2Likes
LinkBack URL
About LinkBacks
And herein lies the problem, don't you agree? Your choice of words including "unfortunately" seems to me, that you are aware that this is a problem. That it is a problem that this shift of attention took place, that people in the dominant culture (which has spread far from what can reasonably be called "western society" anymore) value economy and industry over life and the well being of their grand grandchildren. This IS the problem I try to elucidate here, that by choosing that priority, this culture, the dominant culture, the culture that has unfortunately adopted that view it also has chosen to become unsustainable and prone to hitting a wall, which would also end the inertia it has, but in a catastrophic way. I don't know what the solution is - to try and convince the people, especially the people in the developing countries to stop or slow down certainly will not be easy. To wait for the whole situation to resolve itself is just plain stupid. To hope for the "hundredth monkey" - well, maybe, but probably not. So what is left? To work actively towards "stopping" the whole inertia by intelligent means - redirecting it maybe towards something that crashes later or softer? Or to participate in building a parallel structure that can serve as a model once the whole thing goes boom, but that only works if the boom does not take too much of the world with it.Originally Posted by applejuice
It is a ****ing dilemma and I honestly do not know what can and should and has to be done, but I am thinking of it at least instead of watching Justin Bieber and Lady Gaga and football games like too many people in the industrialized world are doing.
The dilemma I mentioned is exactly that - the choice between a rock and a hard place - there are no ressources in abundance enough to give all that 7 and soon 10 billion people the lifestyle of US citizens. We are living on a finite planet and to think that 10 billion people will all be able to have vacations in Hawaii, (electric) cars, central heated flats or houses, a TV, a cellphone, a computer, electric kitchen appliances, a washing machine, a laundry drier, air conditioner, desk job, refrigerator, freezer, video projector, second TV, toilet paper, cheap T-Shirts, and all that - that is just not working out! I do not want to "deny the developing nations the right to have the same things we have" in some kind of elitist attitude, I just recognize that there is a limit and that there are things that are impossible. And no wishful thinking like "but they have the right to have the same crap as we have" will change that. Yes of course - from a humanitarian viewpoint, all people should have the right to own and live in the same way - but on a finite planet that is already reaching its limit that either means (and I am not trying to be mean or elitist, I am just following logic, reasoning and physics here) a lot less people or a vastly lowered consumption for all of us on the planet.People in developing nations want access to Technology now and that stresses natural resources a lot, which in turn requires faster solutions, given the size of population.
It may be ideal to think that all these billions people can have the same lifestyle as Europeans have, but to say that just because it SHOULD be so makes it somehow possible is wishing on a star - it is reversed logic. We cannot wish more resources and energy into existence just because we fell that there SHOULD be enough for all the billions of people to live in a certain way we think appropriate. This species on this planet is already vastly in overshoot and if anything then we will have to reduce consumption just to maintain what is now - but of course, as you pointed out, the inertia is such that we as a species currently are instead on the track of demanding more and more still.
This IS the reason why cities are burning in northern Africa, why gasoline prices rise, why the US has just started to release emergency oil reserves, why oil companies (desperately!) drill in the Arctic now where they have to tow away the icebergs heading for the drill rig and why US infrastructure crumbles - the reality is that we have already spent more than we can afford, that we have indebted the whole species and no desperate attempts will really help now - the only thing that can help is something bigger, something huge. And this is what I try to track and see and envision and somehow try to get myself into.
I know people here sometimes think that I just want to destroy everything in this civilization because I want a tribal hunter-gatherer life or some back-to-the land living in a nice ecovillage or like like the NA'Vi for selfish reasons, but that is just a dream of mine maybe - the background story of it is this global problem that has nothing to do with my personal lifestyle preferences or desires.... except maybe that these options I am exploring somehow make more sense in the reality that I see than to aspire a bigger car, a job in economics, ownership of plenty of bonds or a huge singly family mansion.
Reply With Quote
Bookmarks