The Watchman's Rattle

About this book

Passing recession or worldwide collapse? Why are economic, social and political problems leaping ahead faster than governments can patch them up? Business professionals, politicians, housewives, academia, and an ever-lengthening unemployment line are desperate to understand why our problems keep getting bigger. Now comes The Watchman's Rattle: A Radical New Theory of Collapse, a book that connects the dots between crime, oil prices, Wall Street, global warming, nuclear waste and childhood violence. In the tradition of Malcolm Gladwell and Thomas Friedman, scholar and author Rebecca D. Costa reveals the four telltale patterns which paralyze innovative thinking, and with it, a civilization's ability to solve complex problems. Using both historic and modern day examples, The Watchman's Rattle describes what happens when complexity races ahead of the brain's ability to manage it, the underlying reason why experts and governments can no longer fix global crisis and conflict. In The Watchman's Rattle, Costa shows how the same deconstructionist problem solving techniques used to "find lost luggage" are ineffectively being used to address global warming, war, poverty and the worldwide financial crisis. The Watchman's Rattle: A Radical New Theory of Collapse turns a complicated web of public policies and human behaviors into an unstoppable, page-turning, entertaining book.