A rant about the economy

... and why all is not lost
 

I began the last post with a section about how it is possible to gain skills for a change of direction. This time I want to scratch the surface of one of several answers to the question “why?”

I’ve explained that I would prefer to live in a way that offers mutual beneficially for my self and the world in which I live, rather than aspire to a “norm” that doesn’t actually make me feel particularly happy whilst actively damaging the world in which I live.

Opinions do differ on this subject, but I believe that the current perception of a “normal” western lifestyle will be forced to change at some point anyway (timing as yet unknown, but probably sooner than we’d like) due to the fact that it is supported entirely by an economy which relies entirely on an unlimited supply of resources of which we have only a known quantity. Kenneth Boulding, President Kennedy’s environmental advisor forty five years ago said something about this:  “Anyone who believes in indefinite growth in anything physical, on a physically finite planet, is either mad – or an economist.”

This is simple fact is easy to ignore in the short term while our teeth are gritted and our heads are down, grinding away at our jobs which occupy most of our waking hours. We justify it on the basis that it brings in the money required for us to consume all that stuff that we don’t actually need. Our jobs themselves are rarely sympathetic to our ecological life-support systems - even in my case where I was trying to undertake a “green career” managing woodlands for nature conservation, yet driving, through necessity, 50 miles a day in a car to get to work and back, thereby more than cancelling out any positive impact I might have had.

Being a slave to the economy seems like an unshakable chain while we are so busy trying to keep our heads above water to take the time to assess the problem properly. But once we begin to understand what it actually is that locks us in to the cycle it becomes increasingly obvious that there are other ways.

I would like to share the following video from http://www.doingitourselves.org/ which offers a concise overview of the economic system we are locked into and how utterly silly it actually is.

For myself I feel that the only sensible route is to explore ways that do not force me to undermine the ecological systems that support my life in order to live. Also I no longer want to be too busy to be able to offer my family and friends the emotional and practical support they need into old age, and I no longer want to be too pre-occupied to notice the transient shapes of clouds and the wind on my face as I go about my day to day experiences. These are the things that define my life, not the brand of jeans I wear or the car I drive...