In the next few decades, the rivalry between China and India will reshape the world as we know it in unexpected ways. This is one of the key takeaway points from futurist Lawrence Taub's forecast, outlined in his book The Spiritual Imperative: Age, Sex, and the Last Caste (1995).
From the beginning of the Christian era up to the Industrial Revolution in the 19th century, China and India were the world's two largest economies. Soon they will be the world's two superpowers again, and their influence will be felt around the world.
Taub explains the economic, cultural, and spiritual dynamics of the rivalry between the two Asian giants, which he depicts as a clash between two conflicting worldviews—China's here-and-now Confucianism and India's spiritualized, transcendental Hinduism.
Rare among futurists, Taub takes gender into account to show that a male bias accounts for most social, economic, and ecological ills confronting us today. To correct this imbalance, society is now moving in a direction that aligns more with feminine than with masculine values.
Taub's macrohistory bridges the gap between futurists like Alvin Toffler, Samuel Huntington, and Paul Kennedy, and spiritually influential thinkers like Aurobindo, Jean Gebser, and Ken Wilber. When we internalize his models, we see the world through different eyes.
