Culture of Insatiability

Our economic system is broken. We are all tied into a system that creates lots of stuff while it destroys the environment and wreacks havoc on our lives.

The system forces us to work too much. The system forces us to compete with each other for basic necessities like food, shelter and health care. The system is destroying the fragile biosphere upon which our lives depend. The system often destroys communities. The system places the love of money above all others. The system has compromised our democracy and our ability to self-govern.

These are symptoms, not root causes.

The system is on auto-pilot (no one is in charge) and each of us dutifully do our little part to keep the system going. We work, we vote, we pay taxes, we work, work, and work some more.

We are part of a system that believes it has no limits. No limits to economic growth, population growth, having more, living longer, and even being more.

We live in a culture of insatiability and as long as we remain insatiable, we have no choice but to work, work, work leading to a life of destruction.

In this culture of insatiability and discontentment, we never find lasting satisfaction. Is there a wonder where our stress and unhappiness comes from?

Changing this system is a profound challenge however, I see no alternative as this system will grind on until the salmon are dead, the glaciers have all melted, and all of us are working hard to compete against our neighbors. There has to be a better way. Our challenge is to find a new way. This won't be easy but nothing short of a new way will save us.

I believe the first step is to decolonize our minds. We've all grown up believing this is the way and there is no other. That is a mental model that must be challenged.

One book (and author) I'd highly recommend to begin this journey is Ishmael by Daniel Quinn. If you haven't read Quinn, you really ought to. If you've read Ishmael, I highly recommend the other books and writings by Quinn. He really does offer a comprehensive view of sustainability that is often difficult to see with the voice of Mother Culture constantly singing in our ear.

EcoNvergence

Just a quick reminder that this weekend, October 2nd-4th, Portland will host EcoNvergence, a northwest regional gathering on the economic and ecological crisis/opportunity. All the events will be hosted at the First Unitarian Church (12th & SW Salmon).

Speakers include keynotes by Noam Chomsky on Friday night and Derrick Jensen on Saturday night. Both of these are a few of my favorite thinkers and writers. Both provide deep and thoughtful analysis and solutions that get to the root of our problems.

Thursday night at 7:00pm is the world premier of the the movie Plunder, by award-winning producer Danny Schechter. This movie is free of charge so I hope to see you there.

Can we afford to cure cancer?

I read an op-ed some 20 years ago that really changed my vision.  The author was discussing how the bottom line consideration for so many policies and actions was jobs.  Jobs, jobs, jobs. 

With all this importance placed on the need for more jobs, she wondered whether our society could handle putting an end to crime as millions of jobs in enforcement, prosecution, defense, prison construction and operation, probation, security, etc., would be lost.  The cure for cancer would also eliminate millions of jobs in research, treatment, pharmaceuticals, insurance, etc.  What would happen to our economy if everyone gave up smoking? 

The author also highlighted our preoccupation with the phenomena by pointing out that Native Americans didn’t even have a word for job. 

While everyone and every being has to make a living, and I believe that most people appreciate meaningful work, are jobs the ultimate reason for our being?

I realize unemployment is really high yet I proposed a systems changing solution that would immediately solve the unemployment problem as well as slow our ecological catastrophe. 

I believe we need to slow down our economic engine to solve our ecological and human social problems.  How might we increase happiness, joy and fulfillment without consuming more of the Earth’s overly burdened resources?  This really isn’t too hard to imagine.

The Brundtland report first articulated the concept of sustainable development as the sweet spot between the three E’s of Economy, Environment, and Equity.

However, the economy and society are really subsets of, and dependent on the environment.  A better graphic looks like this.

I'll let you think abou that and remind you that nature bats last and of course, there are no jobs on a dead planet.

Bullish on Sustainable Business

Our accounting firm is in the process of adding staff which means we are growing. As a new firm, it would be hard to get any smaller but still, I remain bullish on the market sectors and business organizations committed to sustainability.

Why in the face of continued negative economic forecasts am I hopeful? Because I know that humans have and will always have an economy and that the green economy is the economy of the future and will continue to grow accordingly.

While the old economy is changing, the leading green edge is vibrant. For example, here is a recent report showing LEED building starts are up five fold. Here is another story about a research report showing that 2009 will be a good year for green IT. I also suspect part of Barack Obama's economic plan will include a huge capital infusion towards building the green economy of tomorrow.

I meet every day with business owners and entrepreneurs. All of them are concerned about the economy while simultaneously excited about the future. Our job, as business leaders, is to remain hopeful and to build the types of triple-bottom line organizations we will need in the emerging economy.