Copthorne “Cop” Macdonald is prepared to participate in panel discussions or make presentations on the topics below.  He would be pleased to tailor his talk to a particular group or set of circumstances.  A number of his previous talks and radio appearances can be heard in streaming audio format. The page where those links appear is http://www.wisdompage.com/cop-av.html. A comprehensive biography of Cop can be found at http://www.wisdompage.com/aboutcop.html.

Talks about WISDOM

The nature and development of wisdom

Activist wisdom

Shifting the focus in higher education from knowledge to wisdom

In the late 1980s Copthorne Macdonald became convinced that what we as individuals are seeking, and what our culture desperately needs, is that mix of perspectives, attitudes, and deep understandings called wisdom.  In the mid-1990s he wrote two books about wisdom for the general public.  The first, Toward Wisdom (Toronto: Hounslow Press, 1993), dealt with the big-picture, meaning-of-life, perennial philosophy aspect of the subject.  The second, Getting a Life (Toronto: Hounslow Press, 1995), dealt with the practical side of wisdom — what Coleridge referred to as “common sense in an uncommon degree.” Toward Wisdom was favorably reviewed by The Globe and Mail, Canada’s national newspaper, and the book led the national radio network of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation to do an hour-long documentary on Cop’s life and perspectives as part of its IDEAS series.  (This documentary can be listened to in RealPlayer streaming audio or WMA-format streaming audio.)

Cop's most recent book, Matters of Consequence (2004), focuses on a third variety of wisdom that he has come to call “activist wisdom” — the kind of wisdom needed to change the world for the better. Wise values, wise perspectives, and personally relevant intellectual knowledge provide the foundation that supports all varieties of personal wisdom. Activist wisdom adds to that foundation an intellectual and experiential understanding of the world situation. Together, these four elements bring wisdom to activism, and provide change agents with the kind of holistic understanding they need for maximal effectiveness.  The book leads us to envision, as a realistic possibility, a year-2050 world characterized by physical sustainability, economic equity, vibrant local cultures, an electronically facilitated world culture, and sufficient time in people's lives to pursue a rich, full, life. It then examines strategies and techniques for getting us from here to there.  This book has been praised by Ervin Laszlo, Rabbi Michael Lerner, Vicki Robin, Barbara Marx Hubbard and others. (See the endorsements and reviews.)

Another of Cop’s communication efforts on behalf of wisdom was the establishment, in 1995, of The Wisdom Page — “a compilation of wisdom-related resources — various on-line texts concerning wisdom, references to books about wisdom, information about organizations that promote wisdom, wise activities, and listserv groups concerned with aspects of wisdom.” In the years since then this site has become one of the most valuable internet resources for people interested in the subject of wisdom. 

The introduction of a wisdom focus to higher education has recently become one of Cop’s major interests, and in the Spring of 2006 he spent two weeks at Rollins College in Winter Park, Florida as a “Thomas P. Johnson Distinguished Visiting Scholar.”  The theme of his visit and the title of his major address to the College was “WISDOM: The Highest Aim of Life and Higher Education.”  (This address, complete with slides, can be read in text format or listened to in RealPlayer streaming media.)

Talks About Communication-Based Social Change Initiatives

Communicating for Societal Change: Some lessons learned

Print-on-Demand Publishing: A powerful tool for change agents

As outlined below, for more than three decades Copthorne Macdonald has been involved with a wide range of communication-based social-change activities.  These experiences taught him some valuable lessons about what works and what doesn’t when attempting to use electronic and print communication to create a better world.  He is prepared to share what he has learned with interested groups.

As a university student, Cop developed a slow-scan TV system that enables radio amateurs to send pictures around the world using their short-wave voice radio equipment.  The paper he wrote describing the system won the 1958 National Student Paper competition of the American Institute of Electrical Engineers.  Later, at Westinghouse, he designed a system that transmitted weather radar images over phone lines and another that put voice and sequenced still pictures on ordinary 33 rpm phonograph records.  In 1965 he became Manager of the Electronic Design Department at Ball Brothers Research Corporation in Boulder, Colorado, and in 1968, Director of Research at Vidcom Electronics in New York City.  He holds five US patents. During those years, Cop became thoroughly grounded  in the technical aspects of electronic communication systems.  Then, during a 13-month trip around the world in the early 1970s, he became concerned about “the world problematique.” In this pre-Internet era, he wondered if short-wave radio could be used to support international discussion about important societal issues.  Upon his return to the U.S. he founded New Directions Radio — an international network of radio amateurs concerned with using ham radio and slow-scan TV “to help create a more aware, more caring, and more responsible human society.”  Associated with this, he became a columnist for both CQ, The Radio Amateurs Journal, and The Mother Earth News. For a decade (1973 to 1983) his “New Directions Radio” column appeared in each issue of Mother. 

In the 1980s Cop became involved with energy conservation and energy alternatives.  For four years he ran a Canadian government energy conservation program, and between the mid-1980s and the mid-1990s he used the written word to promote energy conservation and alternatives.  He wrote a high school textbook and workbook on these subjects, several energy conservation booklets, energy-related software manuals, dozens of newsletter, newspaper, and magazine articles, and an innovative series of fax-delivered energy conservation articles to the Prince Edward Island business-and-industrial community. 

In the late 1980s Cop became convinced that what we as individuals are seeking, and what our culture desperately needs, is that mix of perspectives, attitudes, and deep understandings called wisdom.  In the mid-1990s he wrote two books about wisdom for the general public.  The first, Toward Wisdom (Toronto: Hounslow Press, 1993), dealt with the big-picture, meaning-of-life, perennial philosophy aspect of the subject.  The second, Getting a Life (Toronto: Hounslow Press, 1995), dealt with the practical side of wisdom — what Coleridge referred to as “common sense in an uncommon degree.” Toward Wisdom was favorably reviewed by The Globe and Mail, Canada’s national newspaper, and the book led the national radio network of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation to do an hour-long documentary on Cop’s life and perspectives as part of its IDEAS series.  (This documentary can be listened to in RealPlayer streaming audio or WMA-format streaming audio.)  

Cop's latest (2004) book, Matters of Consequence, focuses on a third variety of wisdom that he has come to call “activist wisdom” — the kind of wisdom needed to change the world for the better. Wise values, wise perspectives, and personally relevant intellectual knowledge provide the foundation that supports all varieties of personal wisdom. Activist wisdom adds to that foundation an intellectual and experiential understanding of the world situation. Together, these four elements bring wisdom to activism, and provide change agents with the kind of holistic understanding they need for maximal effectiveness.  The book leads us to envision, as a realistic possibility, a year-2050 world characterized by physical sustainability, economic equity, vibrant local cultures, an electronically facilitated world culture, and sufficient time in people's lives to pursue a rich, full, life. It then examines strategies and techniques for getting us from here to there.  This book has been praised by Ervin Laszlo, Rabbi Michael Lerner, Vicki Robin, Barbara Marx Hubbard and others. (See the book’s endorsements and reviews.)

Cop has also explored the use of the Internet for societal and personal transformation.  Established in 1995, The Wisdom Page is “a compilation of wisdom-related resources — various on-line texts concerning wisdom, references to books about wisdom, information about organizations that promote wisdom, wise activities, and listserv groups concerned with aspects of wisdom.” In the years since then this site has become one of the most valuable internet resources for people interested in the subject of wisdom. 

Print-on-demand publishing is another tool that can benefit social-change organizations who have it in their bag of tricks.  In 2003 Cop started Big Ideas Press, a micro publishing house that makes use of existing print-on-demand printing facilities and existing fulfillment and distribution channels such as Amazon.com, Barnes&Noble.com, and book wholesalers in the US and UK.  He is able to point to the pluses of using this technology, the minuses, situations where using this technology makes sense, and where it doesn't.

Together, these initiatives — all of which involve communication in the service of societal and personal betterment — have given Cop a sense of both the possibilities and the realities.  He would be pleased to share his insights with interested groups.

To discuss possibilities, email Cop Macdonald or phone him at 1-902-675-2949.