Our Socioeconomic System Is Killing Us

By Lionel Anet

23 March, 2016
Countercurrents.org

Civilisations’ driving force is to dominate the maximum number of people and land area, as it’s for capitalism, but with fossil fuels; it attained that through violence and deceit. On the other hand, capitalism uses the socioeconomic power as the new supreme controller of oppression instead of relying solely on the sword and a spiritual belief. However, oppressing a section of peopled will oppress all, including nature; one can’t be free if we deny freedom to others. Today the socioeconomic system is the overlord oppressor. It oppresses our mind by confining our thinking within the present day economic needs to exploit the planet and its life. This to satisfy those of us, who are seduced by the competition for power, through wealth, measured and with created money.

As everyone and nature are now oppressed and at the mercy of an economic system that’s erratic and largely unpredictable, but worst still, is its dependence on population growth as an easy means to maintain a pretence of economic success. This’s coupled with a persistent over exploitation of our forest, top soil, and water from rivers and ground water; they eventually won’t be able to support us as the planet heats up. Military build-up and its use are counteracting economic difficulties for the time been, but exasperating the above difficulties.

We are valued, as nature is, by the part we take in growing of the economy; it’s our reason to live. This’s unique for any life form, it’s one of many forms of insane positions that the latest method of civilisation has adopted to maximise its exploitation of people and the planet for the fewest. This economy is pervasive and ranges from the clear to the nebulose; we work, live and will die for it, soon, if we don’t use the economy as a system to give us the best life possible as other life forms do.

But there’s nothing as insane as changing the chemical composition of the biosphere that’s known to heat the planet until it will have its own momentum, by producing more heating gases from the heat that those gases produced, (positive feedback). Life will gradually become unbearable in multitude of ways until we are doom. We do the insane to satisfy an insane economy, it’s the way our rulers force us to function and it’s the only reason we stayed with it.

We are now so close to an unliveable planet, that it has become in everyone’s interest to have an economy that function for us instead of working for an alien economy, as we are doing now. If we achieve that it will also automatically transform an exploitative economy to a cooperative economy that works within and as a part of nature. That means we will not only have cooperative social economy globally but cooperative with nature, which should save today young ones and give us all something worthwhile to achieve.

That turnaround will be the most difficult thing we ever need to do, therefore, we will need a united world to transform from that competitive ideology to a cooperative one quickly or die out. To survive this century we have no alternative but to fix social interactions and our relationship with the planet and its life. We can only have that if we have unity of purpose regardless of wealth or any other factors, and that’ll generate a feeling of importance for all of us in our endeavour. It will be the most important engagement that people have to do to save themselves and maybe for all life. Survival is the prime drive for all life otherwise there’s no life, so let’s use it.

It’s not possible to deal with that momentous task by fighting for it, but as it’s in everyone’s interest it should be possible to accomplish it. The 1%, have achieved what was on the whole what capitalism logical outcome would be, so it’s no use killing those wealthy ones and leaving the economy that can get out of control again. It’s the economy that’s the enemy not people, although we are to a certain extent what the economy has made us. However, it follows that an economy that centred its function as a part of nature and for our welfare will change the tone of societies and its people.

The situation we are up against has never occurred before, so there’s no precedent, we must come up with a solution. The quality that’s lacking in all civilisations is fairness; conversely, neoliberals have taken unfairness to its limit, which’s what may end life on earth. It’s that competition to have more regardless of consequences that has created the unfairness and the depletion of vital resources that’s may end all life. Therefore, if the purpose of that economy is to take advantage over others, then unfairness will be the outcome, but if due to our survival instinct kicking in, we change our ethos to cooperate and help one another then fairness should be the outcome and the way of life.

The difficulty is getting our wealthy and other controling people to see the dire danger they are facing and can’t avoid with business as usual. Neoliberalism economic in particular encourages and demands growth in a competitive way on a world scale, which is now creating mounting stress for people, the ecosystem, aggravate by depleting resources. People are resilient but the ecosystem that we are a part of and dependant on to sustain ourselves is collapsing. This is due to our new god, a dysfunctional economy, that we are all working and living for. Economic systems that other lives have are to serve that particular life and this’s all we need it’s an economy that serves people. It will be easier to save ourselves and enhance our happiness than to destroy our life, let alone all life.

The only reason the 1% and their economist are demanding perpetual economic growth is due to an ignorance of physic and that is what’s endangering them. It’s a course that’s grossly unsustainable in so many ways. It’s understandable they don’t see that danger as it’s obscured and distracted by pilling more money in front of themselves and protecting it from their competitors, or the demand that a little of it is taken from them. But instead, if we show concern for them and their descendant’s life, some of the 1% might see and understand the dire danger they’re facing. As well, the people who support them and depend on them might come to their senses, but those people may only investigate the state of the planet, if they don’t feel threaten by the people they robbed, as they always been. The way we interact with one another will determent our survival, and it will also be so for the 1%. We all die this century or do our best to save everyone a task that will additionally enhance our self-esteem. We can have a common cause because we must to survive and that means we can change our lifestyle as we have a vital reason to do so. But if we continue to attack the wealthy, they will retaliate to protect their interest and no one will survive.

From bitter experience, we have no hope of overpowering those tycoons, but we never had such an all-encompassing threat to our and their survival, which gives us all a common need and viewpoint. So this opens up opportunity to discard many aspects of civilisation such as the glory of warfare, overfed people amongst starving fellows, palaces for a few and hovels for many. Those outcomes are due to a competitive spirit and it’s that spirit that is poisoning the way we interact with one another and nature.

Therefore, the most important thing we must do is to show our incredibly wealthy people, who are at present in charge of what’s published that we are concerned for their life. So far we’ve tried to replace or kill those wealthy ones and in turn their fear has prevented many who could cooperate to think only of their fears of losing the wealth they took. Survival is our most powerful instinct and many of the wealthiest must have it to be alive, they also can look after themselves well and maintain such power. So if they know the desperate straight they’re in and can see that we are all in the same boat, cooperation will be seen as obvious.

Our gross dishonesty and incredible unfairness will kill us all. We can’t keep taking increasing amount of energy and vital minerals as the effort used to get more energy and stuff will soon not be greater than what’s use to get them. Returns from the diminishing non-renewable resources and also from the renewables are losing their margin of profit to expenditure to acquire those resources. That is people are living well beyond natures ability to sustain that life style. This is unfair as we are taking the lion share of renewable at the expense of other life and to be renewables they must get their energy from the sun and the earth’s spin. Those sources, power all our renewables so they will last as long as the earth spins and the sun produces the energy; it’s that energy that maintains life, which recycles all the substances that it needs. Pre-civilisation, the energy and life sustaining matter was in many ways shared roughly interchanging the use of sun light energy and minerals in unimaginable ways.

Lionel Anet is a member of Sydney U3A University of the Third Age, of 20 years standing and now a life member