A number of closely related themes permeate all of Ross’ writings over the years. Characteristic for all of them is that he tends to be far ahead of his contemporaries in his thinking. Ross’ analyses are always long-term and strategic. One theme is spirituality as the foundation of life and the hope of the future, as well as being the inspiration for everything he does.
Another is his passionate interest in the long term evolution of the planet, which he sees as passing through a very critical time today as our civilisation deals with the problems arising from meeting head-on the limits to physical growth on a finite planet. In his writings, Ross argues that the crux of the current crisis is that, though we are experiencing these limits, we have not yet realized the need to move away from the dominant mechanical worldview that has been very successful in the past but is now destroying the very basis of our existence, namely the environment and our social cohesiveness. We must shift our thinking towards a more Life-based, holistic worldview that sees the planet, not as a group of separate competing nations, but as a single living organism, and then find corresponding global solutions that will encompass all and work for everyone.
A third theme is that the major political leverage point in the current global crisis is the way we organise international trade. Ross has put forward concrete proposals for changes in the global economic system such that the true ecological and social costs are reflected in product prices and trade rules, changes which will automatically nudge the international community in the direction of becoming a sustainable and just civilisation.
As his fourth theme, he sees the appropriate response to this global crisis at the individual level to be a shift in lifestyle. This is why he promotes and supports the ecovillage movement. Ecovillages are early models of the way we will all have to live eventually — small sustainable communities in the countryside and in the cities, where social, ecological, and spiritual aspects meet in a holistic life style.
