About Geoff
My name is Geoff Fielding. I have no claim to fame. However, having been born before the end of World War II before the onset of the atomic/nuclear era, many of the most extraordinary developments in human history have taken place during my life. The world itself has seen dramatic change.
Placed against this background my life has been ordinary. I have, for the most part, fitted in. On leaving school I began a physics degree but dropped out because, as I realised, I had no wish to be a physicist. Not knowing what to do, I took up auditing and accountancy, which I did for fifteen years. Not feeling comfortable in that role either, I became a social worker with offenders. This was good and fulfilling. However, under the growing pressures of neoliberal dogma, I subsequently took early retirement through stress.
This was the time I realised I hadn’t a clue what life was really about, and, with time on my hands, I decided to find out. The trigger for this, as will be described in the first chapter, was world events. Subsequently two things happened that motivated and supported me on this path.
One was an Open University course. In 2006, half way through the course, the following module was titled “A world of whose making”. This, I realised, was exactly the question I wanted answered. However, the module’s focus on the World Bank, the IMF and the World Trade Organisation was unconvincing. Again I again dropped out and sought the answer for myself.
The second, that should be acknowledged, is I became a Quaker. For discovering “the meaning of life” this, it might be imagined, would have given me ready made religious answers, and would give what follows a religious slant.
Quakers, however, are seekers, not knowers. Quakers seek “truth” wherever it is to be found – and I am agnostic. In facing the ultimate metaphysical questions of why?, I happily acknowledge I haven’t a clue. My human brain has no capacity to understand, much less to know, “truth” on such a level.
However, I do have a real sense of awe and wonder at the magnificence and the goodness that nature has created, seemingly of its own volition. This, science tells us, and I agree, we can understand.
And so, the bug having finally bitten, and with the backing and encouragement of family, Quaker communities, and many others, I have pursued this course now for quite a long time.
From this description it will be apparent that I am not a qualified expert on most of the things about which I will be writing. Then again, nobody is. Because the story draws upon, and finds links between, insights from a very wide range of scientific and other disciplines, nobody can be.
In this sense the book is a collaborative effort. It has been built upon the amazing dedication, hard work and wisdom of vast numbers of researchers across many different specialisms.
For myself, all I can say is that, having been researching these things now for almost twenty years, I’ve done the best I can to understand, draw together and make sense of, the many different strands of wisdom that they have found, helped, I should say, by many kind and generous friends.
The end result I have to say, is, for me, a surprise. When I started out, I, quite literally, hadn’t a clue. I had scores of questions littered across the floor in the hope that sense would somehow, jump out and hit me, but of course, it didn’t.
Nevertheless year upon year small insights were gained. These gradually joined together with others to make more sense, until now I have arrived at a story of our human existence that, seemingly to me, makes sound sense. Whether this sense makes sense to anyone else, I have yet to find out!
The uncomfortable bit is that the story explains why our world is in the mess it is in, where our crises are leading, and why. However, in doing so, they also provide ways of reversing these trends and bringing the world back, gradually, into balance.
The difficulty is that none of this is easy, and some of it is urgent. This presumes, of course, that what I have found stands up to scrutiny, is not misguided, and is significant. Perhaps it is not. Perhaps I am mistaken? This is a judgement I need to pass over to you.
The material from which the blog is written is derived from a book currently in draft form that has not so far been published. Because I am getting on a bit and slowing down, writing it bit by bit as a blog, seems more manageable. It also offers a better way of making the material freely available, fairly quickly.
Nevertheless creating each blog-type chapter will take a little time. Please bear with me.
Finally, if you appreciate the effort that has gone into preparing and writing this blog, if you feel it makes a worthwhile contribution to the issues facing us in the world, and if you would like to make a small token contribution for that effort, a little income with which I could make up for, and put right, some of my neglect over the past years would be helpful to me. I say this acknowledging that there are very many more worthwhile causes far more in need of your support than me.
My thanks.