CROSSROADS

CROSSROADS: Labor Pains of a New Worldview is an hour documentary that explores the depths of the current human condition and the emergence of a worldview that is recreating our world from the inside out. Weaving together insights and findings from biology, psychology, network science, systems science, business, culture and media, the film reveals the inner workings of the human experience in the 21st century, urging viewers to step out of the box and challenge their own assumptions about who we really are, and why we do what we do.

The film is available for free online viewing at the following website http://crossroadsfilm.com/watch/

 

 

BUDDHIST ECONOMICS

Ernest Friedrich Schumacher’s essay “Buddhist Economics” was first published in 1966 in the book ASIA: A HANDBOOK.  In 1973 it was included in Schumacher’s book SMALL IS BEAUTIFUL: ECONOMICS AS IF PEOPLE MATTERED.  This 47 year old essay jewel contains much wisdom for how we need to refocus our economy if we want to have a healthy and prosperous world.  What follows are some of the core concepts from the essay.    

We need to admit that our current economic system based on unlimited exponential growth on a finite planet has reached the end of its useful life, and that it continued use is causing serious problems for our State and our Planet.

We need to revise our view of work to see that its true value comes from the following three functions:

1.       allowing people to utilize and develop all their skills and talents;

2.       enable them to overcome ego-centeredness by joining together with other people in a common task;

3.       and to bring forth the goods and services needed for our communities to thrive.

We need to realize that using local resources to satisfy local needs is to most efficient way to a sustainable future. 

We need to adopt an environmental ethic where we no longer view our “natural resources” as simply means to create more goods and services - and instead start to embrace the reality that we are completely dependent on and part of the ecosystems that sustain us. 

We need to significantly reduce our energy consumption, phase out the use of non-renewable energy sources and transition to the use of renewable energy sources.  

These five ideas will go a long way in guiding us to a sustainable future.

Multiplicity Merged To Oneness

I would like always to point with delight at the many-splendored multiplicity of the world, and just as constantly utter a reminder that oneness underlies this multiplicity; I would like always to show that the beautiful and the ugly, the bright and the dark, sin and holiness are always opposites just for the moment, that they constantly merge into each other.  

Hermann Hess, “A Guest at the Spa”, from the book AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL WRITINGS

OPEN SPACE

Join me on a walk to the edge of my neighborhood, where the open space is being sold out.

Crisis Response

A recent response I received to my post Civilization Crisis follows: 

Cheers to dire predictions! In the next 100 years, at least 10-billion people here on Earth will die (most of natural causes). Only 10,000 years ago, there was a sheet of ice 5,000 feet thick in St. Paul (yes, global warming has been around that long). From time to time, asteroids periodically strike the Earth. Some of these impacts dramatically change the dominant species and the course of life on Earth. Relative to the most dramatic changes over the last 100 million years, I suspect that our current problems are relatively small (except maybe for those who chose to ride out a hurricane in a house they built on sand dunes on the seashores of New York/New Jersey). Have a good weekend. I’m pretty sure we’ll be around to do our jobs next week.

And my response to the response:

Thanks for sharing your thoughts.  It sounds like you are much more of an optimist than I am when it comes to the events playing out on the planet.  Although I agree with most of what you said, the one thing I take issue with is regarding your suspicion that “Relative to the most dramatic changes over the last 100 million years, I suspect that our current problems are relatively small (except maybe for those who chose to ride out a hurricane in a house they built on sand dunes on the seashores of New York/New Jersey).”

It’s easy to ignore the wake up calls when they are happening on other folk’s front doors, but it might be time for us to realize we all share the same planet and none of us live in isolation.  We also need accept the reality that we live on a finite planet, and that our outdated unscientific economic system (which operates on foolish assumption that the planet provides unlimited resources and a bottomless sink to dump the wastes that result from our productions) has some serious consequences (in the short term relative scale) on the life’s of the humans, animals, and plants we currently share the planet with.  

So I suppose one option is to shrug it all off as another example of “nature happens”, and “I feel fine” so let’s not worry about this latest symptom of our foolish lifestyle.  But for me I am at point in my life where I don’t feel too good about myself when I take that attitude and I am getting tired of sitting back and watching the foolishness play out.  So I am starting to ask myself (and others), is this the best we can do?  I think we can do better, and I think it is time for us to start taking responsibility for our actions.  And that is why I take hurricanes, droughts, floods, and other extreme weather events that are happening today as a good sign that it is time for us to wake up and find a better way to treat the planet, our fellow human beings, and the rest of the life that suffers because of our way of life.      

So yes, we and our jobs probably will be around next week, and my plan is to keep thinking about how can we do them better, instead of just mindlessly doing them.  Thanks again for sharing your thoughts; it is good to know that someone is reading my ramblings, even if they don’t agree with them.  It also gives me a reason to refine my ramblings on a relative basis.  

Civilization Crisis

Came across a relevant film that does a great job summarizing the state of our planet and how we got into the mess we are in. As we wrap up a year dominated by floods, droughts, and hurricanes, it might be time for us to start paying attention to the messages contained in films like THE CRISIS OF CIVILIZATION, which can be viewed via the link here.

According to the website the 77 minute film “is a remix documentary feature film investigating how global crises like ecological disaster, financial meltdown, dwindling oil reserves, terrorism and food shortages are converging symptoms of a single, failed global system.” Until we admit the problem, we won’t find a solution, and instead will keep focusing on the symptoms and repeating the same mistakes over and over again.

If you get a chance to watch it, I would be interested in hearing your thoughts.

Viewing Our Place

David Suzuiki on the role our worldview plays in how we treat the planet.  From an interview with David P. Ball and AnushkaNagji on Media Mornings.

The problem is the way we see our place in the world is what shapes the way we act. If you look at our history as a species, for 95 per cent of our existence, we were nomadic hunter-gatherers. And as a hunter-gatherer, you know damn well that you're absolutely embedded in, and utterly dependent on, nature for your survival and well-being. 10,000 years ago – the last five per cent of our existence – we discovered agriculture; if you're a farmer, you know very well that the seasons, weather, climate directly affect your ability to survive or not. They know that winter snow is directly related to how much moisture you have in the soil in the summer; that insects – yes, some are pests – but they're absolutely crucial for pollinating flowering plants; that certain trees and plant species can take nitrogen and fix it as fertilizer in the soil. Farmers know that we are part of nature.

What's happened is a fundamental shift in the last 100 years that now blinds us from being able to see our place on the planet. 85 per cent of us in Canada now live in big cities. We've been utterly transformed in 100 years from being a farming animal to a big city dweller. And in the big city, people think, “As long as we have parks out there, where we can go camping and playing in, well who needs nature? My important thing is my job; I need a job in order to be able to go out and buy the things I want.”

So, from an urban perspective, then, the economy becomes the source of everything that matters to us. And when you're living in that world – where the economy is elevated above everything else – then of course you'll say, “We can't stop clear-cutting – it'll destroy the economy. We can't stop dragging huge nets across the bottom of the ocean, because it's bad for the fisheries. And we can't stop injecting carbon into the atmosphere, because that'll shut down the fossil fuel industry.” The economy, then, trumps everything else because that's our highest priority in the city. It becomes very, very difficult to see the real world. And it's becoming increasingly more difficult as children spend less and less time outside.

Refer to Rabble.ca for a transcript of the entire interview.