Are we beyond redemption?

And that was the end, as the Development's Futures 2007 came to a close. As I reflected on the weekends events I couldn't help but be reminded of something that Dennis O'Hearn had said in a lecture a week earlier at Queen's University Belfast. During that presentation Dennis posed the question, 'are we as western societies beyond redemption?' Having listened to Palagummi Sainath outline the impacts and effects of unprecedented globalisation, corporate growth, greed and mass consumerism (and the mass apathy and the ability of the rich world and its inhabitants to disconnect from mass reality) it is not too hard to feel this way or identify strongly with what Professor O'Hearn is saying. This has been an ongoing thought churning around in my head every day of my professional life and probably more so now that I am back home! But as a card-carrying member of the 'Should Do School' I need to think that there is a way forward to a more just and fairer world, one that is beyond redemption.