I wake up daily to the marvel of this world full of possibilities, miracles really, like the chestnut tree blooming in the back yard and scenting the entire yard with its utterly natural perfume.
That's wonderful, but a question haunts me, and I suspect it haunts many people when not distracted from everything I write about below. What is all this distraction with growth and stuff? I like stuff... and have too much stuff, but I'm talking about commerce, economics, the world of products and choices. More products are being added to stores, more techniques to entice shoppers to buy little pickup items they don't need, more 'styles', more 'NEW!' slogans, more claims of improvement, more smaller portions in more packaging, and more solutions to problems we don't have, like fidget spinners. Imagine a time before there were 12 brands of pasta sauce and 12 choices of flavors for each brand. And the problem I have with all of this is three-fold:
One - we have more distractions in our lives - more stuff to store; to discard when it breaks; to feel bad about knowing we did not need it; to feel bad about the minute it breaks and we realize we were kind of duped into buying a piece of junk - to just plain think about. This is not to pretend that we don't have free will, but that we are a part of a ginormous system that makes it all seem OK to continually make, consume/buy, discard. It is not OK.
Two - we're increasing demand for raw materials, creating jobs and industries that should not exist, and we're perpetuating a nightmare of disposal problems that are as-yet unresolved - because they can't be. The amount of trash produced is still increasing, because populations continue to grow, and production and consumption continue to increase.
Three - increasing production, increasing wealth, increasing, increasing, increasing..., cannot continue. It is 'unsustainable' in today's parlance. The thought that we might stop economic growth frightens economists and politicians alike, but the plain truth is that we are surrounded by a finite resource, and literally hundreds of millions of people work daily to use that resource up by literally using what's under our feet to make stuff, and by using more of the surface of the planet for increasingly more destructive purposes.
Perhaps the problem that haunts us is the interplay between our discomfort with the knowledge that we can't continue to 'increase' while also sustaining the planet. Because this is obvious, it is troubling, and like dumping chemicals in a stream, it is bound to have affects that we can't readily see - and yet some people continue to dump chemicals with their fingers in their ears whenever the suggestion of this eventual destruction is raised.
Social scientists call it 'cognitive dissonance' and while the small scale of this is exemplified by justifying stealing paper clips from work because co-workers are doing it, the much more profound and greater example is the continuation of growth at the expense of our own health and the health of the planet, because that is the system we've believed in for hundreds of years. We continue on a trajectory that will clearly destroy the planet one day, heedless of the acknowledgment of this truth, because nearly every system we live under currently forces this agenda forward.
I try to solve problems by going to their roots. My most profound related question to my opening question is, 'how did we get stuck in belief systems that perpetuate the fallacy that perpetual growth is OK?' Religions have typically 'blessed' increasing the flock, for example. 'Markets' panic if growth falls below a certain level. Politicians can't get elected if they campaign on making a community stronger by halting growth or reducing population. Companies lose shareholders and value if they don't increase their production or grow their bottom line and profit. And yet if we all stopped growing, invested in better, healthier living, disposed with the rules that demand growth, fostered new understandings of our humble reliance on a limited resource, created corporations that provide the products and services we need, rather than inventing needs we don't have, wouldn't we grow happier? If the population decreased a little bit, wouldn't that leave more of everything for everyone? I say this not as a proponent of eugenics or even communism, but of a more conscientious approach to procreation, to production, to growth, and living.
It seems obvious that all but a few of us are stuck in the system that forces us to scramble, to buy to survive. Mortgages, unsatisfying work, 'keeping up with the Jones' ', insurance that increasingly doesn't serve our needs, politicians dividing us up like pawns in a game, and corporations keeping it complicated to continue to grow. I've seen jobs where no job should exist, brokers between brokers and makers, employees in place, it seems, to create more paperwork and confusion, to maintain the need for their jobs, professional obfuscators, frivolous law suits... Where does it end? Can a person be happy and live as a conservationist? Many believe those who live in ways that address these problems are happier. I would agree.
Overcoming the education system that has taught everyone that growth is good is the only answer to this problem. In countries where conservation is treated more seriously and legislated, citizens have been measurably more happy. These countries are more efficient, less violent, and in some cases have zero waste. If it works for one country, it can work for all countries.
In the US we not only have religion encouraging us to grow, but we have the religion of antiquated economic theories that demand growth to function. Growth as an economic goal should been tossed long ago. Instead it remains strong, a huge plank in every political platform for nearly all countries on Earth. Our economy should be based on human beings, not on products and services. In the words of E. F. Schumacher, "...Economics as if People Mattered", the subtitle of his book, "Small is Beautiful".
Picture this microcosm: A restaurant that serves a community that employs xx number of people. The community is static - minor population changes over many years. The restaurant serves the same people, employs the same number of people, uses the same amounts of local food, keeps the same number of farmers in business, uses reusable wares, and sustainable products. In our current economy, that restaurant is a threat and that town is considered a failure or an opportunity to exploit. In a smarter economy, that town would be a success, the people employed, everyone would know their role. Some might leave, some might arrive, children will be born, elders will pass away. Sustaining the farms that provide for the community, educating doctors to take care of the community, teachers to teach the community, ensures a place for everyone. Assuming anyone can come or go at any time, people will be happy. This scenario is too often portrayed in dystopian fictions with laws that keep people from being free... these are fictions that defend our current destructive system. The pressure to grow is what upsets that community, and upsets the balance, and adds collective pressure to the planet. And growth is exponentially more frequent than it's counterpart the world over.
We have to change the system that can't function without growth, stop the production of stuff that nobody needs, and educate people to know the difference between happiness and collecting.
That's wonderful, but a question haunts me, and I suspect it haunts many people when not distracted from everything I write about below. What is all this distraction with growth and stuff? I like stuff... and have too much stuff, but I'm talking about commerce, economics, the world of products and choices. More products are being added to stores, more techniques to entice shoppers to buy little pickup items they don't need, more 'styles', more 'NEW!' slogans, more claims of improvement, more smaller portions in more packaging, and more solutions to problems we don't have, like fidget spinners. Imagine a time before there were 12 brands of pasta sauce and 12 choices of flavors for each brand. And the problem I have with all of this is three-fold:
One - we have more distractions in our lives - more stuff to store; to discard when it breaks; to feel bad about knowing we did not need it; to feel bad about the minute it breaks and we realize we were kind of duped into buying a piece of junk - to just plain think about. This is not to pretend that we don't have free will, but that we are a part of a ginormous system that makes it all seem OK to continually make, consume/buy, discard. It is not OK.
Two - we're increasing demand for raw materials, creating jobs and industries that should not exist, and we're perpetuating a nightmare of disposal problems that are as-yet unresolved - because they can't be. The amount of trash produced is still increasing, because populations continue to grow, and production and consumption continue to increase.
Three - increasing production, increasing wealth, increasing, increasing, increasing..., cannot continue. It is 'unsustainable' in today's parlance. The thought that we might stop economic growth frightens economists and politicians alike, but the plain truth is that we are surrounded by a finite resource, and literally hundreds of millions of people work daily to use that resource up by literally using what's under our feet to make stuff, and by using more of the surface of the planet for increasingly more destructive purposes.
Perhaps the problem that haunts us is the interplay between our discomfort with the knowledge that we can't continue to 'increase' while also sustaining the planet. Because this is obvious, it is troubling, and like dumping chemicals in a stream, it is bound to have affects that we can't readily see - and yet some people continue to dump chemicals with their fingers in their ears whenever the suggestion of this eventual destruction is raised.
Social scientists call it 'cognitive dissonance' and while the small scale of this is exemplified by justifying stealing paper clips from work because co-workers are doing it, the much more profound and greater example is the continuation of growth at the expense of our own health and the health of the planet, because that is the system we've believed in for hundreds of years. We continue on a trajectory that will clearly destroy the planet one day, heedless of the acknowledgment of this truth, because nearly every system we live under currently forces this agenda forward.
I try to solve problems by going to their roots. My most profound related question to my opening question is, 'how did we get stuck in belief systems that perpetuate the fallacy that perpetual growth is OK?' Religions have typically 'blessed' increasing the flock, for example. 'Markets' panic if growth falls below a certain level. Politicians can't get elected if they campaign on making a community stronger by halting growth or reducing population. Companies lose shareholders and value if they don't increase their production or grow their bottom line and profit. And yet if we all stopped growing, invested in better, healthier living, disposed with the rules that demand growth, fostered new understandings of our humble reliance on a limited resource, created corporations that provide the products and services we need, rather than inventing needs we don't have, wouldn't we grow happier? If the population decreased a little bit, wouldn't that leave more of everything for everyone? I say this not as a proponent of eugenics or even communism, but of a more conscientious approach to procreation, to production, to growth, and living.
It seems obvious that all but a few of us are stuck in the system that forces us to scramble, to buy to survive. Mortgages, unsatisfying work, 'keeping up with the Jones' ', insurance that increasingly doesn't serve our needs, politicians dividing us up like pawns in a game, and corporations keeping it complicated to continue to grow. I've seen jobs where no job should exist, brokers between brokers and makers, employees in place, it seems, to create more paperwork and confusion, to maintain the need for their jobs, professional obfuscators, frivolous law suits... Where does it end? Can a person be happy and live as a conservationist? Many believe those who live in ways that address these problems are happier. I would agree.
Overcoming the education system that has taught everyone that growth is good is the only answer to this problem. In countries where conservation is treated more seriously and legislated, citizens have been measurably more happy. These countries are more efficient, less violent, and in some cases have zero waste. If it works for one country, it can work for all countries.
In the US we not only have religion encouraging us to grow, but we have the religion of antiquated economic theories that demand growth to function. Growth as an economic goal should been tossed long ago. Instead it remains strong, a huge plank in every political platform for nearly all countries on Earth. Our economy should be based on human beings, not on products and services. In the words of E. F. Schumacher, "...Economics as if People Mattered", the subtitle of his book, "Small is Beautiful".
Picture this microcosm: A restaurant that serves a community that employs xx number of people. The community is static - minor population changes over many years. The restaurant serves the same people, employs the same number of people, uses the same amounts of local food, keeps the same number of farmers in business, uses reusable wares, and sustainable products. In our current economy, that restaurant is a threat and that town is considered a failure or an opportunity to exploit. In a smarter economy, that town would be a success, the people employed, everyone would know their role. Some might leave, some might arrive, children will be born, elders will pass away. Sustaining the farms that provide for the community, educating doctors to take care of the community, teachers to teach the community, ensures a place for everyone. Assuming anyone can come or go at any time, people will be happy. This scenario is too often portrayed in dystopian fictions with laws that keep people from being free... these are fictions that defend our current destructive system. The pressure to grow is what upsets that community, and upsets the balance, and adds collective pressure to the planet. And growth is exponentially more frequent than it's counterpart the world over.
We have to change the system that can't function without growth, stop the production of stuff that nobody needs, and educate people to know the difference between happiness and collecting.
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