Jay Walljasper: A commons way of life could curb climate change
That’s an even more daunting mission than transforming our energy supply, especially on a planet where many people still suffer from a lack of material resources. Yet I think it’s the key to saving the Earth for human habitation. So long as the worship of productivity— more stuff, more money, more power, more mobility, more space, more control, more everything—reigns supreme, we will continue racing down the path of destruction.
It’s a radically radical proposition, not just in its challenge to business-as-usual in corporations and governments, but for the impact on every aspect of our lives. Still to assure a world worth living in for everyone’s great grandchildren it’s necessary to back off from the mindless pursuit of ever-increasing economic production. We must find a new operating system for modern society that will sustain natural ecosystems at the same time as providing everyone on the planet with food, health, livelihood and security.
An impossibly naive dream? Not really. For much of history, human progress was guided by a different set of principles than the industrialized, market-driven system now accepted as the natural order of the universe. Look around—at indigenous people and civil society, Internet initiatives and our own households—to see a different way of life characterized by sharing and collaboration rather than production for production’s sake.
= new reply since forum marked as read
Been advocating for this kind of social shift for some time... most people tell me I'm crazy and it'll never work.
But I will never write it off because it is probably the only thing that will make it possible for our species to survive. There are a whole bunch of modern "conveniences" that I can do without. I think that what drives the quest for moremoremoremore is fear. Fear of not having the basic needs and fear of others having what we need or want and fear that we are somehow incomplete if we don't keep blasting forth, full scream ahead without stopping to notice what we've done. The "don't look back" concept of human progress has now become a large factor in our downward spiral as we collectively circle the drain. I would suggest that we are afraid of change and that we have been conditioned to be afraid of the changes that we really need to make collectively because someone can make a buck off our fears and keep us afraid... usually against our own interests.
Good post, thanks.
