A short look at the folly and degeneracy of our current economic paradigm . . .
Leonardo DiCaprio’s speech at the Climate Summit of 2014 is a perfect opportunity for humanity to look in the mirror, maybe even behind it, and identify the blind dogma that currently determines its course.
The process is simple. Isolate and highlight the one argument that people are making above all others to get their point across — ‘the economy will die if our ecosystems perish’ — and you get to the ugly truth, revealing today’s driving superstitions and the prejudices they promote.
What is this dogma we deride so deservedly? . . .
The Economy: our world’s modern-day religion, in whose name we wage holy war against each other, slaughtering logic, evidence and common sense in the process while pretending to do the smart thing.
Dear friends and foes, whatever your political, social and religious creed or disposition, a logical analysis of what takes place around us on a grand scale reveals without question that:
a) we’re neck deep in the swamp of a degenerate system, and
b) although superior to all of its previous adversaries, this system is no longer sustainable, attainable, or beneficial to our existence.
For a people — nay — a species, who pride themselves in how intelligent and advanced they are, I’d say this is a dumb state of affairs. Apparently sophisticated in all but practical terms, our current Economi-Tech system has become an essentially retarding, self-serving, self-destructive, pernicious dogma. The spreadsheet numbers run the show, despite the fact they’re obtained in ways that sabotage the system’s longevity. Our precious Economy is advancing at the expense of its own success, consuming more units than it produces.
Depleted Resources . . .
Take the oceans, for example. The nations of the world defend the people’s right to fish, but fishing as we know it depletes the oceans of, you guessed it, fish. According to one report, blue fin tuna stocks have gone down by a whopping 96.4% since industrial fishing began. That is a catastrophic number by any standard.
The future of blue fin enterprise doesn’t look good. The entire fishing industry looks pretty dim, too.
Meanwhile, on land, the Amazon rainforest has been destroyed at a rate of 50 football pitches per minute for the past fourteen years. That makes for an astounding 368,164,300 football pitches since the year 2000, which translates roughly to 2,628,693,102,000m2 (average football pitch = 7,140m2 * 368,164,300 pitches). Compare that with the area of the UK, which is roughly 243,610,000,000m2 i.e. ten times smaller, and you realize in horror that in a measly fourteen years we have destroyed an area of Amazon rainforest equivalent to ten UKs (England, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales put together) despite the much-advertised, decade-long slowdown in deforestation the Brazilian government so proudly implemented during the 21st century.
Deforestation and blaze sites in the Amazon rainforest are indicative of how the system (mal)functions . . .
The examples of unsustainable growth on which the economy makes its ill-advised headway go on and on. The numbers are in, the message clear: at our current pace of doing business, it won’t be long before we run out of resources, which means no more business, which is not just a bad business model but also a horrible life choice.
Hence the absurdity of the Economy, as it stands. The paradigm is not economically sound, adding local insult to global injury. Free market advocates ought to renounce it on account of its sheer idiocy, if nothing else — if not for the pesky ecosystems the annoying DiCaprios of the world want us to protect, then for the fact that, as it stands, it defeats its own purpose.
Senile is the only term one can apply to a once intelligent but now demented system…
Yet, for all of its senile dumbness — because senile is the only term one can apply to a once intelligent but now demented system — the Economy is supremely powerful as a global paradigm. Like most ageing ruling systems, it retains a surprising amount of kick and bite to it, be it in the form of a capitalist, state capitalist, socialist, cronyist, nepotistic, corporate, unionist, or even technocratic and bureaucratic setup. Old and frayed it may be, but it has plenty of backing and momentum. It maintains its grip on the world, cracking down on challengers with the might of a zombie.
Not An Easy Thing To Kill Or Transform . . .
Putting a stop to the perverted Economy is not going to be easy. Its course will be halted only through a series of self-inflicted wounds that lead to its eventual collapse. Another option is for rebels and opportunists of a green-industry nature to seize control of daily life, revolutionizing the way we do business, sacrificing revenue, lives and livelihoods in the short term to safeguard the future.
Funny how the way to peace, or whatever semblance of harmony that humanity can muster, once again passes through implosion and collapse, or worldwide conflict. Then again, if you find this weird, you know nothing about anything, and are part of the problem.
From your dogma-busting Spin Doctor,
Eyes open, mind sharp.