It is said that inside every cynic, there lies a disappointed idealist. That much I know to be true.
I didn’t used to be this way, I still remember being a carefree child thinking that the world was a free and fair place, but every year the world reminds me more and more, that this is not the way it is. "Buy this new thing that you don’t need, with money you don’t have, so you can go into debt, and end up paying more in accrued interest, than the value of the object you bought in the first place." "Drink this fresh natural spring water that might not even come from a spring!" "Pull yourself up by your bootstraps and disregard anyone but yourself!" "Choose one of two political candidates, both of which are beholden to the same special interests and corporations through quid pro quo agreements!" "Pay no attention to the looming war with Russia that our politicians are pushing, no, listen to these crazy crazy things Donald Trump said instead!" "Oh and while you're at it, make sure to use our electronic voting machines that can be hacked and manipulated to show whatever result is wanted!" Meanwhile since 2009, 99% of all new wealth generated has gone to the top 1%.
My god, just how did we fall so far? How is it that we, the human family, have devolved into this duality of mindless work and consumption in the first world, and complete and total abject poverty on a horrifying level in the third? How is it that we automatically assume that credentials mean capability? Why do so many of us seem to value material things above human life? Why is it that life, at least in the first world, revolves around getting a job that you probably wont like, spending the best hours of the day doing that job, and then returning home with just enough energy to catch a few of your favorite tv programs before heading back off to bed to repeat the same thing over and over again until you retire or die. Why are things this way?
I'll tell you why. While many people will look for a scapegoat, blaming the russians, or the economy, or maybe even "human nature." (That’s always a popular go to scapegoat.) The real problem is multi faceted, and complex. The problem is human response to systemic circumstances. People will tell you that "Humans are naturally greedy" or "we will never have peace", or that this systemic paradigm that we are living in right now, is the best it's gonna get and its only downhill from here son! To assume this though, is short sighted, and doesn’t take into account what human nature actually is. Human nature isn't to be greedy, or to hoard resources just because. Human nature is to respond to environmental circumstances in a way that best perpetuates that single human's capability to survive comfortably. When you combine that with the obscenely competitive environment that is this global fiat currency central banking crony capitalist system, well then you start to cultivate in people, a behavioral response which reflects that environment.
It goes deeper than that though. Besides behavioral response to environmental stimulation, there exists another aspect of humans which lends itself helping to create the environment we see today. Dopamine.
The great unseen creator of all addiction. Like I mentioned previously, the environment we live in creates and effects our behaviors. However, if it were that simple, why then are most of us not able to recognize the aberrant behavior and self correct? This is where dopamine comes into the equation. Now I don’t claim to know everything about dopamine, however, I feel I understand it enough to produce a theory about its role in our society. From what I understand, dopamine is strongly associated with the pleasure and reward centers of the brain. In other words, when you experience reward, your brain increases its level of dopamine, which leaves you feeling good. A natural high so to speak. One which can be powerfully addictive, leaving its victims constantly and unconsciously searching for more. This could very well be the great overlooked cause of why humankind's self destructive behavior tends to perpetuate itself rather than self correct. To put it simply, person gets reward, dopamine is released, feelsgoodman.png, human chases after dopamine high, wanting more and more each time. We are all addicts, each of us just searching for a different way to get the same damn fix.
So what would be the use of writing all of this up, outlining in detail what I feel the problems of society are, if I didn't have a solution or at least a suggestion, right? Well I've got a few. Unfortunately, none of them are easy, but with problems as big as these, you need equally big solutions. What I am proposing, is a conscious shift in the what we value and how we interact. Let's start out with values. Right now on spaceship Earth, we use in 8 months, the amount of resources the Earth can produce in a year. This is part of our dopamine addiction. How many people do you know who can't fit their car in their garage because it has too much stuff in it? How many people do you know who love to go shopping as a form of entertainment? Over accumulation leads straight back to the dopamine addiction. Every time we buy a new thing, reward center is triggered, dopamine is released, and that new purchase feels oh so good….until it doesn’t anymore, and you find yourself back at the store searching for your next fix.
What do we do about this? We have to make the conscious decision to orient what we value away from constant accumulation, and towards more sustainable practices like recycling, growing your own food, and finding uses for what would otherwise be waste. Don’t throw away plastic, paper, or batteries, put in the extra effort to recycle them. Think about downsizing the quantity of things you own. Some people have already started doing this to the extreme by selling their normal homes and most of their possessions, and buying a tiny house (100 - 700sqft) on a piece of land. A similar movement is taking place in Japan right now, where we see a growing movement of people orienting their values away from accumulation, and more towards minimalism. Not saying you yourself have to do this, but any sort of conscious change towards living more sustainably can help to dramatically alter our environment for the better. In short, consume less, recycle more, and make conscious decisions.
I want to end this rather lengthy article by talking about human interaction, and how changing the way we interact with one another can help to change our environment for the better as well. I am proposing a change in human interaction which mirrors how I would like to see environmental sustainability approached. How many times have you been in a conversation with someone, they say something that rubs you the wrong way, and before you can even take time to analyze what was said, your mouth opens, you say something which rubs them the wrong way in return, and you both gain nothing from the interaction. I'm sure you've experienced this. I sure have. So how can this situation be approached differently? Well, if you are in a verbal exchange with someone, and they say something that rubs you the wrong way, instead of immediately reacting in a similar way, take a few seconds to think about what was just said, and produce a thoughtful response that seeks to de escalate, rather than giving into what "feels good" Which is to provide an unconscious, emotional response. Human interaction should be about collaboration, not confrontation. We have to learn to get along with one another, or we'll eventually destroy ourselves.
To sum it all up; the only path to creating a sustainable socio-economic environment for all humans, is to finally develop consciousness of what we do, how we do it, why we do it, and how it can be done better. I don’t claim to have all the answers to society's woes, but I feel that if what I mentioned here were to be implemented on a grand scale, we would see a very different world pretty quickly.
Sources: http://www.theledger.com/news/20080322/your-bottled-water-may-not-come-from-a-spring
http://www.dailyherald.com/article/20150222/business/150229991/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dopamine
http://dopamineproject.org/sample-page/
http://www.footprintnetwork.org/en/index.php/GFN/page/earth_overshoot_day/
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-japan-minimalism-idUSKCN0Z50VP
http://thetinylife.com/what-is-the-tiny-house-movement/
http://harvardmagazine.com/2012/07/omnia-mea-mecum-porto