Wholeness: The Topic of Our Emerging Age

Peter F. Drucker and Stephen R. Covey are my favorite "futurists".  They may both oppose being assigned that title, but both have had something to say about the age or time period in which you and I live.  The age in which we live has also been referred to as a cultural type in the anthropological field.  Whatever name you use, it is important to understand the times.  I am convinced we live in an age in which wholeness will be the primary focus.  I call the emerging age the Wholeness Age. 

I don't say this lightly, but I have read a great deal of literature beyond these two writers and I hear them saying the same thing about what will be the primary focus of our current emerging age.  Educators like to talk about the need for a wholistic(holistic) model to replace a reductionist model.  Many of us have been educated to think that way as we emerge out of the Knowledge Age.  People like Rick Warren, who is a pastor who was mentored by Peter F. Drucker, say that health will be the main topic of our age.  But also he is only one example out of a multitude of writers including Covey who see the importance of health or a "whole person" model or paradigm. 

Covey though misfires in my humle opinion in his book The 8th Habit, when he refers to our time as the "Age of Wisdom."  To me this is the just a broader focus of the Industrial Age.  A subtle form of pragmatism or practically has been hard for us to shake due to the successes of the Industrial Age.  I think that is the main reason why Covey is misled, but also he is misled because he sees wisdom as a practical form of knowledge that follows after the Knowledge Age.  This is another common mistake.  Knowledge and wisdom are actually are more distinct than that.  Wisdom to knowledge is like action to things.  They are distinct classes, not a subset of one another or two parts of the same thing. 

At this point you need to be told that I greatly admire Covey's materials.  I wish I had devoted more time to them in the past.  Covey to his great credit speaks in  The 8th Habit of a "whole person paradigm".  He develops this a great deal in his book, but also he does not make it as central as I think he should have.  So I only differ with him in the sense of shifting priorities.  After what Drucker famously called the Knowledge Age, I believe we are living in an emerging Age of Wholeness or the whole person paradigm.

I am convinced that this age will one day be called by the name of the Age of Wholeness.  This will happen maybe sooner or maybe later. But also time will tell or prove, if I am correct.  Please keep your eyes out for this emerging map of reality!

Sincerely,

Jon