Vol. 20 No. 1 (2020)

At this writing, the world is flooded by the 2020 COVID-19 Pandemic disrupting lives, forcing a reorganization of social, economic, political, and cultural practices. Globalization was thought by entrepreneurs and settled corporations to be a great boon to the accumulation of wealth and connecting enterprises for mutual advantage. With the breakup of service and product chains, economies are quickly falling apart. Fourth World nations worldwide are now experiencing enormous pressure from corporations and communities, turning their attention to exploit resources inside Fourth World territories. This trend is exposing peoples to COVID-19 and inundates and destroys forests, mountains for mining, and spoiling waterways with new pollution. Dramatic changes are afoot as we begin the 21st century marked by the global COVID-19 pandemic promising to wreak havoc on the world’s most vulnerable for months into 2022. The global economy is in free fall, breaking down structures created since the 1980s’ move toward globalization. Social unrest in countries around the world reflects the failures of states’ governments to serve the public interest, ensure the common defense and maintenance of society under common law. Many states have, in their fearful state, reached out to autocrats and dictators to replace popular decision-making and the promotion of human and civil rights. Indeed, this is the opening of the 21st century.

Are we beginning the 21st century in 2020? I hear you cry! Yes! History reflects how great events affecting the world’s peoples bring profound change. Human society is frequently subjected to physical, social, psychological, and spiritual stress. When it is so stressed, the event that gave rise to the stress can fundamentally shift the society’s trajectory. Fourth World nations throughout the world have too frequently known these “ground shifting” stresses that cause cultural norms to be abandoned and replaced by new norms that seem best suited to a world that has fundamentally changed. The agricultural system of the peoples located in and around what is now called Lake Patzcuaro dramatically shifted generations ago before Spain invaded. A mountain exploded as volcanoes do and caused two tremendously momentous changes in human society: The peoples known as Otomi and the peoples known as Uacusecha joined, as they say, the “Sun and the Moon” to form the Purépecha. This nation remains influential in Michoacén, Mexico, to this day. The second significant change was the shift of peoples in what is now Michoacén to a hillside system of agriculture that proved enormously successful.

‘When shocks to the social and cultural fabric of societies rip away the conventional wisdom, the opening is made for profound change. That is the time we live in now. What happens in the years to come must rely on recapturing the truth, confidence, and imagination. The Fourth World began that task, and the rest of the world must now join in. Our splendid authors in this issue of the Fourth World Journal masterfully point to recapturing the truth with confidence and imagination. They await your attention!