The term polycrisis describes the moment we are living through — a time when economic instability, ecological breakdown, social fragmentation, and political upheaval are no longer separate problems, but interlocking pressures that amplify one another. Together, they shape a world defined by uncertainty, vulnerability, and rapid change. Ordinary people are frightened and feel powerless.
Below, you can explore the four urgent global issues the authors highlight as central to today’s polycrisis: sustainability, war, inequality, and migration. Each one is significant on its own; together, they reveal the deeper forces reshaping our shared future.
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The balance of earth’s systems which sustain life – oceans, temperatures, soil, forests, winds and air – is disrupted and we teeter on the brink of irreversible disaster. Malthus and his predictions of catastrophic depopulation through disease, conflict and hunger caused by human overreach were assumed to have been overcome by technology and human ingenuity. That he lives and thrives has been spelt out by voices difficult to deny that the path we are on is not sustainable.
We have an economic system which depends on financial markets to allocate social resources to profit seeking in the short term.
Ashok challenges that world and suggests an alternative where the highest wisdom is kindness and the highest purpose is to plant the seeds of a nobler, sustainable and happier world for those who come after.
Humans are a very recent arrival in the long line of history. Capable of the most sublime achievements we struggle to work out how best to organise ourselves and live well together.
However, living together is inevitably a compromise of differences between interests and values. Even between ideas of truth itself. Fail to find the compromise and the default position is too often conflict and war.
Ashok teaches the way of compromise. Listen instead of speaking, pay attention to what the heart is saying not just the voice, love diversity, celebrate differences, respect history, make future generations a primary duty of care. He says these instincts represent both our true selves and our greatest self-interest.
December 31 st 2019 we first heard about a strange virus killing people in a faraway place called Wuhan. Almost overnight covid did two things. It stopped the hands on the clock of growth, consumption, competition and pollution- a clock previously considered unstoppable. And it focused a new lens on inequality.
Was this the bump into reality which started a new story about our purpose and how we best organise ourselves more fairly in society? Unfortunately not. The inequality of climate change is stark. The inequality of war is stark.
Ashok saw these inequalities and felt their importance in creating the conditions for social unrest and the mass migration of peoples.
Migration has gone on forever. The numbers have never been very big – about 3% of the total. And not always bad. And its not just humans. Migratory birds play a fundamental role in long distance seed dispersal. Bees pollinate fruits, vegetables and crops.
The problem starts when migrants want to come more than the receiving country wants to accept them.
Ashok listens and watches and understands that treating the symptoms of the problem is like trying to push steam back into a boiling kettle. He builds Schools for the Common Good that teach the greater productivity and potential of balance in both minds and the distribution of resources.
Who we are
Where to buy
Epiphanies
Leslie is an economist who challenges economics’ dominance in public life. His work includes social autobiographies, Little Books of the Common Good and other essays. Find out more about Leslie, our illustrator, Jennifer, and how Ashok came to be.
Find out more on how to purchase a copy of the book. All author royalties from the sale of this book will be donated to charity.
Ashok sows the seeds for personal and community transformations. Read about individuals and communities’ we think have taken on the transformative spirit of Ashok.
Who we are
Leslie is an economist who challenges economics’ dominance in public life. His work includes social autobiographies, Little Books of the Common Good and other essays. Find out more about Leslie, our illustrator, Jennifer, and how Ashok came to be.
Where to buy
Find out more on how to purchase a copy of the book. All author royalties from the sale of this book will be donated to charity.
Epiphanies
Ashok sows the seeds for personal and community transformations. Read about individuals and communities’ we think have taken on the transformative spirit of Ashok.