The annual Massey Lectures series is traditionally an opportunity for a prominent thinker – Ursula Franklin, Charles Taylor, Conor Cruise O’Brien – to hold forth on complex issues that seem to defy concise, coherent treatment. The series has the distinction of being both widely popular and seriously regarded when broadcast on CBC Radio and published in book form by House of Anansi. John Ralston Saul’s The Unconscious Civilization, the lecture series he delivered in 1995, is still on The Globe and Mail’s bestseller list.

The British-born futurist and economist Robert Theobald was supposed to have delivered the 1996 Massey Lectures, until, in the words of his publisher, “the lectures were cancelled at the 11th hour.” There is no explanation offered in Reworking Success for this abrupt plug-pulling, although one columnist has written that the producers of the Massey Lectures did not feel Theobald’s material was strong enough for the high-profile series. They’re right in the sense that Theobald’s book skims crucial issues that require a much deeper analysis. At one point, he acknowledges the limits of this thin book, writing, “I hope you will listen to the ‘music’ behind my thinking rather than to the individual words.”

Theobald, who drew inspiration and ideas from his Internet discussion groups, has written a call to arms – or a call to alarm – regarding the interrelated futures of work, environment, and social stability. He makes a leap at the outset: economic growth and consumption cannot be sustained at their current pace, and only a radical reworking of decision-making can provide individual fulfillment and save global society from an inevitable fall. He writes, “Unless a great deal more creative thought and action is put into discovering methods which can keep everybody positively involved in their geographical, professional, and network communities, the future is bleak.”

It’s a wickedly difficult task Theobald has set for himself, and one that even God would have trouble condensing into 119 pages. Reworking Success is less a book of argument than exhortation – that success must be measured in broader, more relevant terms, that the nature of work must change to modify social inequalities and provide personal fulfillment. Mainly, he sees a future in which decision-making is fundamentally reorganized, so that social policy planning begins at the community level, and is conducted by diverse groups of people committed to common goals.

Theobald is more concerned with the theoretical map for reaching this world of social harmony than in actually planning the routes and outlining potential pitfalls. It’s a worthwhile destination, but the ground-breaking remains to be done.