BELLINGEN poet and author Frances Amaroux will launch her new book, ‘The Solution to Almost Everything: Rewiring Our World for Mutual Thriving’, at the Bellingen Brewery on Sunday 15 November at 2:30pm.
The afternoon will include a short talk, Q&A, book signings and refreshments.
Entry is free, no booking is needed, and her book will be available at a discounted rate.
The book asks whether many social and political problems are failures of system design rather than human nature.
Ms Amaroux argues that issues we treat as separate, from government and health to education and money, share one pattern: they are systems built around domination rather than partnership—win-lose, rather than win-win.
The book’s title reflects her belief that nature is “the only system that we live within that is truly win-win”, and that anything which isn’t, will stop working eventually.
“If it’s not win-win, it’s not life-affirming,” she says.
“Hence what we are seeing in society at the moment.”
The idea has been a long time coming. Ms Amaroux first tried to write a book 30 years ago, and says a run of unexpected events stopped her until all the stars aligned during the last year or two.
The Solution to almost Everything draws on ideas such as Spiral Dynamics and David Deida’s three levels of relating, and argues that nature is overwhelmingly cooperative.
Despite the title, it is not a utopian blueprint, though she argues better systems are possible—and they don’t require everyone to become enlightened first.
Ms Amaroux has worked for more than 35 years as a relationship counsellor, mediator, educator and trainer, including teaching learning skills to corporations and running conflict-resolution workshops.
Beginning as a professional musician for 15 years, she went on to study psychology, systems thinking and social ecology.
Her connection to Bellingen dates back to the early 1990s, and she moved back 15 years ago, drawn by a stronger sense of community and creativity than she found elsewhere.
She believes the number of groups and events there is far above average for similar-sized towns, and that its layout helps people meet and stay connected on the main street. She also points out that small towns can often be change-leaders, because “change happens on the edges”.
Describing herself as an “apocaloptomist”, Ms Amaroux believes that while many systems seem to be collapsing there is reason for optimism about what follows.
“We need win-win foundations,” she says, “or we will just repeat the same silliness.”
By Jessica MILLER
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