Slide The Extraordinary Task of Inventing a Future We exist to recruit the intelligence and purpose of the people in this task.

We do not need to agree on which particular straw it will be that breaks the camel’s back, but there is little to disagree with in the observation that the complex, centralised, taut, energy-intensive, materials-intensive, money-intensive, infrastructure-heavy and feedback-blind model of society on which we rely is in trouble from many directions.

In this context, localisation stands, at best, at the limits of practical possibility, but it has the decisive argument in its favour that there will be no alternative.

The Extraordinary Task of Inventing a Future

 

We exist to recruit the intelligence and purpose of the people in this task.

We do not need to agree on which particular straw it will be that breaks the camel’s back, but there is little to disagree with in the observation that the complex, centralised, taut, energy-intensive, materials-intensive, money-intensive, infrastructure-heavy and feedback-blind model of society on which we rely is in trouble from many directions.

In this context, localisation stands, at best, at the limits of practical possibility, but it has the decisive argument in its favour that there will be no alternative.

 

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Surviving the Future: Conversations for Our Time

We partner with Vermont’s Sterling College in curating online offerings grounded in the late David Fleming’s legacy.

From conversations to courses and community, we offer spaces for realists about our troubled times to meet, connect and learn alongside some of the leading thinkers and doers of our times. 

Seeking purpose and meaning amidst the intertwined crises unfolding as you read these words.

Lean Logic & Surviving the Future

“I refer to Surviving the Future as my Bible, in that it brings me solace and helps me to understand the world and my place in it. I look through its passages and dog-eared pages and it explains to me why I’m thinking this way; why I feel this way. It’s loose, accessible and funny, and yet deeply true.
It reminds me, through the language that is unique to David Fleming, why I’m really motivated, often, to get up in the morning. This work is so central to what I believe is necessary.”

~ Peter Buffett, Emmy-winning composer; New York Times bestselling author; co-president of the NoVo Foundation

Upcoming Events

Learn about upcoming speaking engagements and other events, from in-depth courses to one-off events. 

Including Sterling College’s Surviving the Future: Conversations for Our Time programme inspired by David Fleming’s work.

The Sequel: What Will Follow Our Troubled Civilisation?

THE SEQUEL shines a light on the work and legacy of the late
David Fleming, a historian, economist, and ecologist with a deep understanding of how we got here and a compelling vision of how we can recover what we have lost as the market economy has worked its way into every aspect of our lives. The film recognizes the fundamentally unsustainable nature of today’s society and dares to ask the big question: What will follow?

LeanLogic.online

Welcome to the Dictionary for the Future and How to Survive It.
You might think that a good place to start reading it is at the beginning. Well, that isn’t necessarily so. For one thing, the first word in the Dictionary is Abstraction, and knowing what that is all about probably isn’t a burning priority for most people.

One better idea might be to read the Introduction, for some context and guidance on how to approach the book. Or simply dive in with one of the questions that occupy, or preoccupy, many of us, and then explore from there. Here are a few to start with, and some of the principal entries which think about them….