THE FUTURE OF MONEY Bernard A. Lietaer - library.uniteddiversity ...

The Fundamental monetary shift that is needed is an organisational
one. The proposal here is that in addition to the command-andcontrol
hierarchical (Yang) national money systems, more flexible,
open, adaptive systems (Yin) should be allowed to develop during
the post-industrial transition period we have now entered. The
reasons for this are best understood by comparing the characteristics
of a mature industrial society with a post-industrial one, as in the
table.
Oil Environment (Mature Industrial Age) New Environment
(Post Industrial Age)
Predictability and Control Assumed Fundamental
Structural Changes Assumed
Intelligence and information Centralised Intelligence and information
Distributed
Expert Driven Solutions Many agents experimenting with
new patterns
Command and Control Structure Complex Adaptive
Structures
As long as the assumption was valid that we are living in an
environment which is both predictable and controllable (both key
Yang assumptions), it made sense to centralise information and leave
the decisions to 'experts'. The most coherent management structure in
such circumstances is the traditional command and control
hierarchical structure, which is now almost ubiquitous. However, as
breakdowns and crises spread to many domains (e.g. global
monetary system, government, education, environment, jobs, etc.) if
the transition towards an information economy becomes indeed an
'Age of Uncertainty’ then the time is ripe to reconsider the old
organisational assumptions. Under such circumstances, holding on to
the old expert-driven, hierarchical command and control structures