The Age of the Unthinkable: Why the New World Disorder Constantly Surprises Us And What We Can Do About It
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- ISBN13: 9780316118088
- Condition: NEW
- Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
Product Description
Today the very thoughts that made America fantastic imperil its future. Our plans go awry and policies fail. History’s grandest war against terrorism makes more terrorists. Global capitalism, proposed to improve lives, increases the gap between rich and poor. Decisions made to stem a financial crisis guarantee its aggravation. Environmental strategies to protect species lead to their extinction.
The traditional physics of power has been replaced by something radically different. In The Age of the Unthinkable, Joshua Cooper Ramo puts into the world a revelatory new model for understanding our dangerously unpredictable world. Drawing upon history, economics, complexity theory, psychology, immunology, and the science of networks, he describes a new landscape of inherent volatility–and remarkable, wonderful possibility.Amazon.com Review
Today the very thoughts that made America fantastic imperil its future. Our plans go awry and policies fail. History’s grandest war against terrorism makes more terrorists. Global capitalism, proposed to improve lives, increases the gap between rich and poor. Decisions made to stem a financial crisis guarantee its aggravation. Environmental strategies to protect species lead to their extinction.
The traditional physics of power has been replaced by something radically different. In The Age of the Unthinkable, Joshua Cooper Ramo puts into the world a revelatory new model for understanding our dangerously unpredictable world. Drawing upon history, economics, complexity theory, psychology, immunology, and the science of networks, he describes a new landscape of inherent volatility–and remarkable, wonderful possibility.
Read an Interview with Joshua Ramo Cooper, Leader of The Age of the Unthinkable
How do you define the Age of the Unthinkable?
It’s an age in which constant surprise–for excellent or for ill–has become a fact of life and in which our ancient thoughts about how to make the world safer and more stable are really building it more treacherous and unstable.
What compelled you to write this book?
It was clear to me that the models we were using to reflect about the world were incorrect–regularly dangerously so. And I saw that many people who wanted to disrupt the systems we rely on–people as different as terrorists and hedge fund managers–had the upper hand when it came to understanding the scenery of our age. I wanted to write a book that would help additional people know what was happening so we could manage what promises to be a very unstable period.
Where are some of the most “unthinkable” hot spots around the world today?
These spots are all over the globe. But if I had to name a few of particular weight I would list them as:
Gaza and Lebanon. Hamas and Hizb’allah not only resist Israeli attack but seem to get stronger and much shrewder the harder they are attacked.
Wall Street, USA. Complex financial products designed to manage risk in fact accelerate the spread of unimagined danger through the financial system.
Kyoto, Japan. A radical inventor named Shigeru Miyamoto remade the global video game business overnight by mixing up two things–video games and accelerometer chips from car airbags–into a new revolutionary game system called the Wii.
South Africa. The most expensive medical battle ever to stop the spread of TB as a replacement for has led to the creation of a new, even more deadly super bug.
Russia. The end of the USSR and fantastic economic booms didn’t produce a US and democracy friendly system, as we hoped, but rather has led to an increasingly belligerent nation.
You clarify Danish physicist and biologist Per Bak’s “sandpile” theory which implies that sand cones, although relatively stable-looking, are really deeply unpredictable. In Bak’s experiments a single grain of sand could trigger an avalanche—or nothing at all. How do you reflect countries and leaders tell to this theory?
The point is that whenever you reflect the world is stable, it’s not. Even the smallest perturbations–home mortgage collapses or computer viruses–can cause tremendous dislocations. The pile in Bak’s conduct experiment is permanently growing in complexity and changing. So the lesson for us is that there are no simple policies or simple solutions; the problems we face rarely end, they just change shape. So we need a revolution in our way of thinking and in the institutions we use to manage the world if we are going to keep up with such a dynamic system.
You espouse that average citizens should take control of their lives and live in a “revolutionary” manner. What do you mean? Can customary governments and revolutionaries co-exist?
Sure they can. Google and the US government get along fine (more or less). What matters is that we all do three things: first we have to live lives that are very resilient, which means taking care of our selves, our savings, our family tree and our education so we can adjust to a rapidly changing world. Second, we all have to participate in a caring economy, devoting some of our life to helping others as a replacement for of relying on the government to help others for us. And finally we have to be innovative in how we live and reflect. We have to try to reflect of new ways to make a difference in the world as individuals, to help prepare our children to manage and control their own lives as a replacement for of relying on huge corporations or the government to do so.
We are living in a deeply unpredictable moment in history in which things seem to be getting more unstable and it just keeps getting worse. What hopeful prospects do you see in our future?
I reflect that basically what we are living in is a very disruptive moment. And this involves both disruption for terrible ends (reflect 9/11) and for excellent (reflect of bio-engineering disease cures.) I’m optimistic because I basically judge more people want to disrupt for excellent than for terrible. The challenge for us is simply to empower as many people to make, and to live as full lives as we can.
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This book is a perfect waste of time unless you are all about the NWO, Henry Kissinger, University of Chicago…..
Ramos’ message is if rape is inevitable, relax and delight in it.
What a piece of garbage.
Reader’s Rating: 1 / 5
I’m an avid book worm, and usually churn through books at light speed. The topic for Mr. Ramo’s book is of utmost importance, so I borrowed the book at my local library. They gave me three weeks to return it, and I thought I’d be done in three HOURS, not weeks. Maybe my librarian knew something I didn’t, ’cause its been a tremendous pain to go through Mr. Ramo writing skills, legendary name dropping, endless parallels, and superficial opinion. His thesis could be summarized in one page, rather than forcing the reader to withstand the pain of going through it all.
On the lighter side our leader is a competitive aerobatic pilot, so I’ll give him some credit afterall…
Reader’s Rating: 1 / 5
A grasping, stupid but obviously well connected leader (to get such a moronic book published and then distributed), Joshua Cooper Ramo, wrote a book he called “The Age of the Unthinkable”. He should have called it “Writing a Book lacking Thinking”. I suppose he envied the success of that “Tipping Point” book, and supposed any anecdotal book could do well enough to pay him for his time. I am sad that I bought the thing, as I only helped him to pay off on cynical argument.
What is incorrect with the book? Well, while we hope that intellectual books should be helpful, this book, while looking for anything helpful, is largely pointless. But, following the books logic, it is really partisan to a fantastic deal of harm. What the book does, over and over again with its anecdotes, is show how screwed up the World is, but then again and again point out how a fantastic many people, while contributing plenty to the disasters and catastrophes, are having fantastic fun and building some huge profits. Again and again the underlying intent of the book is to raise the question, that if so many people are still building such a `killing’, then how terrible could it all be? As long as some people are still getting rich, it must still be all okay. Never once does the leader evaluate the possibility of whether or not these new pockets of private special interests are helping or hurting the cause for the survival of our obviously endangered Civilization. Like so much in modern Media Thought, the excellent of the many is sacrificed to the lusts and decadence of the most successfully selfish Individual. We are all playing “King of the Mountain” and as long as we can all still point to a Winner, then the Game is not in vain. It never seems to matter that the game makes Losers of us all, all but the morally worst among us.
Oh, I don’t mean to imply that it was all about money. Regularly enough the leader goes from language of building a financial killing to simply language in praise of actual murder. After all, who can speak of success in this Modern Age of ours lacking touching upon facility in slaughter as a huge plus in building one’s way in today’s quick paced World. We have anecdotes of an Israeli Intelligence Officer who overwhelmed every expectation on how many Palestinians, Lebanese, and Syrians he was able to have assassinated. How useful! All this one-sided State Murder, practically from his own hand, could cause even greater Outrage all throughout the entire Middle East, necessitating even more and more Military Expenditures, even more Grants and Loans from the United States – all contributing to strengthen the position of the Special Interests that hired him on to start with. What a fantastic success! No Special Interest is really Evil and Corrupt that can still hire such bright and talented individuals. There is no Incorrect that a small Cleverness cannot make Right. And the leader gives us reasonably the moral guarantee that this is all simply wonderful!
But the leader wished to be seen as being politically even-handed and honest, and so he treats us to a chapter and a half on how wonderful the Terrorist Organization Hizb’allah is. You see, being so proficient at staying yet to be of Our Heroes, the Israeli Army, Hisb’allah couldn’t be all terrible! Again, the notion that Success justifies anything, everything. Are we ever encouraged to marvel how Hisb’allah had so come to dominate Lebanese Politics? A bunch of men with guns and ammo belts. Hmmmm? The leader never suggests any additional possibility for Hizb’allah’s advancement additional than that they must have been exceptionally smart, kind and caring. Not a word that could raise the awkward suspicion that Hisb’allah had only out-murdered all additional factions in a bloody civil-war, but, then again, the Leader did not need to hide from any such conclusion, as it would only fit well enough with his primary premise – anything for the sake of success. I suppose the only Reform our Leader could suggest, if he could reflect that far, would be that people should be paid directly for such large Body Counts. If we can Praise Murder, then surely we can Pay for it!
Of course, the Leader, knowing all this, also knows that it would be in horribly terrible taste to spell out any of his implied conclusions. So he presents all of his opinion, while consistently leaving out the very last steps, the conclusions, the morals, or rather the anti-morals, of the tale. Every chapter of the book therefore comes off as inconclusive. Just when the time comes to sum up his Point, he doesn’t. The end of the book suffers in the same way, that the Leader couldn’t possibly admit to the grand purpose of his book lacking appearing to be the very devil incarnate himself. But he had to say something. So he tells us that the entire planet might be saved if we follow the tenure of all the examples he has agreed – the Israeli Assassins, the Hizb’allah Terrorists, the various Wall Street Predators who DIDN’T get caught, AND if we are all decent and caring. DECENT and CARING!? Didn’t he listen to himself? How possibly could Decency and Caring have anything to do with anything he had just set into the world!? Never for even a single moment had he turned aside from success tales in murder, mayhem and economic anarchy, to suggest that decency or caring could ever ruin a competitor or kill an enemy. Oh, wait, he in fact did suggest that murders do indeed lead to further murders. So sad. But he leaves it there, never proposing how any Special Interest Group could ever possibly bring this Killing to an End by somehow monetizing the interests of Peace. Again, the Leader is so thoughtless! Agreed just a moment to reflect about it, the Answer is Clear as a Bell – we could keep people Hostage – as a replacement for of just killing everybody, like all his additional Success Tales, we could make people pay to stay Alive. Peace at last! Peace at Last! Thank God Almighty, Peace at last! Peace and a huge Profit Margin! Finally, decency and caring triumph!
Now shouldn’t we marvel that all of this moral ambiguity and applied cynicism – cynicism with a hug and a smile – must have made sense to the leader. Well, after all, he was a protégé of Henry Kissinger. Just reflect how many resumes Henry must have plowed through before he establish this Star. Then one must marvel of the absolute miracle that any Morality is left intact in the World while all the substantial rewards go to Evil. Virtues only consolation is the thought that all the Evil People must find it an absolute bitch to compete with each additional. Success is so Fine, but they all look so tired out from the Effort. Even at the top of the World, Henry looked like a broken man.
Oh, and the book was so needlessly fleeting. Sixteen dollars should have bought a few hundred pages more than 250. Plenty more could have been looked at to support the Authors thoughts of gleaning Profits out of Chaos. Why, it is a bring shame on the book did not look back to support itself with History. There could have been so much! For instance, how helpful might it have been to compare the slow and stagnating progress of Civilization in Europe of the Ninth and Tenth Century, as compared to commendably quick Success the Vikings had in sweeping all that wealth into their own pockets nearly overnight. The Monasteries took centuries to accumulate what the Vikings could steal on a excellent evening. What a wonderful business plot persons Vikings had! And “barbarian” is only just a name. Don’t be misled by mere marks. What really matters is the Success! Yes, burning down a Cathedral to steal a candlestick might seem such a waste. But there’s no Overhead! There is no Candlestick like a free and clear Candlestick!
Oh, and the leader might have agreed us an example from the Natural World. For instance, the Human Body itself. So slow it is. It takes a life time to grow a Human Body. Even in a child, weeks or months can go by lacking even noticing any increase, any obvious growth, not even incrementally. But a Tiger could rip a child apart in a minute. So we should all be tigers! Or even vultures. Even maggots can lower a body to bones in just a few days. Violence and Decay are so quick, so Successful! Abandon Life and all persons slow processes. Rome was not built in a Day, so to hell with Rome! Let us ruin as a replacement for. In these days, to be successful, one must be a Predator or at least a Scavenger. But be sure to be decent and caring about it! As long as we can add a kind word, any sin is forgiven.
Reader’s Rating: 2 / 5
In the last two years I read a excellent amount of excellent books, such as well known ‘Outliers’, ‘U theory’ and the like. This one stood out , dealing with such a hard theme to take up as complexity.
in a nutshell, the way either to fight terrorism or to innovate both rest on the observation and ‘fuzzy’ analysis if you like of diverse rumor has it that non-related information. and the leader gives the most appealing examples. I was tickled and sad at the same time as the reading progressed towards the end of the book because I wanted more. I would also take frequent pauses to reflect on some paragraphs.
Reader’s Rating: 5 / 5
Appealing thought piece. A small long on generalizations & fleeting on point examples to prove the leader’s points. Some credible observations, particularly about the mid-east. There are alternative explanations for some of the assumptions the authtor makes that are left unexplored. For example: the larger any centrally controlled organization gets, the clunkier, slower, & more bureaucratic it becomes. That doesn’t automatically mean we’re on the cusp of a “new age of thinking.” Still, it was appealing.
Reader’s Rating: 2 / 5