Jeremy Rifkin: The Empathic Civilisation Event

GENIAL DAGEGEN

lecture and book presentation:

JEREMY RIFKIN

President of the Foundation on Economic Trends

THE EMPATHIC CIVILIZATION

The Race to Global Consciousness in a World in Crisis

Welcome addresses by:

Eva Nowotny, former Austrian Ambassador to the U.S.A.

H.E. William C. Eacho III, Ambassador of the United States of America

Introductory remarks by Robert Misik, journalist and curator of the lecture series Genial dagegen

Due to limited seating capacity please register until Thursday, February 4, 2010):
fax: +43 1 3188260/10, e-mail: einladung.kreiskyforum@kreisky.org, fon: +43 1 3188260/20

In his latest book Empathic Civilization Jeremy Rifkin presents a sweeping new interpretation of the history of civilization. He looks at the evolution of empathy and the profound ways it has shaped the human story - and will likely determine our fate as a species. As the forces of globalization accelerate and become ever more complex, the older faith-based and rational forms of consciousness are likely to become stressed, and even dangerous, as they attempt to navigate a world increasingly beyond their reach and control. The emergence of this empathetic consciousness has implications for the future that will likely be as profound and far-reaching as when Enlightenment philosophers upended faith-based consciousness with the canon of reason. Rifkin argues that human empathy is beginning to extend to all of life in the biosphere, giving rise - for the first time in history - to the prospect of truly global consciousness. The irony is that just as we are beginning to glimpse the possibility of global empathic consciousness, we find ourselves close to our own extinction. Can we reach global empathy in time to avoid the collapse of civilization and save the earth?