wonderful hopenhagen
Leaving behind us, for the moment,
the people still mired in the denial and anger phases,
what will all this quibbling over details achieve
if we don't address more pressing problems
with the basic function of our society?
What is the point of deciding
exactly what actions are required to avert climatic disaster,
if the structures we depend on to carry these actions out
are incapable of doing so?
The concept of carbon trading
is a distillation of our delusion,
a succinct symbol of our expectation
that we could somehow be saved
by a continuation of the behaviours which led us here.
Let's put aside the question of exactly how we quantify
the damage done to the planet by various emissions
(a problem as thorny as the measurement of IQ, say,
even if we had a time machine to look back from 2100
to know precisely the extent of various feedback effects).
No, we're told, the market can decide such messy details.
Well, it's done a bang up job so far, hasn't it?
The market's sensitivity to long-term consequences
is certainly, uh, remarkable.
Tell me, what is the point of sticking a dollar value
on a tonne of carbon in the air,
if the currency we use to measure it is meaningless?
Demystify the market - it's nothing more than
the manifestation of our value systems.
If most of us act like selfish, short-term-thinking arseholes,
the market will reflect that.
We can tell each other our behaviour
creates all the value we like,
but when reality refuses to cooperate,
our money will be worthless.
Wake up. The current market structure
is doing exactly what it was designed to -
leading us docilely back into serfdom.
The situation calls for something more than
switching settings on the machine,
something other than another rule reshuffle.
We can't expect our nation states to manage it,
they're owned now.
It's not even enough to declare the US dollar valueless, say.
We need the guts to cut through to real-world assets,
declare all those title deeds null and void
which were stolen by usury, fractional reserve banking
and other such pyramid schemes.
Until we reclaim our own production,
how can we choose to carry it out sustainably?
Long before we can address the problem of climate,
we'll have to figure out what we're going to do about energy.
Before we can get access to that, social change is needed,
and that'll take courage.
If we don't feel in danger, we aren't being realistic.
If it doesn't cost us anything, it isn't working.
.
the people still mired in the denial and anger phases,
what will all this quibbling over details achieve
if we don't address more pressing problems
with the basic function of our society?
What is the point of deciding
exactly what actions are required to avert climatic disaster,
if the structures we depend on to carry these actions out
are incapable of doing so?
The concept of carbon trading
is a distillation of our delusion,
a succinct symbol of our expectation
that we could somehow be saved
by a continuation of the behaviours which led us here.
Let's put aside the question of exactly how we quantify
the damage done to the planet by various emissions
(a problem as thorny as the measurement of IQ, say,
even if we had a time machine to look back from 2100
to know precisely the extent of various feedback effects).
No, we're told, the market can decide such messy details.
Well, it's done a bang up job so far, hasn't it?
The market's sensitivity to long-term consequences
is certainly, uh, remarkable.
Tell me, what is the point of sticking a dollar value
on a tonne of carbon in the air,
if the currency we use to measure it is meaningless?
Demystify the market - it's nothing more than
the manifestation of our value systems.
If most of us act like selfish, short-term-thinking arseholes,
the market will reflect that.
We can tell each other our behaviour
creates all the value we like,
but when reality refuses to cooperate,
our money will be worthless.
Wake up. The current market structure
is doing exactly what it was designed to -
leading us docilely back into serfdom.
The situation calls for something more than
switching settings on the machine,
something other than another rule reshuffle.
We can't expect our nation states to manage it,
they're owned now.
It's not even enough to declare the US dollar valueless, say.
We need the guts to cut through to real-world assets,
declare all those title deeds null and void
which were stolen by usury, fractional reserve banking
and other such pyramid schemes.
Until we reclaim our own production,
how can we choose to carry it out sustainably?
Long before we can address the problem of climate,
we'll have to figure out what we're going to do about energy.
Before we can get access to that, social change is needed,
and that'll take courage.
If we don't feel in danger, we aren't being realistic.
If it doesn't cost us anything, it isn't working.
.