Title: The Britain Potential
Author: Jim Cowan
Genre: Non-Fiction, Politics
Publisher: Arena Books
Release Date: 23rd May 2019
BLURB supplied by Publishing Push
Reading
this is going to change how you see Britain, especially its politics. The way
we are used to hearing about Britain`s politics is through the filter of our
media. This book, however, delves below the surface to the underlying realities
and from there a very different politics emerges. This is a politics which
starts and ends with people realising their potential.
From
Britain`s shifting political centre of gravity The Britain Potential pieces together a politics
that is neither left nor right, is not of division and polarisation but is
about integration, balance, and unity. It offers an entirely fresh, genuinely
humanistic vision grounded in actual developments both historical and
contemporary. This is a politics viewed as something at work in daily life
which is not being reported in the media and that no political party has yet
spelt out.
Told
through stories, The
Britain Potential helps
readers take the pulse of the country and understand for themselves what
`remedies` will be effective. It offers ways forward, and hope, for people
newly interested in politics, the politically homeless, people dissatisfied
with life in Britain, leaders and activists of all kinds, public servants,
business people, and people in communities. People around the world, who look to
Britain, should find much of interest.
Britain
has enormous potential, but is it realising it? For too many the answer is no.
This is a book about what it takes to realise that potential, as individuals,
families, communities, organisations and as a country. The Britain Potential is in our hands.
Purchase Links
Amazon UK
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Jim Cowan has
focused on political and social change in Britain for over 40 years. Community development, encompassing many
different roles, has been at the heart of his work from the early 70s until
2012. Between 1968 and 2005 he acquired
five social science degrees, including a PhD.
He was also an honorary visiting research fellow for 10 years up until
2016. In his personal life, he has
practiced a socially engaged form of Buddhism for over 40 years which has
enabled him to develop his consciousness more fully and realise more of his
potential. Since 2012 he has been
meticulously researching what has been, and is, happening across Britain. All
these aspects, work, personal and social, academic study and research come
together in this book; and it is these four voices of doing, thinking, being,
and researching that you will hear as you read The Britain Potential.
GUEST POST
The Britain
Potential: A politics inspired by a new stage of human consciousness
by Jim
Cowan
This is a book about bringing more
heart and true humanity about in Britain today and the part we can each play in
doing that. Exploring potential also turns out to be a great way to make sense
of what`s happening in Britain today. As one reader said to me, “The best
book on social and political stuff I`ve read”. Here`s its starting point:
“Each time humanity has developed a more advanced
consciousness we have changed how we do things, the kinds of organisations we
have, and how government operates. That shift of consciousness has entered
peoples’ lives changing how much potential has been realised. Compare the
stifling of potential in the middle ages with the potential realised in the age
of reason.
So is there a next generation Britain? Is a shift of
consciousness occurring which will enable the country to move on from where it
is today and for far more potential to be realised? By the time you finish this
book, I think you will say yes there is.”
People kept asking me what I was
writing. I found myself replying,
“Britain is a country with huge potential, but is not realising that
potential by a long way.” NOT ONE PERSON DISAGREED! Now that the book has
been published, still no one has disagreed.
This book is
helping readers navigate their way between stifling-potential-Britain and
realising-potential-Britain. We all
experience the push and pull of these two sides to Britain.
“`Something` is bound up with our real lives, strengthens
our sense of self, unites us with others, and treats us as being intelligent,
autonomous, and free individuals. `Nothing` is trying to present itself as
`something` but everything about it is contrived, mass produced, and
essentially the same wherever and whenever. It does nothing for our sense of
self, treats us as a consumer and a unit in a market. …`Nothing` is everywhere!”
Becoming more aware
of how all that works means we can get ourselves onto more and more of the `realising
potential` side of the equation. I show how these two experiences of Britain
are running throughout the institutional and social fabric of the country,
challenging us daily as individuals, families, communities, organisations, and
in our politics. Exploring this notion of potential turns out to be a rich
vein.
I associate
Britain`s torn social fabric and 40 years of market thinking with a stifling
potential side of Britain. My book gives details of 50 initiatives going beyond
market thinking that are about the realising potential side of Britain.
But there`s a
lot more going on.
Industrial
revolution Britain led into welfare state Britain which led into market
thinking Britain and which seems to be moving into a civil society Britain. In
each of these cases the three major building blocks of the country: the state,
civil society and business shifted in their power relationships with each
other. Intrigued by this unique analysis of the country?
Chapter 7
spells it out and chapter 9 puts flesh on the bones of just how Britain seems
to be moving out of market thinking and into one with civil society at the
centre. It`s a vision no political party has been able to come up with. A key freedom today is becoming/being the person you know you can
be: existential freedom. And it`s through `the arts`, faith, and all kinds of
activism (with or without the internet) that people are growing their lives
under their own resources, sometimes building new lives. This too is
realising-potential-Britain. Civil society is where the country wants to go,
irrespective of government.
But the real
freedom we all can tap into is to develop our consciousness. And that is something
no government or politician controls.
“….
we are not problems waiting to be solved, but potential waiting to unfold”
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