Why talk about the society of the future? The society of the future is our vision: of how society should work, of the mindset we should have, of our lives as a whole. A vision is always about an image that would improve our lives. It is achievable when all parts of the system work (in harmony) towards it: when all sectors, organisations, including the media, for example, promote common values, set common criteria of right and wrong, and so on.
The Slovenian psychologist Janek Musek has written about this image of a society of the future. His book Psychological Foundations of the Future Society, published in 2014, presents the so-called European Ethics and Values Framework and provides some guidelines for the realisation of this image of society, which he also calls a Wisdom Society. It is a society of knowledge and, at the same time, of values (i.e. the appropriate way to use this knowledge). This second part especially is regularly forgotten.
I will highlight two elements from the book. The first is the so-called European Ethics and Values Framework (or EOEV for short), a graphical overview of the key or fundamental values that have (also in the past) bound societies together and made them stronger, more solid, more enduring and more stable. It is illustrated in attached figure.
Book as a whole focuses on both a concept of the Wisdom Society and related concepts and themes that are part of a path towards achieving this social vision. Both pillars, (high quality) knowledge and values, need to be integrated into mechanisms and modus operandi of all parts of the system. In following bullets, I list five more points that author presents under the chapter named Towards a stable society of the future. What leads to it?
- Intergenerational dialogue
- Knowledge and values society
- Knowledge of generational characteristics and differences
- Intergenerational tolerance and solidarity in the modern world
- (Intergenerational) knowledge transfer and transmission of values
Paradim 