Advancement: Back to the Basics?

From a recent discussion:

Firstly, what do mean by "advancement"? Technological or logical/intellectual or artistic or economic/GNP related?

How did the Greeks in Ancient Athens etc (eg Pericles' times) produce philosophy and culture and thinking in general, notably on personal and political ethos that is still relevant in 2007?

In any case, recent awareness of threats to our survival (climate change, asteroid risks, pandemics, mega-quakes, etc.) and our modern and techno way of life may (I say may, not sure) requires us, while keeping the basics of our "way of life" (which are they, that is the question!!!), to go back to the basics and rid our daily lives of acquired habits (not central/core to the genuine fundamentals of our way of life) which harm us as the world we live in (eg energy overconsumption, esp. CO2 emitting one).

One could only speculate what the daily life of the American and the European will look like in 20 or 30 years, if we decide to take better care of the world we and are children and their children will live in.

So, what do we mean by "advancement"?

Back to basics and simpler and less materialist , more intellectual products consuming lives? Food for thought!

Management: Global SMEs

Globalization will, I argue, be better embraced by the world public opinion when small and medium size companies (SMEs) in the WTO member countries feel that they have a reasonable chance to grow and prosper in it.

I think that what the world needs is man, many, more "globally active SMEs".

Note: Of course "globalization", "capitalism" and "liberalism" mean different things to different people not only around the world but also within specific countries. In the presence of such absence of commonly agreed definitions of these and other terms, these terms and the notions and systems they stand for will continue to "suffer". Globalization, capitalism and liberalism as well as market economics are thought to be the systemics "in power" in most of the WTO countries today! Are they? How "global", "capitalist", "liberal" or "market economy based" are for example the United States today? France? Germany? The UK? The EU?