Once again, quite recently, my family and I ventured into the mountains of Andalusia to enjoy our annual, two week, dose of ‘Fourth Phase’ living. My workplace uniform was cast aside for the ‘…older and slightly worn clothes…’
in which I could ‘…relax and feel comfortable…’ Also put to one side was the privately owned family saloon, in favour of the public transport that we shared with some of the ageing and smiling, faces of the village population.’ Although UK ‘…GNP is certainly a good measure of the level of material prosperity… here, in this more agreeable climate, I can easily forget about my excessive contribution to it and focus more on my personal ‘HWB’ (Human Well-Being), ‘the more reliable measure by which to describe the state of society…’
As Dr Peter Peeters wrote in his masterpiece ‘The Four Phases of Society’ in 1997, and from which these quotes are taken, we live in an age where the wealth of a nation is measured largely by the demand for, and therefore the production and consumption of, materialistic ‘rubbish’ that seems to add little, or nothing at all, to our GNH (Gross National Happiness). What a spiritually desolate place those in the First and Second Phases aspire to be when, with a little help and a leap of faith, they could learn about the beauty and tranquility of the Fourth Phase and of the riches that lie within.
For myself, my family and the other two hundred or so Third Phase worshipers/detainees, we will soon be flying back to the ‘…obese rats the size of cats…’ (Daily Mirror) and the Gogglebox that, no doubt, still suggests Britain’s Got Talent. Our children and their children singing and dancing merrily into the Fourth Phase? Now that would be an act worth watching – only sooner rather than later please!
John Slater is a Teacher and Personal Progress Mentor at WQE College in Leicester, England.
Dr Peter Peeters has written several non-fiction titles concerned with the future of humanity and the planet including The Four Phases of Society (1997) and The Global Economy and its Long-Term Future (2008).
John Slater