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Phase Five is about: everything that brings us to where we are today as humans on the planet; the implications of our present way of living; personal and collective steps we can take to move towards a more meaningful and less destructive way of living.

Four patterns of human organization have weaved through our history as a species. In some branches of study they are taken as the phases from small bands to tribal societies followed by city-states (monarchies) and finally nation-states. When anyone questions the very foundations of modern society they are often met with the cliche: "but you can't turn the clock back!" We don't think going backwards is possible but we do believe that a better future can only come if we do not continue to repeat the recipes for failure imbeded in the values of our present mainstream civilization. A Phase Five that works would draw upon a history of successful value systems and produce new and currently possible alternatives to the destructive pattern of contemporary civilization.

Globalization has become a key-word today. For some the term stands for everything that is abominable about modern trends and for others it is the inevitable and even benevolent march of progress and civilization. Strangely, some of the effects of "globalization" that are condemned by champions of the nation-state are built on the same values applauded by it and practiced at the expense of smaller societies. The past can be either romanticized or demonized if there are no objective standards to go by. We believe sustainability is such a standard. It turns our notions of "developed" and "undeveloped" upside down.

Answers are multi-dimensional and may be applied in almost every area of our lives and at the level of the self, the community and society in general. Returning a sense of ownership and belonging to the individual is what we see as a key to turning the tide away from the progressive loss of meaning and significance that has characterized the individual in our monolithic culture of unlimited growth.

Participative citizenship, human rights, local self-governance, good governance, accountability, the right to information are examples of movements which could create the climate necessary for the kind of changes required by our civilization.

Ecological - natural - organic farming, bio-diversity, sustainable livelihoods, whole systems thinking, nature cure and natural health need to be the engines of a new civilization.

Economic systems would see a profound change in structures. Small "ecopreneurs" would naturally outpace destructive autocrat-entrepreneurs in answering local needs.

Learning would cease to be the factory for job seekers that formal education has become. Self-regulation, governance and active community would reduce dependence on central authorities for licenses, certifications and permissions.

All this would spill over into our attitudes to culture, society and religion where diversity and free and responsible choice would be recognized as an asset. Global order will emerge from the freedom of the individual instead of the designs of the dominant.