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10
Imagining t heIdealWorld
In the previous chapter, we set out to develop the criteria for assessing
whether an individual is on the right track with his or her thinking, actions,
and consideration of projects and activities for his or her community, assum-
ing the individual desires to help build a sustainable world. In this chapter,
we seek to develop a possible vision of that sustainable world, one built on
the foundational principles encompassed in economic stability within the
triple bottom-line framework.
As important as it is to have guidelines against which anything can be
tested, it is equally important to have a clear idea of where you are headed.
What does success look like? How will I know it when I see it? Are there
positive models that can be constructed or, better yet, examples that already
exist? Addressing these types of questions is the objective of this next-to-the-
last chapter. Finally, in the last chapter, we conclude by offering whatever
counsel we can for taking practical action.
In a real sense, the criteria for a vision of sustainability based on the
three pillars will continue to emerge in cumulative fashion throughout
the rest of the topic. Much of what might qualify as vision, however, has
already appeared. Overall, it is our purpose to coalesce how one might go
about achieving a world of social-environmental-economic sustainability
by using positive, concrete images to nudge your imagination of what is
possible.
We perceive a delicious irony in undertaking this task. Throughout, our
message has been systemic, wherein everything is connected to every-
thing else and must be considered as a whole if any part is to be under-
stood. Because much of the topic is ecological—the science of understanding
interconnectedness—this is not surprising. As authors, our inclination is a
desire to say everything at once, because our perception of the message is of
a fully leshed vision. But that is not the way topics work; they are necessar-
ily sequenced and linear. Therefore, we must talk about thing A in a certain
place and thing B in its place, no matter how connected they are. Bear with
us, dear reader, as we struggle to help create the new paradigm, while hon-
oring the best and most workable of the old. But, first it must be understood
that we cannot move away from a negative.
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