The idea of growth belongs in the soil.
Not in spreadsheets.
If we are going to grow anything - let us grow culture (among people and in cities, and in the soil and in our stomachs); Culture that helps things to grow through a feedback loop that is negative (and thus positive).
Lets not grow economy anymore.
Economic growth is the destruction of our biodiversity and hence the systems that give support to all life
So much of our language (and hence our lives) is poisoned by this confusion and contradiction in meaning; Words have become so far detached from their actual meaning, like civil war, and intelligent missiles, and collateral damage..
Engagement is also becoming contaminated. So rapidly. In the most spurious use of the word it is used to mean the "engagement" of more people in mass consumption. Diversity is the answer to sustainability. There we go again: sustainability. In the increasingly common scenario the word "sustainability" is used to promote and maintain a system that is based on scarcity - locking up resources from those who need it by those who sole interest is to increase profit margins. And in general it promotes a pollution - by hoarding surplus and disposing of waste in the most unnatural and idiotic way. All because it aids and abets this insane notion of "3% annual economic growth".
Other words like public, community and politics, have all been contaminated. Currently, the largest education industry globally is - MARKETING. The art of manipulating people into working jobs they hate so they can keep buying shit that don't need.
This is an intolerable situation.
War over resources - oil and gas - is destined to shift into a war over water. The war is NOT over scarcity (locking up resources so one group can generate exclusive private wealth from it) - the War is over one tiny group of people who declare war on everyone else in order to maintain their hegemony over extracting the maximum amount of wealth out of our collectively owned resources. Extracting and industrialising resources in the stupidest way ONLY SO THEY CAN SELL MORE SHIT AT THE MAXIMUM PROFIT.
Well the joke is on us. As Michael Reynolds pointed out last weekend in Sydney as his earthship presentation - WE - the western world - represent only 17% of the world. So our interests are in the minority. Our consumption (or overconsumption) many times over trumps the consumption in the third world.
We are living the dream in the worst kind of nightmare possible.
What goes around, well….it comes around.
Time to take action.
Stop living the dream, and start making the reality.
From Milkwood this weekend I was emphatically and passionately reminded to: Start by questioning where everything comes from, and work out an alternative so you can circumvent the system. This means not just your food, but your news feed as well. And bring people with you. Tell stories, and learn the stories about where things come from. Share. Don't shop at major supermarket chains. Don't shop for the sake of shopping. Stop shopping. Live off less. Live better off less. Give things away (objects, energy, food, attention, care, concern). And take on more responsibility for your immediate communities, through action, stories and building infrastructures for communities to flourish in.
