By Jake and Stefy
The reason for this blog
The writers of this blog (my fiancé and I) decided to create this because many parts of the world don’t make sense to us, and we decided we might as well share our questions and developing thoughts in case others are wondering about the same. When talking about the world I don’t mean the literal rock of course (that would be a geology blog), but rather the way we—us, other humans—live and organize our lives within it. I think it often goes unappreciated how far the set of assumptions that govern our daily lives have changed in an astoundingly brief period of time—about ourselves, about the nature of reality, about what constitutes a right to a thing and how exactly it is that we are meant to relate to each other and the other living things around us. When my mother was my age, developmentally disabled (or just odd and misplaced) adults were being forcibly sterilized, when my grandmother was my age African-Americans were barred by law from nearly every part of society , my great-grandmother at my age had just gained the vote and seen electrification, and just a generation or two before that you could you could own other people as slaves. In other parts of the world (like China for instance), the change in just one or two generations has been far more radical. I could go on listing all the incredible ways these stories that constitute our systems and our selves have changed over the last few hundred years, or just the last ten, particularly in many parts of the world, but I would rather just encourage you to go read any book from 50, 100, 300, or 1000 years ago and try to really imagine what they’re saying as your sky-is-blue worldview (I find the ideas around women and health to be particularly interesting examples to trace). I find we often lose sight of just how quickly ideas and systems change, and it is an important starting point for any attempts to make sense of the world. I’ll move on to the bigger point here.
We worry the “system”, meaning the ideas, assumptions, and social structures that underlie most of the daily lives in the US and Europe, and now most of the rest of the world, are insufficient for creating widespread wellbeing, and often downright destructive. This idea is a long ways from new, and most everyone has a particular bogeyman, be it an institution, political group, or human tendency that if we could just get rid of the world would finally be right. I want to try keep this blog as far from that kind of thinking as I can—as with nature, all things are always in flux, meaning some new problem is always cropping up, and new solutions with it. That said, there are a few assumptions out there that strike me as particularly pernicious, both in terms of how far they’ve been taken, and how much I worry they are causing unnecessary suffering. Throughout this blog, we will dive deeper into these (and undoubtedly add more), as well as take a gander at some possible alternatives being tried or proposed at individual, community and systemic levels. Here are a few, for starters:
Nature is “out there,” we are “in here”
For a certain strata of the world (which happens to contain most policy and large decision makers) the control over most immediate elements of life creates quite literally an alternate reality. I experienced this first-hand, driving from my climate-controlled house in my climate-controlled car to my climate-controlled office to stare at a screen with information about the activities of other people I had never met, eating food that was grown and cooked who knows where (there are pad thai bushes somewhere right?), seeing changing numbers in an account which somehow I could exchange for things made in faraway places in ways I could not begin to understand, that after a little while I would get rid of by placing in another magical bin that would whisk it away to who-knows-where. And let’s not even get started on the mystery of where my mystery-food went when it was done…
What? In all of this, I am completely numb to the amount of energy that powers all of this, the extraordinary complexity that enables it, and the damage caused to extract the resources required, turn it into the myriad things I use throughout my day, and store and process the waste. “ Waste disposal” is one of my least favorite terms, as it is really only disposed from the perspective of the person whose attention is no longer on it. When we think of nature only in terms of soaring vistas and national parks, or as a source of resources and food, we lose sight of the fact that nature is just the reality that we ourselves are a part of. If we grow our food by pumping the ground full of toxic chemicals, then we are only creating a natural world full of toxins (that we will likely eat or drink). When we chug a bottled water or pick-up and toss that plastic fork, that moment of convenience, momentarily enjoyed and immediately forgotten, bears out its legacy in infertile landfill and an ocean full of garbage. Every action that we do is part of a larger system and a larger cycle, and while money can isolate us from the costs of those actions, somewhere they are borne, either by future generations, those who lack power (google garbage dumped illegally in Africa), or unknowingly by ourselves. Many of the theoretical efficiencies trumpeted by modern economics, in terms of specialization, globalization, etc. only widen this distance between our immediate selves and our broader place and effects in the world.
We are individual, atomic units in the way we experience the world, and our decisions only affect ourselves
This is a shockingly recent idea for the way it often feels as a given, like David Foster Wallace’s young fish asking what the hell is water. Obviously we all understand the idea of doing harm to another, or maybe, in some squinty way, to a system, but that’s not really what I’m getting at. That the only way we can imagine being in relationship to another person or thing is as a benefit or a harm is in and of itself the assumption, because it relies on a desperately lonely vision of ourselves. I see and experience this in so many ways, in our relationship to government as this faceless entity we are subject to and participate in only in our shuffle to a voting booth, in a vision of companies as ticker symbols or doodles or a machine we plug ourselves into. I see it in families gazing into different sets of electronic devices without a word between them, in the constant breaking down of people into demographics or preference groups, or in the idea, that I hear over and over from wonderful, discouraged people, that everything is so screwed you might as well get what you can for yourself. All these things, and so many more, are manifestations of a view of identity and the experience of consciousness as a series of choices disconnected from the rest of the world around us. Think about being in the happiest gathering in the world. That lovely place in a family vacation, or that truly quiet spot out behind the house sitting with a few best friends, or your favorite pub. Then think about the way it feels to have someone anxious in that space, maybe a couple quietly fighting nearby. Or how it feels when you’re at a concert with an aggressive crowd, or one that lets you move through without an elbow. The experience of our emotional reality takes cues from the people around us– or even the space– a thriving woodland versus dying weeds behind a carpark. These are the things that affect our conscious experience in the moment, and what of all the moments before then? What of the physical realities that come together to allow us to be, the energy passing through the sun to microbes to plants to our mouths, the long ago formation of our parents and future effects on our children, our communities, our friends. We aren’t parts of a system, like cogs, with no thoughts of our own, nor independent blobs picking to go this way or that in a sea of jelly. We are shaped and in turned shapers of our communities, our governments, our families, our lands, from now and forever on. This is not to induce guilt or paralysis– how can you be guilty when a conduit of such larger flows? But nor can we be bystanders with the knowledge that there is no such thing as having no effect.
Prices are as good a way to prioritize things as we can get, as they are most neutral and reliable way to understand what people want
This one really is everywhere, and I’m far from the first to point it out as an issue. However, I think it really is the fundamental one of our age, as this assumption, and the policies derived from it, are both as elaborate and as critical to the distribution of power in our world as geneology and the scholasticism around the bible were before that. I could go deeper into econ-land (and gnaw at it from the inside!) but for now I’ll just list out a few issues:
- Prices only reflect the preferences of people, with the money to express them, in a given moment. So future generations, every other living thing and the eco-systems that sustain them (and us), people who don’t have money because of past injustices or hindrances, all of them, they are out, or at best, dependent on someone’s largesse. And a system based on prices alone will over time only squeeze them out further.
- Many things are too complex to price, so changes from stable environments need to be thought about carefully. Take a map of desertification (the process of fertile soil turning to sand as the trees and other life that held it in place are destroyed) and civil war in Africa and stick them on top of each other, and you’ll be shocked (or maybe not) by the correspondence. In the most enlightened policy environment, where noble technocrats tried to price the damage of ripping out every tree to make way for a mining company, how could they possibly, a priori, include the price of civil war, even if it’s the natural conclusion of those causes?
- People will have different preferences under different sets of conditions. That may sound obvious, but in the world of academic policy making or simplistic market-morality, it’s anathema. Imagine a city designed with walking in mind, with beautiful open plazas and zigzagging alleys protected from the elements. Cars would be cheap, or there would just not be very many producers. In a surburban sprawl, it would be the opposite. In either case, people’s preferences, and the production that results, is a function of the broader system. Whether it’s a walking city or sprawl, however, is often not a market decision, as it will often be a function of historical circumstance or policy decisions. Ah, someone might say, but wouldn’t changes in real estate prices between cities fix it? Depends where people’s jobs are located, their families, whether such variety even exists, or if they are able to move, and in many cases, the existence of one prevailing paradigm narrows the choices that are even possible. The broader point (and you can take it beyond real estate to any time people make micro-choices under a larger system) is that the accumulation of small choices, like pasta or chicken for dinner, do not always build a system that actually reflects people’s larger preferences, as the larger system already in place creates the context in which those choices are made. And what about the future versus the present? How often have you done a big purchase and thought afterwards “I really didn’t need that…” Or wished that you had paid a little more for something that would have lasted? Or not even had the option because “that’s how things are these days?”
Technological innovation will solve any problem via market incentives, and whatever isn’t solved will be brought into balance via those prices anyway
I hear this a lot when having conversations about environmentalism with some of my friends. People often point to all of the Malthusians of one stripe or another who have continually been proven gloriously wrong by the progress of technology and that when there really is a problem, new operations and discoveries will respond to the resulting high prices and save the day. On the technological progress bit, the time period people talk about is stunningly short, and most of those breakthroughs, particularly over the past hundred years, have been various forms of figuring out how to throw oil at more and more problems. Additionally, the scale of our operations is growing hard to fathom, particularly when taking the exponential pace of population and economic growth into account. On the energy side, it’s near impossible—a hilarious (and insightful) physicist noted over on this blog http://physics.ucsd.edu/do-the-math/2011/07/can-economic-growth-last/ that if energy use grew at the same pace for the next two-hundred years as it did over the past two hundred, everyone’s skin would literally melt off, not from global warming, but simply from the implied energy released at any given time. Then there’s the inter-linked nature of the problems—there’s energy, but there’s also the fungal blooms swallowing the oceans from fertilizer run-off, the garbage piling ever higher, diseases becoming increasingly resilient to the antibiotics we have overused, flat-lining food yields requiring more complex chemicals to stay ahead of the new pests, and dwindling supplies of just about everything we think of as supporting a modern life styles (and that’s not even touching climate change). The point is, every system has certain constraints, and while they can be pushed, the act of pushing those constraints themselves comes with consequences, while improving efficiency can only go so far. With changes that threaten entire life-support structures, rather than individual problems, it asks a lot of faith (of the frankly religious variety) to believe that technology will wipe them away, and more than that to believe that they will enable every person in China or India to live like an American (or even a middle-class Brazilian). And what of the argument that it’s not worth worrying about, because when and if scarcities do occur, prices will regulate them? Well, I guess in some sense, yes, prices would regulate who gets what, though that’s really just a tautology, as under the current system the alternative is war. And what does that really mean? That the people who became wealthy off of the system that caused the shortages and problems are the ones that get to escape the eventual consequences? Most of all, why do we want to catapult ourselves at that kind of world? I understand that the future is always unknowable, but is a little thoughtfulness about how we treat the world around us, the only world we’ve ever known and that we took millions of years to evolve to suit, so much to ask? It seems much easier to avoid spilling the milk than putting it back in the glass. There are many more assumptions underlying our modern world, particularly around the nasty, selfish creatures we all are and the hopelessness of it all, but this post is already far too long, and I want to get to the happy bit!
Are there any better ways to think about things, and by extension, to live?
This is what we’re trying to figure out. But many of the big ideas we’re thinking about focus on taking a broader view of our lives and the lives of others in both place and time. We want to visualize ourselves not as consumer-units floating in a sea of competitors, snapping out for the easiest way to fulfill our immediate need, but as participants in a community, one that encompasses both the other people and living things around us and the unbroken chain of such life extending into the unknowable future. And we’re off!
If you’re interested in reading on, the follow-up to this post is now available: here
One of the best essays I’ve read in quite some time. Brilliant. I write about the environment and social issues too at emerald-sapphire.com, but you have blown me out of the water. Will have to revisit and re-read.
Excellent observations about our inability to recognize reality. Those of us who call the United States home are incredibly lucky to have avoided most of the natural and human made disasters that have rendered many parts of the world unliveable. The main problem is the growing disparity between those with power and wealth and those who have little or nothing. Most of the world’s revolutions have merely exchanged one kind of dictatorship for another. The ultimate elixir, it seems, is the creation and preservation of power with little feeling for those who must endure the consequences. Those in positions of power will do anything to divide and disorganize those who want change. Nothing will improve until we assume responsibility for our actions and hold those in office accountable. Your observations are “spot on”. I hope more of us wake up and realize that the time is short. This country has been living a fantasy world too long. May your search for answers be successful.
I agree with you about the growing disparity but power and wealth are only the visible means. There are underlying forces at play. Many of the people who seemingly hold power at present are really powerless when the big picture is seen. It is all about toxic relationships and how people can be manipulated and yet not understand how that is done. When they understand they reclaim their power and then the tables have turned. Have a look at my blog at http://kyrani99.wordpress.com/
Jake and Stefy.. great post, thanks.
Good point! Excellent post, by the way.
Russ
This is a beautiful essay!
Wow! That picture goes along with Nature is “out there,” we are “in here” quite a bit. Very nice essay btw.
This was a very good read, very deep and insightful! This post has really made me think about my place in the world. Some people have called me a romanticist because I always dream of living in the past when everything was much simpler and devoid of the grotesque ways of the modern world. I now see that I’m a dreamer of the past because people lived in a way that didn’t destroy the beauty of the the earth. This has put everything into perspective for me, thank you!
Your post is profound. It reminds me of this: When I was a little boy, my grandfather was watching the television news, as usual, and I asked him why he watched it. He replied, “To see what’s going on in the world.” And I remember how puzzled I was, at his answer. The world, to me, was what I saw on nature programs like “Wild Kingdom”. Of course I understand his answer now–I want to know what’s going on in the world too. But the human world. “World” can be defined in so many different ways. There is so much talk, of course, of the end of the world. But what does that mean? Even when we humans cease to exist, the world will go on. The world, as defined by our planet, will not end until our sun burns itself out, and overtakes it. Yet then, the world, as defined by our universe will never end. Because it has no beginning, and no end. The world, by this definition, is infinite.
Reblogged this on Our time will come…..
Really happy to read an essay about the surroundings. We should be helpful to the nature, but what we are doing is the opposite. The observations about our inability to recognize reality.This article was simply superb. Thanks
we are not to reason why…
we are but to do and die…….
awesome article
your thinking is too good
Very interesting post. It really makes you think.
I can imagine coming back to your blog when i take my short relaxing beach holiday break in bintan. goodnight for now!
Incredibly thought-provoking!
Reblogged this on chittaranjansahu.
this is so wonderfully put. i will be looking at things differently from now on. thank you.
Great insights, expressed with a strong, clear voice! This is the sort of post we’ll have our REAL School students read to help ignite their own questions – THANK YOU! (see our blog: http://pendermakin.wordpress.com/)
It is a pleasure to read such a well thought out piece. Just that you are asking these questions shows a progression in our culture. I am optimistic, and think that soon it will be socially unacceptable to be irresponsible with our reality and ecosystem. There seems to be a new level of maturity in the mainstream. Even those who still indulge in extravagance are careful to appear Eco-friendly. This isn’t necessarily ideal, but I feel it’s step in the right direction.
Regarding the photo, I like the way the tree branches bend over the path. My grandson would call that a “tree tunnel.” It highlights your essay.
This really is amazing. I totally agree with every point you guys made! I had to share this because I’d love more people to read it.
(:
I am really moved with your article. Nice one.
Pingback: Next Steps: Figuring Out What’s Important | Joyroots·
Very thought provoking. I agree, read any book from a century ago, and imagine the sociological environment. Then try to fit yourself into it, and see how well we would fare with the struggles of our ancestors.
brilliant purpose is addressed, i think everybody should ponder over it keep doing our bit!
Fantastic, thank you for sharing your wonderful thoughts with the rest of us! Keep them coming!
Thanks for your thoughtful and thought-provoking post! I will stay tuned for more. I love the way you articulate things I feel and know, but you have the language! Much needed.
No beginning and no end seems strange but it is in fact simple to think ‘time’ as spherical …like the circles of light spinning within our chakras..we too may be timeless..Love the unusual tree photo and your thoughts ..Lovely!
Read the title and thought “and good luck with that, lol!”
What a nice, thoughtful post. I think you’re absolutely right that we have some interesting, to say the least, priorities as a society sometimes. I think the atomic conception of reality is particularly problematic, the idea that one exists completely as an individual, without any worry about how one’s actions might affect the world at large. But as you say, things change, and quite often rapidly. Human history has ever been determined by the outliers. The improbable, the impossible, the unthinkable are what shape our world. So maybe, just maybe, the unthinkable might happen. Maybe we won’t live in a price driven world in a generation. Maybe society will realign its priorities. As you say, it’s been done before!
nice thought.
I hear you! well said!
Joyroots, I’m so glad you’re trying to understand the world around you. I’m pleased to think we might be doing the same thing, and I’m thankful that you ask such worthy questions. May your audience continuously expand and be enlightened.
Your post has me thinking the world we speak of is just another synonym for oneness — the concept which we test via our actions.//mm
I can so identify with you both…. keep it flowing
A most thought provoking and excellent post.. Bravo !!
Thanks very much for your comments about how abstract our world has become. I know I myself can get overwhelmed by the complexity of this modern world I live in and often don’t want to start trying to figure out the systems that affect my daily life. Its important that I try not to get overwhelmed but instead remain optimistic and hopeful that the most pressing human needs will prevail.
One of a kind blog. I will surely follow you. Thanks for the insights.
Definitely a thought-provoking post! I’ve been feeling deep lately and this post is just what I needed to read!
Thank you for sharing. Your insights are worthy of much thought:)
Dearest Jake,
Let me start by repeating to you, a solemn belief I hold; a belief that I regularly repeat to myself:
“To them who say that one man alone hast not the ability to change the world, To them I say he surely does, as it is the only kind that ever has!”
You are not content with the current state of human life, and want to change it, for the better. It is in this way that we are similar. For many years these sort of questions and more, worked their way through my mental gauntlet. So much so, that I, being so convinced of having found answers, recently decided to start writing and sharing them, while starting to seek those with questions such as yours. I believe that any views I may now hold, should be strong enough to withstand intelligent debate. In that spirit, while respecting the effort and thoughtfulness you have put in these posts, I will attempt to guide you towards the answers you seek. If not only via debate thereof.
I, like you, write long-form, well researched articles; but my posts attempt to present answers more than questions. But enough about that, I am eager to respond to these two posts.
So let me start with your previous post, about making sense of the world. I notice you use the term “a priori”, which leads me to consider that you have had some degree of tutelage in Philosophy. Is this true?
I mention this because the overwhelming theme of your post, is essentially those things that philosophy originally attempts to explore. I find it somewhat sad that so few people are exposed to the basic concepts of philosophy, or to the ideas of the great philosophical minds. I notice too, that perhaps your train of thought, and flow of reason would benefit from the classical divisions in philosophy. One of the greatest strengths of philosophical reason, is that the divisions of thought cannot be breached, and it is too often just the overflow of one area of philosophical exploration into another that causes confusion and doubt. The study of Philosophy covers (much as your post does) the following, distinct, fields of thought:
1) Morals :: Which explores the idea of wrong and right, law, justice, circumstance, human behaviour, punishment, judgement and related ideas.
2) Politics :: Which explores the interaction of individuals in a society and the governance of that society. It works with questions such as how should people be governed?, how should positions of power be handled by society?, how should the balance between the individual and the state be managed? when and to what degree should an individual sacrifice himself for the “greater good”?
3) Science :: Which literally means “knowledge of” acknowledges that so much is unknown to us, and it is therefore the pursuit to separate that which is known or certain from the unknown. It is so integral to philosophical advancement, that even today, the highest formal scientific recognition is a Ph.D Degree which in Latin is ‘philosophiae doctor’ or Doctor of Philosophy.
4)Metaphysics :: This is the part of philosophy that explores the other half after science, the unknown. It is the exploration of life, god, the reason we exist, the nature of our soul, the afterlife and other fascinating branches of thought. But although, it flourishes with debate, is fundamentally held that the answers to its questions currently or never will be known.
5) Aesthetics :: This is the exploration of beauty, the pain and glory of existence, the arts, writing and littérateur, appreciation of existence.
While there are perhaps several other pillars of philosophy, these here are the primary pillars of philosophical exploration, and it can be argued that almost all of human endeavour falls somewhere therein.
The reason I decided to list them here was for you to now attempt to sort your questions into these fields of philosophical exploration. I believe that much of the confusion and doubt that people get these days, comes from the fact that they breach the barriers of these distinct and separate fields of thought. It is not possible, as an example of my point, to ever answer a metaphysical question, with aspects of science. We cannot, constructively approach moral questions by applying political constructs, we cannot use a moral view of right or wrong to add value to our understandings of aesthetics.
I must also add, that it takes the highest form of personal power and courage to engage in philosophy. But it is in so doing that we can look to the stars and face our place in the universe. The opposite is to seek answers from others, and engage in distractions, with the pig in a cubicle, bound by walls of ignorance, not free, never alive, being the extreme anti-philosopher.
So congratulations, and welcome. Once you seek truth, a philosopher you will, forever be.
I would like to now note a brief perspective on the various positions you write about starting on the previous post. It will be brief, but rest assured I will be more than willing to expand on my point voluminously if you so wish.
Firstly let me say, that human ritual or culture, always has been (still is today with many examples) a testament to thoughtless and totally random mass acceptance of wholly unpredictable rituals. Some Indian peoples would cremate their dead, but if that happened to be a male, his wife and children would be added to the fire, even if alive. The central and southern African tradition of Lebola, outlines how wives should be purchased with cattle. The last few Rhino will soon be extincted, because wealthy Asians belief the horn provides male enhancement. Many middle-eastern cultures forcibly conceal every married female from public view, believing that this will somehow mitigate the inherent evil that they would otherwise cause mankind. Recently several month old newborn babies were raped, because the rapist believed that sex with a virgin cures aids. Even modern western culture considers the forced sodomizing of an incarcerated criminal is part of the accepted “rehabilitation” of societies wrongdoers.
This random, mass engagement in irrational behaviours can only be addressed by the widespread efforts of the rational.
But all this is easy to fester on, out of context. That is the context of the advancement of civilisation. Just a hundred years ago the most developed nations had a life expectancy of just over thirty years of age. If you were older than this, you were literally the old wise man on the mountain and could consider yourself lucky. Only a few years ago, in comparison to today, none of the French kings, with all their power and influence, could muster a feast that an average man today (with the help of refrigeration) can easily buy a his local supermarket. Exotic fruits, meats, and culinary delights are readily available to most. This is not to even mention the wonder of plumbing, flowing water from the tap, sewage and toilet paper. Now think of the wonders of medicine, transport, entertainment, communication, personal hygiene or education.
Today, there is certainly alot of worry about the nature of the social system we live in. This is mostly due to a lack of education about the inner machinations of our society. Most are in the dark about how food ends up on their plate, or how the streets are cleaned or water purified, or waste disposed of. They too, are in the dark about how their government operates, and how laws and regulations created. They feel therefore disconnected from the dark, invisible beast that is their government. Whenever we are in the dark and there is unknown forces working around us, we feel not at ease and we feel fear.
If you would make a personal effort to educate yourself on the workings of society, and learn the things that really should be part of all general education, learn how the details of the world around you ACTUALLY works, not just continue with what may be assumptions that you hold, I suspect that this anxiety and fear and non-harmony with the world will go away.
Waste, for the most part, is a problem that we have solved, and sustainable business, is too the primary metric on which modern societies publicly value industry. We now have a digital communication nervous system allowing us to interact in valuable ways with other’s who may be in various undisclosed locations.
The very word NATURE can be seen as meaning NOT HUMAN, if something is natural, we understand it to be free from human influence. While it is in a certain perspective true that as part of nature, humans are Natural too, that view only serves to confuse the meaning we associate to the word Natural. And then we become more congniscent of our influence on the world, and that our individual existence by definition is non-natural.
Your ‘Atomic Unit’ section is difficult for me to adequately address. I think perhaps this is because you cross the philosophical boundaries of Politics, Morals, Metaphysics and perhaps Aesthetics. Perhaps if we were to isolate your thoughts in these fields I would more easily be able to comment.
I am pleased that you explore the idea of money and prices. I would like to briefly make the following comments and will gladly expand if you wish.
* Price can be affected by scarcity
* Price is not the same as Value
* Price is no measure of utility (think of water in the dessert, or the usefulness of owning ten screwdrivers)
* The concept of ELASTICITY of demand must be understood, to fully understand how markets set prices
* Some things have utility, but should never have price (that is they should be priceless) such as life (think slavery or Rhino’s) and certain other parts of the natural world.
Technology is going to have a far more influential role in our future than you suggest, to truly understand what I am talking about you should first read my post “What the hell is going on with the global financial and economic systems” http://stephenis.com/?p=1 . I try explain for the average man, how money cannot exist in the near future. I think you would find it most thought provoking. Remember to pay attention to the comments on that post, as many of your possible thoughts on this subject has been heavily debated in the comments.
Now on to this post.
I fear that when people are unsure of how to approach a problem, that their natural instinct is to regress. That is to go backwards. To give up many of the benefits gained from modern life, and to revert back to life as it perhaps was a hundred or more years back. Toil and suffering against the land and animals and labouring unnecessarily. While probably gaining no or very little ecological, social, or personal benefit. While change in itself can be rejuvenating, we should seek to improve, while still keeping our technological and civilisational benefits.
I would also suggest that a fundamental value, that is missing in your list above, one that you perhaps take for-granted, but is the single value that encompasses all other values worth pursuit, is
FREEDOM!
The freedom to do whatever we want, to associate with whomever, to believe whatever, to say whatever, to move wherever. It is from a free spirit that technological innovation flows, and as a way of life, it is a non-negotiable goal.
I would also note that you seem to demonize technology, as the evidence of uncaring greedy creatures. But I would like the opportunity to defend technology, rather as the tool of human ingenuity. It can free as much as it can enslave, it can create as much as it can destroy. But if it is the expression of a free and conscious man, it will be the trumpet of our salvation.
Fret not, now is the beginning of the beginning of the new world.
I would love to hear your thoughts on my notes.
For more long form thoughtful articles check out my site Stephenis.com.
Stephen is.
This is absolutely brilliant–perhaps the most balanced and sensible reply to the issues presented in this post. You summed up many issues and questions with clarity and I personally thank you because I learned the answers to many questions I have. You cleared up a lot about our misunderstood, underrated modern society. May I reblog your reply some time? You should publish it as a stand alone essay.
The last part about freedom was absolutely beautiful.
Thank you so much for taking the time to write. Yes, it was long, but so very well-written.
Peace,
Alexandria Sage
Dear SimplySage,
Firstly, let me say, your response to my post simply took my breath away. I am humbled and blessed beyond my ability to explain (and I assure you this is a somewhat unusual inability for me). I wish, I could fully express, just how powerfully grateful I am that my words had any value for you, and that you were kind enough to express your opinions of my writing. Step back for a moment, and try imagine how you would feel if you had just read your reply, posted for one of your writings. You are too kind.
Please feel free to reblog, repost re-write or redo any of my writings, with my full permission. I would only humbly ask that you credit it to my blog Stephenis.com.
I have briefly read your blog, and have noticed that you either are, or invite guest bloggers. I would be honoured, if you wish, to write articles for your blog as a guest writer. The topics thereof, could be mutually agreed upon beforehand. (P.S. If anyone reading this has a blog and would like be to post as a guest, let me know!)
I have written, over the years, many volumes that cover as many disparate concepts as you can imagine. I have never shared any of these thoughts, until I recently decided to start my blog, and start commenting on other’s blogs. I did this in the spirit of healthy debate, and enjoy discussing ideas, debating concepts from all possible points of view, and respect the value of the idea, independent of ego or agenda. In this light, I would put it to you reading this, to offer any specific points you can, ask any specific questions of me, even to bravely admit to any uncertainties you have that you would like to discuss or clarify.
I believe that the debate and therefore the idea itself will benefit then, from our discussions which will be fuelled by our individual perspectives.
You say I answered some questions you had; I would ask which ones? and do you still have more related (or not) questions you would like to discuss? Which topics interest you, that you would value further deep debate?
Which of the social considerations do you feel are important and are there any parts of my writings that you would like me to elaborate further, or may need a better explanation?
I ask this of you, because I have just started writing my blog and would love direction from, intelligent, thoughtful and well spoken people such as yourself, and the readers and writers of this blog. And since my most popular posts are very long worded, it doesn’t hurt that you are not afraid to read
I look eagerly forward to our future discussions,
Stephen is.
Visit my site stephenis.com and let me know what you think of my other posts.
Generally speaking, money is controlling everything, and global cheapness is killing the rest. While it makes sense, every person starts with him/herself, cleans their house, cleans their yard and keeps clean the entire street, village, town, that single person can do nothing about the decreasing layer of oxigen in the atmosphere, about nature forces which under pressure cause natural disasters, about huge volumes of irradiation entering your own backyard, and about insane levels of chemicals surrounding everybody in developed countries.
People who have the power and money don’t want to change anything, those without – simply cannot make them to do so. However, rich people are suffering from all sorts of cancers as much as any other regardless of all their profilts and properties. Food, we are buying at the store, obviously doesn’t contain what it should, but includes lots of harmful stuff. There is no long term research in how the overuse of technology is going to affect the humanity after 50-100 years, but that’s about the time when it will become obvious. It took very many years to discover how harmful some daily used chemicals, fertilisers and even face and hair care products were. It took very long time and effort to find out how genetic diseases relate to harmful stuff the previous generations were using. There is still something which every single person can do: stop being greedy and re-evaluate their priorities.
The only fair thing which is left is that everyone has to die, whether with 20 luxury cars and 10 houses, 1000s of outfits, etc., or in one poorly furnished room and some paintings on the wall. (I’m medical translator and artist, that’s why I’m using such examples) If people will ever realize that they can sleep only in one bed at a time, wear one dress at a time, and drive one car at a time, the useless waste of resources, energy and materials might be discontinued.
It is far from the truth that the waste problem is solved. Biodegradable waste is just one small aspect of the entire monster of waste which is literally swallowing up land, water and underground. Besides, energy is endless and all it does, is gets transformed, so every single person with his/her 21 Watts is also involved in the global energy circulation. Have you noticed what energy is accumulated in hospital and what in a library, for instance?
I used to think that people in Europe were brainwashed (I arrived to Canada only 8 years ago), but when I’m watching the local and the US TV, I’ve got to admit the brainwashing is just polished to perfectness on this side of the ocean. People are so easily manipulated by making unimportant things the headlines and drawing their attention to exactly the opposite matters, that it is somehow unbelievable. It might have something to do with education levels, with people not reading any real books anymore, with overload of totally useless information, trash information.
Not knowing something doesn’t necessarily mean, it doesn’t exist. Not every body is selfish as you’re saying in your post, thus, I don’t like making every person equally dumb, selfish and consumer. There are many people like me who love to create, give other people hope, encouragement and new sense in their lives. But, since most people care more about attending some ribfest (was today in Whitby, Ontario), not an art class (my art class would cost even less than a portion of ribs), I wouldn’t say there are crowds at my one-person art gallery where I’m often offering free events, even though, I sometimes would earn nothing all month long.
When there’s so much misconduct in anything, situations are usually resolved by huge disasters, either of natural origin, or man-constructed. These disasters are very often created by humans to distroy humans. The sequences, however, are not always those what someone intended to achieve.
To other commentator: there is not such a thing as an absolute freedom; we all are within something, it might be your own health condition, it might be your family, wife or friend, country, esthetic assumptions, personal principles, or legal regulations, traffic regulations, etc and etc.
Reblogged this on This beautiful life.
Your blog is awsome! I love your way of thinking
congratulations
To all who replied: I recommend reading the very long reply-essay by Stephenis. It is excellent and brings clarity to to all the issues presented in this post.
Long, but very well-written.
I would reply but he said it all and I agree with him totally.
Peace,
Alexandria Sage
“They played by the sea – then came there a wave and swept their playthings into the deep: and how do they cry.
But the same wave shall bring them new playthings, and spread before them new speckled shells. Thus will they be comforted; and like them shall you also, my friends, have your comforting – and new speckled shells!”
Reblogged this on The Realm of Wonder and commented:
;O
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