We tend to forget that the larger system within which we live is changing and is, with our help, reaching certain limits. Most of us don't understand that, just because . .
a) many of
us came to feel we achieved very good living standards and
b) we in the
developed world came to feel pretty good about the world and ourselves before
2008,
. . does not
mean that the evolution and transformation of the larger system within which we
live has stopped.
Humans are
not above the vast natural system we exist within; yes we are the dominant
species within it, yet just one single species within it, so the continuing
change of the system around us continuously and inevitably affects us, just as
we effect it. Example:
The recent, large and ever
worsening natural catastrophes (e.g. hurricanes, floods & tornadoes)
remind us of how helpless we are in the face of those forces that most of us cannot
fully comprehend (i.e. most of us do not yet understand that ever more damaging
weather systems stem from the ever rising percentage of carbon dioxide in the
atmosphere that results in the
greenhouse effect and global warming -- which inevitably comes from the ever increasing amounts of manufacture, production and
consumption which produces
that carbon dioxide).
So if we want to solve our present problems
we have to understand a few important points:
1.
We do not and cannot have historical perspective on the present crisis. Why not?
Because we are in a situation humanity
has never before faced.
2.
We are not in a crisis that could be corrected by known economic,
financial or political means; rather, we are in a system failure. Why? Because our constant growth,
overproduction/over-consumption system has become unsustainable, and has even
begun to self-destruct because of this. Paradoxically, the same drive that gave us
all our achievements throughout history has become a cancer that is now destroying
the entire system, and none of the basic principles of a constant-growth,
expansive system any longer exist. To
wit:
* because of falling wages and rising
unemployment (as ever more income and wealth is cleverly siphoned away by
the top 1%), there is no longer a strong and confident consumer base, and it is not going to return!
* the mass
hypnotic media and marketing system that have always brainwashed people to keep
buying products they do not need, for money they do not have (but must borrow)
. . is falling apart,
* we are
fast depleting all our natural resources.
3.
Stuck in their present attitudes and behavior, corporate-dominated culture
and society remain in complete opposition to the vast natural system around us. With global capitalism and population growth,
we have achieved a certain saturation of economic possibilities that has
finally put us into a direct conflict with Mother Nature, who is, as a result,
beginning to turn against us. While the
whole system (i.e. "Mother Nature") strives for overall balance and homeostasis,
most corporations (with their fragmented, competitive, exploitative attitude and
organization) are inadvertently working in opposition to that.
Therefore our
next moves need to be based on the realization just described. We need to update and educate the whole
population about the key factors now influencing and impinging upon our lives. We need to educate people as to what it means
to live in a closed, integral, and completely interdependent world. By this means we can prepare people for the inevitable
transition to the limited, natural-resource-based life that will be required
for the survival and health of our civilization.
Author and
economist Tim Jackson states the challenge starkly:
And that is
the core mission of his perfectly timed book, Prosperity Without Growth: Economics for a Finite Planet. Had he published it before the financial
crisis, he would probably have been dismissed as another green idealist, at
best. But in the wake of the crisis, more people are questioning the primacy
of growth-at-all-costs. President Sarkozy, the Nobel-prizewinning
economist Joseph Stiglitz, and elements of the Financial Times's commentariat
are among those now arguing that prosperity is possible without GNP growth, and
indeed that prosperity will soon become impossible
because of GNP growth.
A new movement seems to be emerging, and
this superbly written book should be the first stop for anyone wanting a
manifesto.
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