Beyond The Present Societal World View
By Lionel Anet
18 August, 2015
Countercurrents.org
Without looking beyond our present perceptions of civilised life we are impotent, we know we are in for terrible times ahead, but we can’t do much about it, especially in the time required, so, we carry on. People of goodwill have tried for centuries to have more equitable world relations, to no avail. One can’t improve social relationships for its sake, but for human survival, only the best social relationships achieve that. Otherwise, wealthy or poor, we will perish; we need each other to survive this century.
Humanity – Civilisation force us to compete, and that’s the ultimate compelling force of capitalism but its antisocial, it’s also against our nature. Furthermore, it will end with our extinction. Humanity’s future is unimaginable because it would interfere with the present system.
The future can only be imagined. However, we have limited imagination and feel the future will be similar; capitalism will keep on “progressing”. It’s what we are taught, to know so as to participate in the system, not to imagine a different way of interacting with one another and nature. Yet, imagination is a major part of an intelligent process; it enables people to see outcomes of actions or continuing one and foresee completely different world, either the physical, or our social one.
What sort of dilemma are we in and facing.
In 1930 the world population was less than 2 billion today it’s over 7 billion and within the next 30 years we are expecting 9 billion. Also during that time CO2 concentration rose from 270 ppm to 400 ppm of today. That rise in CO2 means a 3 meters sea level rise, even if we stop burning carbon, and over 2o temperature rise, all that in a world of depleting resources. It’s very hard to imagine life under such condition.
How did we get in this State?
Up to 15~ thousand years ago we all had fairness, that’s honest and caring relations. Overpopulation and rising seas brought in the warriors, chiefs, and priests exerting unfairness in their community and neighbours a similar condition the people of Papua New Guinea lived a century ago. Civilisation increased the domination and exploitation, separated individuals into different values highest one to the lowest whose value maybe less than some artefacts.
Capitalism – the exploitation of the pass at the demise of the future.
It was the exploitation of the English colonies that forced the use of fossil fuels, an energy that came from millions of years of sunlight on the earth received millions of years ago. Capitalism has burnt a large portion of it in two centuries, giving the feeling of everlasting growth but we’re now trying to have it on a degrading planet caused by its use.
Today we have reached the pinnacle of exploitation and dishonesty.
Up to WWII the western nation owned the colonies and therefore looked after their “property”, which they openly subjugated violently. After that war the dominant USA pretended to help former colonies by lending them money and giving them aid in loans. The return from interest was about 10 times that of the well-advertised aid given. The north financed the south to buy from the north the things the north had excess of, like obsolete military stuff, repaid with cheap farm produce and minerals. All Relationships are gradually based on the intermediary of money.
What needs to be achieved for our survival?
Today’s children will face annihilation unless we reverse our lifestyle. That’s from competition to cooperation, from exploitation to sharing; it’s also from maximising GDP to minimising it. However the hardest to do is: a population reduction from 7+ billion to a population of a billion or two, without hardship, which will take time. That is possible, but not in a society composed of independent nuclear families that’s geared to best accommodate private property at the expense of children. With little need of private property the need to inherit parent’s wealth will diminish establishing a fairer society for children. It will mean the young one care can be share giving joy to more people with more security than the reliance on two people who may or may not be good at the task.
How do we achieve that?
People who maintain this non-viable system, the multibillionaires, are also as venerable as most of us are. They need to be informed to be saved and in turn save everyone. We must show those wealthy few how they can save themselves. Fighting them will ensure our extinction. We need to rely on honesty and compassion, which is our preferred mode, and that has to be in a united world because it’s a world problem. If we fight, we’ll all die. We must have peace to maximise the help we can give each other to survive. Everyone is important and must have a role they can play in human survival and wellbeing.
We have increased the importance of money it has resulted in more dishonesty throughout the world. So, we reduce the importance of money for more honesty and cooperation until money has little value. There are more important things than money in a world that’s geared for our betterment. The way to reduce the value of money is by: - no taxes or any charges on useful employment, which would reduce the cost of labour by less than half. Instead tax non–worked income and non-renewable resource and a progressive increase fossil fuels tax. To reduce consumption, and the need for money, there must be no advertising, only public information. Free public education, health, housing and food to supply our life needs, also free public transport, entertainment, and information. With that we can reduce wage even more. Fairness must be the criterion for all relations. We would have cheap labour thereby the cost of providing all those services would be much less than half of present cost per service. As well, full employment would be a reality, but fossil fuels would be costly, it’s the stuff we mustn’t use to improve our chance of survival.
We are our greatest asset.
Our genetic makeup is the reason for our compulsive social needs. It makes us extremely interdependent. It’s also due to our unique body, which allows us to make objects and manipulate them; it facilitates our cooperation on such a vast scale. The reason is: we also have the body that can use a large brain efficiently, and that large brain enables us to be the most social of all life help by an agile body, which allows us to cooperate at any task.
Education: for what purpose
Countries educate their children to have a competitive advantage over other nations. That’s a means of oppressing others. That promotes rivalries, which is antisocial and against our nature. Competition within a social system is anti-social it’s a contradiction and therefore those societies are bound to be in continual conflicts. Yet the educational system is a competitive one, which narrows our view, decreases the scope of our imagination, and tends to be maintained within narrow ideology.
Trade! What for?
Moving stuff from one place to another is a waste and therefore must be avoided. Example cherries from America to Australia are not affordable in terms of carbon emissions. Trade is to use the cheapest labour from anywhere. Maynard Kerns: instead of shipping cakes to one another, exchange recipes.
Beyond the present societal world view
We don’t need more knowledge to save ourselves. All we need is to use the vast extent of knowledge we already have. But to do that we must change our culture to an inclusive thinking one that will eliminate the fear of been beaten by rivals and exploited.
We can only survive as a part of nature and play our part in its survival. The economy based on GDP growth is insane and fatal; it requires more work and less pleasure. The economy must be minimise to survive,
All living things have an economy that kept them alive and well if it efficiently fits in the natural state of the times.
To cooperate we need openness, fairness, compassion, and honesty. It also needs, kindness, and seeing all people as potential friends. That behaviour will bring universal happiness and contentment.
Lionel Anet is a member of Sydney U3A University of the Third Age, of 20 years standing and now a life member
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