A Question of Identity...

[mahf]

So much of the important stuff of life has to do with identity. We claim identities for ourselves, we hide them, admit to them, question which ones are real and which ones don't matter. We spend our lives negotiating with society to achieve certain identities, and much of our social interaction is spent confirming and reconfirming identities to

Comments

Re: Response

[mahf]

I'm suggesting that we used to have something that was sustainable, and succeeded at producing enough food and goods for everybody, and allowed communities to be relatively independent economically. But what I mean by borrowing against the future is this. If I take out a loan at interest, which is what our whole society does over and over again, that means that I am promising to take that money and make it into more money in the future. At a macroeconomic level, this means that production has to continually increase indepently of need. If production does not increase, we cannot pay back our loans, and we have economic collapse, even if we have an overabundance of goods. It makes no sense.

You say we cannot destroy the future. I say that's very naive. We do it all the time as our farming techniques become more and more focused on production now rather than sustainability. This makes little to no sense since our farming industry produces WAY more food than we buy, but the government buys up all the extra food. This is the only way we have under the present system to avoid economic collapse. The only way we can survive is to do things that destroy our ability to produce in the future.

We do rely heavily on imports, but it was not always so. There was a time when people knew the sensibility in creating communities that produced as much of what they needed as possible *within* that community.

I don't suggest shutting down trade with other countries altogether, but I do suggest being responsible. Why give other people so much political and economic power over ourselves? It goes against all sense. The only thing it satisfies is our continual desire for more and more, faster and faster with as little effort as possible. It is irresponsible and it is bound to collapse.

I think you should read a little bit about the oil issue you just pointed to. Is it really wise to continue relying so heavily on a fuel that 1) will soon cost energy to extract than can be extracted from it, and 2) makes the earth less and less habitable? You want to plug the hole by draining oil from somewhere else. Wouldn't it make sense to realize that eventually there will be nowhere left to get oil from, and find a way to survive without it?

We're destroying our water supplies, our farmland, our forests, we're burning up our fuel as if it can never run out. We're producing more and more food that is filled with more and more chemicals that is worse and worse for us. And you say we can't destroy the future. I sincerely hope you're right. But even if you are, it doesn't give us the right to be so greedy and callous about it. We need to remember that there are limits. We *can* use it all up, and we are well on our way. We need to learn to take just what we need, and be grateful for it and satisfied with it.

I know it aint' likely to happen on its own. But I say this stuff because individual people can make choices about how they live, and that makes a difference. And I have to try, because I would rather us slowly figure this out than have it thrust upon us in a catastrophe.