‘We live in a era of intense conflict and massive institutional failures, a time of painful endings and of hopeful beginnings. It is a time that feels as if something profound is shifting and dying while something else, as the playwright and Czech president, Vaclav Havel, put it, wants to be born: “I think there are good reasons for suggesting that the modern age has ended. Today, many things indicate that we are going through a transitional period, when it seems that something is on the way out and something else is painfully being born. It is as if something were crumbling, decaying, and exhausting itself – while something else, still indistinct, were rising from the rubble.”‘

[From C. Otto Scharmer: ‘Theory U‘]

Daily we can find more and more evidence that our age is becoming less predictable and change continues to accelerate. Yet there are things to be optimistic about -http://www.ted.com/is a wonderful site with a massive collection of videos, articles and audio recordings designed to be of interest to the thoughtful, purposeful mind. I particularly like this posting in the TED Blog about reasons to be optimistic – beats the broadcast news any day.

If you still need a ‘shot in the arm’ maybe Robert Wrights 18 minute talk will do it for you?