The Chronicles of the Upheavals [Revised Edition]

$18.00

Humanity makes it, past all of the challenges that await us over the next hundred years.  Find out how!  [Revised edition, with corrections and modifications.]

In stock

Description

It’s the year 2125, and the human world has had its mega-crises. The history of the 21st Century was dominated by “The Upheavals”: every crisis that threatened humanity happened. Just about everything that could go wrong, did.

“The Upheavals” took a heavy toll… billions of humans perished in the human-caused cataclysms.

Despite the Upheavals, humanity made it. From the shock of dysfunction and the fog of denial, humanity moved into new ways of working with each other and working with the Earth. (Actually, a lot of old ways…)

Humanity makes it, because of the visionary work of the Awakening Movement, catalyzed by the mysterious “Culture Council”. What for some was “The End” was really “The Transformation”.

After an Introduction from 2125 by the Culture Council, the “Upheavals” starts at 2025, with the rescue of a street kid and his learning of the ways and values of one Awakening Center. Through his interactions with his fellow novices and his superiors, he learns to accept the mission of the Awakening Centers in providing a realistic pathway through the Upheavals. Through this young novice (with an old attitude and a new name), we learn how the brave new world of the 21st Century takes shape.

The Chronicles of the Upheavals is a work of speculative fiction.

Additional information

Weight 18 oz
Dimensions 9 × 6 × 2 in

1 review for The Chronicles of the Upheavals [Revised Edition]

  1. Ira Chaleff

    THE CHRONICLES OF THE UPHEAVALS
    Book Review by Ira Chaleff

    I am reading The Chronicles of the Upheaval and am enthralled. It is the most creative vehicle I have ever read for a serious contemplation of potential futures and how to arrive at them. It is right up there with Starhawk’s The Fifth Sacred Thing in its juxtaposition of dystopic and utopic futures and the raw grim realities that lie between them.

    This is a tour de force, bringing together Shariff’s powers of observation and deep knowledge of the structure of societies, of how they get overwhelmed and collapse, of the limits of political thinking, of human behavior in extremis, of the spiritual master’s teaching within the grounding nature of martial arts and monastic etiquette, of the economic fundamentals of production and exchange, of the fierce nature of true compassion, and of the slow shift of a character’s voice as the outward sign of inner change. All of this is packaged within the unique device of the scrupulous record keeping required both by science and bureaucracy: hence “The Chronicles.”

    Reading this in the COVID-19 climate makes it all the more poignant.

    Of course, attempts to re-engineer human society and belief systems are fraught with peril. Shariff takes risks in the strategies used by the Awareness Centers that are seeking to replace the disintegrating societal order. They are at times pointedly problematic, even if necessary. He saves them from the arrogance of utopian efforts by continuously questioning themselves, honoring dissent and learning how to navigate the path between beneficial and distorted use of their own power.

    This is the rare work that should be part of the cultural cannon like 1984 or Fahrenheit 451, with its great added virtue of visualizing alternatives to a different world. Whether or not its public inclusion into this cannon ever comes to pass, I am grateful for its insertion into the cosmic DNA.

    Ira Chaleff
    Visiting Leadership Scholar
    Møller Institute, Cambridge University

    Author:
    The Courageous Follower: Standing Up To and For Our Leaders
    The Limits of Violence
    Intelligent Disobedience
    http://www.irachaleff.com

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