. And when the budding culture replaces the previous one, it doesn't create a new way of being out of nothing, but merely rearranges old patterns to make the new ones.
Today, our world is caught in the middle of this disturbing transformative process—a process that creates confusion over values, loss of ethical certainty, and a bewildering lack of consensus about almost everything. The Chrysalis Effect provides an answer to the question: Why is the world in such a mess?
REVIEWS
“This book ought to launch a thousand necessary discussions.”
Todd Gitlin, author, The Intellectuals and the Flag
“There’s no other way to put it: ‘The Chrysalis Effect’ is the most brilliant tour de force of this decade. It is, and will continue to be, the most powerful and original analysis of this century's planetary vertigo. Without exaggeration, Slater’s path-breaking illumination of our global ‘state of mind’ can be compared only with the work of a Gibbon, or Toynbee or Plutarch. It’s that profound and should be the most widely read book for years to come.”
Professor Warren Bennis, University of Southern California, author, Transparency and Judgment
“He brilliantly demonstrates the principles of Integrative Culture in action – that all things are indeed connected in the network age.”
Rosabeth Kanter, author, America the Principled
“Beautifully written, this wide-ranging book is full of fascinating information and trenchant insights. The Chrysalis Effect is an important contribution to the cultural transformation urgently needed today.”
Riane Eisler, author, The Chalice and The Blade and The Real Wealth of Nations
EXCERPTS
“The old system I call Control Culture. Its concern with mastery led to the creation of rigid mental and physical compartments, a static vision of the universe, a deep dependence on authoritarian rule, a conviction that order was something that had to be imposed, and a preoccupation with combat.
The new system I call Integrative Culture, because its guiding impulse is to dissolve mental walls and permeate artificial boundaries—to celebrate interdependence. It has a dynamic vision of the universe, a democratic ethos, and sees order as something that evolves, as it does in Nature, from spontaneous interaction.”
“When old cultural assumptions are challenged, innovations are not seen as mere novelties but as a social ill, a critical moral infection, and attacked as such by the upholders of tradition.”
“Incivility and chaos arise when an old system is breaking down and a new one hasn’t yet fully taken hold. Today we’re in that very spot, undergoing a transition between two global cultural systems with opposing values and assumptions: one of them thousands of years old and dying, but still tenacious, exhausting itself in ever more violent resurgences; the other in its youth, but growing stronger every day.”