Welcome!

Few have the pleasure of seeing a totally new epoch of history emerge, as when the sun illumines unexplored regions of our world. Those that lived in prior times were never cognizant of such a transformation until it was complete. As we study the ideas that made Western Civilization and the Industrial Age so successful, the lives of men who dared to challenge existing orthodoxy jump off the pages of historical times not unlike our own.

Men such as Adam Smith, David Hume, Thomas Reid, James Hutton, Adam Ferguson…..those who introduced us to the invisible hand of the market, political checks and balances, the philosophy of common sense, the first geologist, and the originator of civil society. The fathers of our Industrial Age were the leaders of what became known as the Scottish Enlightenment….the First Enlightenment. Their ideas were the result of constant dialogue as a part of nightly gatherings at home and in pubs where oysters and radical thinking were the most popular menu items.

Two hundred years later, we face a time where our traditional, undergirding ideas of how we govern, how we educate, how we do economic development, even how we need to think are challenged in this newest time of transformation. With this in mind, it is becoming more obvious that old ideas and traditional approaches are increasingly obsolete. As more and more people have come to the conclusion that our look to the future is challenged by 1) shifts in energy sources from oil to alternative methods, 2) reaching the upper limits of representative democracy, and 3) an economic transition from hierarchies, standards and manufacturing to constant innovation and global innovation networks.

The transformative ideas of 18th century Scots were the result of constant dialogue as a part of nightly gatherings at home and in pubs in Edinburgh where oysters and radical thinking were the most popular menu items.

Because of the exponential change that is emerging, the times in which we live will require nothing less that a Second Enlightenment. With this in mind, a Second Enlightenment Conference (SEC)was held in Columbia, SC from March 4-6, 2007. It was designed in the spirit of the dialogues or "coteries" of the original Scottish Enlightenment.

This exciting conference brought together thinkers and state and local capacity builders from througout the U.S. and three other countries to share ideas and methods aligned with a society and world increasingly fast-paced, interconnected and complex.

As a result, new ideas are emerging to include that of a concept called Second Enlightenment Clubs. This idea is to form dialogue groups of 8-15 people in local areas from throughout the world to think about issues within a "futures context" as well as how to seed Second Enlightenment ideas and methods into the thinking and action of communities that are preparing for a different kind of future.

When a future historian writes about our age, success will be measured by the extent to which we provide new capacities for citizens to deal with a different kind of society. Before he died, Peter Drucker cautioned that we are not ready.

We invite you to become involved with our Second Enlightenment project and become a member of a local Second Enlightenment Club. Help us develop processes of dialogue that we hope will lead to transformational ideas and methods important to our grand-children and their children.