What If?
By Thomas Friedman, Jan. 20 2016 (LINK to article)
What if consumer capitalism is inherently unsustainable on our finite, vulnerable and overpopulated planet, which I and many others recognised it to be more than 40 years ago, before Ronald Reagan, Margret Thatcher and Helmut Schmitt led the world in putting it into turbo mode?
We (mine and previous generations of white men) have screwed up badly, with America now leading western civilisation, and the rest of the world following, towards the abyss.
Not that I'm blaming America. A big part of our problem is that we all try to blame others for what's gone wrong, rather than admitting our own part in it.
Nothing new has gone wrong. Ever since the first states and civilisations emerged from a tribal society, they have been subject to a continuous cycle of civilisational boom and bust, just not on the global scale or level of technological development that we are now experiencing, or with such a huge dependent human population that will suffer the consequences.
It doesn't have to be like this, but to put an end to this cycle of boom and bust, we need to view and understand our own species and civilisation from a human-evolutionary, i.e. Darwinian, perspective, which tragically, a previous generation of academics made a taboo of doing, in OVERREACTION to the Nazis having hijacked and abused the half-baked ideas of social Darwinism for their own evil purposes.
It is probably too late now to avoid bust entirely, but it is not too late to reduce the scale and death toll. Here is where to START.
Showing posts with label sustainability. Show all posts
Showing posts with label sustainability. Show all posts
Thursday, 21 January 2016
Friday, 1 January 2016
Avatar Illustrates Difference Between States & Nations
A Times Course for Young World Changers Asks, ‘Sustain What?’
By Andrew C. Revkin, Dec. 31, 2015 (LINK to article)
The misconception is in equating state and nation, which in reality are two very different things. However, in order to recognise the difference, one must view human nature and the societies it has, over the centuries, given rise and shape to from a human-evolutionary perspective, which a previous generation of academics made a taboo of doing, in overreaction to the Nazis having hijacked and abused, for their own evil purposes, the half-baked ideas of social Darwinism.
Modern states deceitfully pose as nations, in order to legitimise themselves, their ruling elites and the immense power they wield and abuse. There is not enough space here for me to elaborate further, so I will illustrate the difference between state and nation in reference to the film, Avatar, which, if you haven't seen it, you can learn about from Wikipedia.
The indigenous inhabitants of Pandora, the Na'vi, represent a genuine nation, while the Earthling employees of the Resources Development Administration engaged in mining activities on Pandora represent citizens of a state, or states.
This BLOG attempts a human-evolutionary perspective on civilisation.
By Andrew C. Revkin, Dec. 31, 2015 (LINK to article)
"We’ll look at the Sustainable Development Goals adopted by the world’s nations . . "This sentence contains the fundamental misconception that we must recognise and correct, before we can really get to grips with the issue of "sustainable development".
The misconception is in equating state and nation, which in reality are two very different things. However, in order to recognise the difference, one must view human nature and the societies it has, over the centuries, given rise and shape to from a human-evolutionary perspective, which a previous generation of academics made a taboo of doing, in overreaction to the Nazis having hijacked and abused, for their own evil purposes, the half-baked ideas of social Darwinism.
Modern states deceitfully pose as nations, in order to legitimise themselves, their ruling elites and the immense power they wield and abuse. There is not enough space here for me to elaborate further, so I will illustrate the difference between state and nation in reference to the film, Avatar, which, if you haven't seen it, you can learn about from Wikipedia.
The indigenous inhabitants of Pandora, the Na'vi, represent a genuine nation, while the Earthling employees of the Resources Development Administration engaged in mining activities on Pandora represent citizens of a state, or states.
This BLOG attempts a human-evolutionary perspective on civilisation.
Monday, 30 November 2015
States Posing as Nations Can't Save Us
What the Paris Climate Meeting Must Do
By the Editorial Board, Nov. 28 2015 (LINK to editorial)
The "nations" the Editorial Board makes multiple references to and clearly sees as the primary problem solvers are not genuine nations at all, but mercenary "patron states" deceitfully posing as nations, in order to legitimise themselves, their ruling elites and the immense power they wield and abuse, to their own personal advantage and that of favoured (especially wealthy and academic) clients, at the expense of society at large.
These "patron states" are institutionally incapable of doing what only genuine nations would be capable of, but which the Editorial Board vainly demands of them. We were warned about the inherent non-sustainability of consumer capitalism more than 40 years ago, but instead of slowing down in preparation for a radical change of course, world leaders, complying with the demands of their "patron states", put their foot on the gas and consumer capitalism into turbo mode.
If we are to save ourselves from the self-destructive forces which threaten our survival, we must recognise and develop an understanding their source in the perverted Darwinian nature of the state itself - and not be too slow about it. See BLOG in which elaborate.
By the Editorial Board, Nov. 28 2015 (LINK to editorial)
The "nations" the Editorial Board makes multiple references to and clearly sees as the primary problem solvers are not genuine nations at all, but mercenary "patron states" deceitfully posing as nations, in order to legitimise themselves, their ruling elites and the immense power they wield and abuse, to their own personal advantage and that of favoured (especially wealthy and academic) clients, at the expense of society at large.
These "patron states" are institutionally incapable of doing what only genuine nations would be capable of, but which the Editorial Board vainly demands of them. We were warned about the inherent non-sustainability of consumer capitalism more than 40 years ago, but instead of slowing down in preparation for a radical change of course, world leaders, complying with the demands of their "patron states", put their foot on the gas and consumer capitalism into turbo mode.
If we are to save ourselves from the self-destructive forces which threaten our survival, we must recognise and develop an understanding their source in the perverted Darwinian nature of the state itself - and not be too slow about it. See BLOG in which elaborate.
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