Steve and Charles Clark summarize the premise, agenda and rationale of a Global Consciousness Movement in Digging Out: Global Crisis and the Search for a New Social Contract (iUniverse, 2011).

The book – part manifesto, part science and part personal memoir – explains why the world now faces a socioecological crisis and how a new social contract can be forged to avert its portending dark age. Digging Out is a work of sociology, anthropology, ecology, economics and politics. It combines its theoretical analysis with the perspectives of the two American brothers, one a westerner with a long background in rural, forest and Latin American issues, and the other an eastern social activist, former teacher and communications professional. Rather than tell you what to do, Digging Out frames the crisis at hand so that each of us can define a role in a collaborative effort to change our world before it is too late.

Digging Out is available at Amazon: (paper and Kindle), Barnes and Noble (paper), and iUniverse (ebook, pape, and hardback).

For a review copy, send an email with intentions to connect@localglobalnexus.net.

Table of Contents

Introduction: Charles and Steve
Obituary for an Old Hat	xi
Crisis and Accountability in Our Time	xi
We Brothers	xii
Political Manifesto	xiv
The Simultaneity Principle	xv
Rising Tide	xviii
Commercial Transaction Fee	xix
Financial Sector Accountability	xx
Digging Out	xxi
Chapter 1: Steve
If the Ancients Could Do It, So Can We!	1
Change the World?	3
The Science of Social Collapse	4
Collaboration: Foundation of Human Nature	9
Neolithic Sociological Crisis and Its Agricultural Rescue	15
The Agricultural Social Contract and Its Systemic Social Dysfunction	19
Chapter 1 Response: Charles
Am I Alone Out There? -- A Skeptic's Last Hope	25
A Model of Cultural Materialism	25
My Undivided Skepticism	27
Chapter 2: Steve
Jumpstarting Tomorrow -- Turning the Steel Stone	35
Skipping Class in Social Science	35
Civilization Rises, Then Falters	39
Flipping the Production Switch -- Industrial Divergence	42
Sunset for the Industrial Age	48
Vetting about Leftist Roots	49
Chapter 2 Response: Charles
What We Choose to Do Matters	52
Chapter 3: Charles
Conjuring Ghosts -- Some Things Must Be Believed to Be Seen	58
Contradictions Push a Social Transformation Forward	58
The Service Class	67
Adding a Cautionary Note	74
Chapter 3 Response: Steve
Servers of the World, Unite!	79
Service Age Social Security	82
One Class or More?	89
Chapter 4: Steve
Population Paradox -- Improve Human Welfare, and Fewer Will Come	96
The Global Curse of Maternal Mortality	96
From Infanticide to Unrestrained Population Growth	100
Women's Liberation and a New Vision of Population Management	102
Retro Reaction to Population Control	105
Gaining Control of Our Numbers	108
Chapter 4 Response: Charles
More Headaches for the Skeptic in All of Us	111
Chapter 5: Steve
Social Contracts Are Really Generational Things	118
The Temporality and Tipping Points of Social Contracts	119
Mass Psychology in Social Development	121
Mood Swings in the Post-War Era	125
The Fourth Turning Has Begun	130
Chapter 5 Response: Charles
Avoiding Visions of Armageddon	135
The Specter of Practical Skepticism is Seen Again	135
A Rosier Glimpse of Things to Come	139
Chapter 6: Charles
Opening the Door to Future Diversity	143
Bottom-line Socioecological Theory for the Service Age	145
Personal Notes on Alternatives	153
Chapter 6 Response: Steve
The Middle Class -- Love 'Em or Leave 'Em?	164
Chapter 7: Charles
Why Do We Keep Following the Pied Piper When We Already Know the Story?	172
Inside the Workings of Civil Society	174
The Transformation of Relations of Production in Service-Led Production	177
A Changed Social Structure Emerges with a Global Culture	181
A Personal Account of Globalism	184
Chapter 7 Response: Steve
Global Problem-Solving Just Isn't Business as Usual	193
Non-Profit History in America	193
Corporate "Giving" and Cause Marketing	195
A Service Economy Finances Social Problem-Solving	197
Chapter 8: Charles
A Social Bulimic's Dream -- Disgorging the State	200
Revisioning the Current Crisis	200
The Real Crisis is the Underinvestment Crisis	204
Service, Economic Contraction, and the State	207
Chapter 8 Response: Steve
Visions of a Global Social Contract	219
Next Social Contract Will Set Stage for Generations to Come	220
Politics in the Global Age	222
Global Problem-Solving	224
Commercial Enterprise	228
Banking as a Public Utility	230
Chapter 9: Charles and Steve
Share the Burden, Change the World	233
Sources	237