A start
I have basically stopped following the news. I jump back in around elections and scan a few blogs from time to time, but the stories of savagery that confront me every day are simply too much. It is debilitating. There are so many battles to fight and I gotta make a living and raise a family. I have given up on issue based politics as I watch many more tens of millions being pored into an abortion debate that seems to defy logic. Mistakes happen; idiocy happens - that is the human condition - thus abortion is with us. The only question is whether it is only for the rich, very dangerous, or widely available to all. The rest is just noise. And that is how I feel about the vast majority of news today. It ignores the "reality" of situations and allows the focus to be on idealistic and unattainable goals. War on Drugs anyone?
So here I am at my desk, typing away for no one. My political consciousness has been forged by a fine liberal arts education, with some focus on History, Economics, Anthropology, Environmental Science and Statistics. It's a weird mix but it has produced a rare combination of tools with which to analyze our current situation. Our problems are part of a larger system of complex ideas that once put into practice have had staggering results, both positive and negative. Here are the key facts which inform my consciousness.
The same amount of people who were on the planet in 1960, 3 billion, now live on roughly 2 dollars a day or less.
The standard of living for most in the developed world is far better that of the upper nobility 300 years ago.
The Earth's climate is changing.
Wars are fought for resources.
Traditional (neo-classical) economic thought implores us to "grow" the economy. Again, that growth is largely the consumption of non-renewable resources.
Using those resources is:
1% of Americans are millionaires but 50% of Members of Congress are millionaires.
Thus, we are MEETING the stated goals of our economy, and indeed our entire society, but the results are not what we had envisioned when the basic blueprint was laid down in 1787. It is not that we are bad people doing bad things - it is that we are actually good people, thinking we are doing the right things, but causing misery and destruction on a global scale. As David Korten said in his piece for the peoiple centered development forum in 1994, it is a "global social crisis".
Nothing you will read here is not available other places, but my hope is to create a cultural space to take the good work at exposure that the Occupy and other social justice movements have done, and to create a viable alternate story of which we can all be a part: One of hope, abundance and social justice.
I once took a class entitled "Envision a sustainable society". It was a good start. Let's start envisioning.
So here I am at my desk, typing away for no one. My political consciousness has been forged by a fine liberal arts education, with some focus on History, Economics, Anthropology, Environmental Science and Statistics. It's a weird mix but it has produced a rare combination of tools with which to analyze our current situation. Our problems are part of a larger system of complex ideas that once put into practice have had staggering results, both positive and negative. Here are the key facts which inform my consciousness.
The same amount of people who were on the planet in 1960, 3 billion, now live on roughly 2 dollars a day or less.
The standard of living for most in the developed world is far better that of the upper nobility 300 years ago.
The Earth's climate is changing.
Wars are fought for resources.
Traditional (neo-classical) economic thought implores us to "grow" the economy. Again, that growth is largely the consumption of non-renewable resources.
Using those resources is:
- not bringing people out of poverty
- causing the Earth's climate to change
- making the wealthy more wealthy
1% of Americans are millionaires but 50% of Members of Congress are millionaires.
Thus, we are MEETING the stated goals of our economy, and indeed our entire society, but the results are not what we had envisioned when the basic blueprint was laid down in 1787. It is not that we are bad people doing bad things - it is that we are actually good people, thinking we are doing the right things, but causing misery and destruction on a global scale. As David Korten said in his piece for the peoiple centered development forum in 1994, it is a "global social crisis".
Nothing you will read here is not available other places, but my hope is to create a cultural space to take the good work at exposure that the Occupy and other social justice movements have done, and to create a viable alternate story of which we can all be a part: One of hope, abundance and social justice.
I once took a class entitled "Envision a sustainable society". It was a good start. Let's start envisioning.
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