Why We Fail
Why do we fail?
Why do those of us who seek to save the world, protect the environment, reverse habitat destruction, and secure a return of a sustainable way of life; why do we fail?
Over the past hundreds, and definitely the past dozens of years, we have been working to save the oceans, save the forests, save the mountains, save the air, save the water; to save the world from destruction. Yet, when we take a giant step back and view the state of the world, we see that the situation is worse than ever before. This must, absolutely must, beg the question, "Why?"... "Why?"... "Why do we fail?"
As with any failure in our lives, there can be various reasons.
Perhaps, what we sought to achieve was impossible. Jumping nude off the top of a building, nude, and hoping to fly, will always, always, always fail.
Could that be it? Could we be attempting to fly without wings? Is it that we keep trying jumping off at different angles, at different speeds, with different strategies for the fall? Do we feel like everything is going okay until the splat?
One can imagine the despair and resignation that many of us have felt when this sobering thought has crossed our minds. One can imagine the number of us who have lost their motivation and drive. One can imagine the physical agony as one sees the forest one worked years to save being uprooted and destroyed before our very eyes.
But, failure is not always about attempting achieve the impossible; sometimes it is about attempting to achieve the possible but by techniques which will never, ever lead to success.
Visualize those first film images of people attempting flight; wings strapped on their backs; with hands on grips to flap with furry, only to crash down moments later. The idea to modify oneself, to apply technology, was correct. It may have, perhaps, been a step in the right direction. And, it was probably something that would have been tried before true human flight was possible, but it did fail, and it failed due to a lack of understanding of the very problem itself.
So, what is the problem? Could it be that the environmentalist movement is looking in the wrong directions for solutions?
This question, which, no doubt, has passed through many of our minds, is one worth exploring: What is the problem? and, Why do we fail?
Writers including Daniel Quinn and Derrick Jensen have suggested some possibilities. Perhaps it is that the stories of the dominant culture encourage us to treat the world as a thing. Perhaps we are just animals that will consume until we reach a limit. Perhaps our civilization itself is unreformable, and therefore, for the sake of both the planet and the future of humanity, should be dismantled, intentionally and rapidly. Perhaps, it has been argued, that the only sane response is the planned extinction of our entire species.
Why do we fail to save the world?
I believe there is an avenue which has been overlooked, an avenue that is well worth exploring, and this is the avenue of that which binds us, that which motivates us, and that which directs the course of our lives: money.
Money?
It is something we need, yes, it is something that always seems to be in short supply, for us anyway, and it is something that brings to mind the consumptive behaviors of our culture. Some of us have attempted to minimize their personal use of money, with examples such as "No Impact Man", intentional communities, and voluntary poverty.
I think, for such experiment, one must ask one question: Is the impact of this way of living less than if you did exist at all? In most of these experiments, one would logically conclude: No. My impact would be much less if I did not exist at all.
Even for those whose net impact on the world is positive, the impact is almost invisible, when weighted against the mass of civilization.
This brings us again back to money.
Money?
Money. It is a thing that binds us and which we use on a daily basis, rarely thinking about money, or credit, as a concept. Yet what is it, this money?
Before money, there were only gifts. Families would share what they had. Families were extended, and called bands or tribes. The bands or tribes would share their food, their shelter, and their lives with one another. The story of the sustainable culture on Tikopia illustrates how a community, even one of thousands, can live quite happily without money.
One can imagine that the first need to use a symbol to stand in the place of a promise arose when strangers met, and agreed to make a trade that could not be settled at that moment. A symbol, a rock, or a bit of metal, or a shell, or a paper, or a carved bit of wood, might have been used to represent this promise.
The one making the promise to deliver something in the future is the one that most likely selected the symbol, and handed it over, to represent the promise.
In some cases, such in the case of tally sticks, the promise was marked along the side of the stick, and then it was split in half long ways, so that the promiser, now known as he debtor, took one part of the stick, to show what he had promised; and the promisee, now the creditor, took the other half, which he would have to return when the promise was fulfilled.
No matter what symbol was used, the basics of money were the same, there was one person who promised something in the future, in exchange for something now, and who offered up a symbol, which both people agreed to, to stand in the place of the promise.
Money then, the essence of all money, is that money is simply a promise from others to deliver something of agreed upon value in the future.
Normally, in non-formalized promises tend to decay, or be forgotten, or deemed unredeemable, over time. This is the nature of promises, and given that money is promises, it is also the nature of money. This is to say that money is always and inherently something that is not stable, and is prone to deterioration. It does not grow. It shrinks in value as time passes.
Now, step back... take a big step back... and look at what "money" has become. It is not seen as just a promise, but a way to wealth and happiness, and something to be counted, and converted, and gambled, and invested, and which can grow (indefinitely), no matter what limits may exist in the natural world, from peak oil, or climate change, or food supply limits, or etc.
And the system, the monetary system, that most of us participate in a daily basis, is one that is naturally, as naturally as promises, prone to instability and, eventually and always historically, to collapse. This peculiar money system that we currently use has been tweaked, and twisted, and turned well beyond comprehensibility. Now, promises flow from the person (the worker), to the business, to the government, and through every channel in between, and the inequities are growing, as this flow is unstable, and tends to tilt on its own in one direction or another.
Promises, the foundation of money, are now made primarily on paper in the form of mortgages. Promise to provide this much money to the bank in the future, following these rules, and the bank will grant you credit, so you can put yourself in debt. And now we see that these promises are decaying; being broken by the debtor, who may have been envigiled into promising something that they could never ever fulfill. Was it the bank's fault, or the mortgage broken, or the "borrower"? -- This question misses the point that the money system itself is now being distorted as all of those promises made, and spent, now have no one backing them up.
Yes, the builder got paid in bank credit for building the home, but now the borrower has walked away. The mortgage note is worthless. And the home will only sell for half of what it cost to build: our entire money system is a state of crisis -- a crisis unknown to most, and being concealed by most of the rest.
Why do we fail?
We fail because we fail to examine our own promises, and how they are formalized in the money system, and how this money system fails, in practically all ways, to protect the planet, or even to serve our own civilizations stated goals of ending poverty, and bringing freedom and equality to all.
Is there a solution, or are we jumping off the building naked?
This, I do not know. I do know, though, that the environmental movement needs to be in the forefront of the understanding of money, because it is consumption, via the use of money and promises, that are the primary mechanism by which civilization is destroying the earth. I know that there are those out there, such as the Nicole Foss's, and Ellen Brown's, and Tom Greco's, and Steve Keen's, who have great insight into the money system as it now exists, and why it fails; as well as ideas on what might be possible for a sustainable, and perhaps even sustainable money system.
I also know that if we fail to grasp what is going on in the economy, that we position ourselves to fail in even our front-line battles to protect the whales, and he rain forests, and those on the edge of poverty. These are absolutely essential, and our warriors on the front should be commended for attempting to hold the line against the army of civilization. At the same time, those of us who work primarily behind the lines, we must try to figure out the nature of this army, of which we ourselves are a part (unfortunately), and we must explore the possibilities of restructuring our very concepts of promise and money, so that this army becomes one of restoration, rather than one of our own destruction.
Why do those of us who seek to save the world, protect the environment, reverse habitat destruction, and secure a return of a sustainable way of life; why do we fail?
Over the past hundreds, and definitely the past dozens of years, we have been working to save the oceans, save the forests, save the mountains, save the air, save the water; to save the world from destruction. Yet, when we take a giant step back and view the state of the world, we see that the situation is worse than ever before. This must, absolutely must, beg the question, "Why?"... "Why?"... "Why do we fail?"
As with any failure in our lives, there can be various reasons.
Perhaps, what we sought to achieve was impossible. Jumping nude off the top of a building, nude, and hoping to fly, will always, always, always fail.
Could that be it? Could we be attempting to fly without wings? Is it that we keep trying jumping off at different angles, at different speeds, with different strategies for the fall? Do we feel like everything is going okay until the splat?
One can imagine the despair and resignation that many of us have felt when this sobering thought has crossed our minds. One can imagine the number of us who have lost their motivation and drive. One can imagine the physical agony as one sees the forest one worked years to save being uprooted and destroyed before our very eyes.
But, failure is not always about attempting achieve the impossible; sometimes it is about attempting to achieve the possible but by techniques which will never, ever lead to success.
Visualize those first film images of people attempting flight; wings strapped on their backs; with hands on grips to flap with furry, only to crash down moments later. The idea to modify oneself, to apply technology, was correct. It may have, perhaps, been a step in the right direction. And, it was probably something that would have been tried before true human flight was possible, but it did fail, and it failed due to a lack of understanding of the very problem itself.
So, what is the problem? Could it be that the environmentalist movement is looking in the wrong directions for solutions?
This question, which, no doubt, has passed through many of our minds, is one worth exploring: What is the problem? and, Why do we fail?
Writers including Daniel Quinn and Derrick Jensen have suggested some possibilities. Perhaps it is that the stories of the dominant culture encourage us to treat the world as a thing. Perhaps we are just animals that will consume until we reach a limit. Perhaps our civilization itself is unreformable, and therefore, for the sake of both the planet and the future of humanity, should be dismantled, intentionally and rapidly. Perhaps, it has been argued, that the only sane response is the planned extinction of our entire species.
Why do we fail to save the world?
I believe there is an avenue which has been overlooked, an avenue that is well worth exploring, and this is the avenue of that which binds us, that which motivates us, and that which directs the course of our lives: money.
Money?
It is something we need, yes, it is something that always seems to be in short supply, for us anyway, and it is something that brings to mind the consumptive behaviors of our culture. Some of us have attempted to minimize their personal use of money, with examples such as "No Impact Man", intentional communities, and voluntary poverty.
I think, for such experiment, one must ask one question: Is the impact of this way of living less than if you did exist at all? In most of these experiments, one would logically conclude: No. My impact would be much less if I did not exist at all.
Even for those whose net impact on the world is positive, the impact is almost invisible, when weighted against the mass of civilization.
This brings us again back to money.
Money?
Money. It is a thing that binds us and which we use on a daily basis, rarely thinking about money, or credit, as a concept. Yet what is it, this money?
Before money, there were only gifts. Families would share what they had. Families were extended, and called bands or tribes. The bands or tribes would share their food, their shelter, and their lives with one another. The story of the sustainable culture on Tikopia illustrates how a community, even one of thousands, can live quite happily without money.
One can imagine that the first need to use a symbol to stand in the place of a promise arose when strangers met, and agreed to make a trade that could not be settled at that moment. A symbol, a rock, or a bit of metal, or a shell, or a paper, or a carved bit of wood, might have been used to represent this promise.
The one making the promise to deliver something in the future is the one that most likely selected the symbol, and handed it over, to represent the promise.
In some cases, such in the case of tally sticks, the promise was marked along the side of the stick, and then it was split in half long ways, so that the promiser, now known as he debtor, took one part of the stick, to show what he had promised; and the promisee, now the creditor, took the other half, which he would have to return when the promise was fulfilled.
No matter what symbol was used, the basics of money were the same, there was one person who promised something in the future, in exchange for something now, and who offered up a symbol, which both people agreed to, to stand in the place of the promise.
Money then, the essence of all money, is that money is simply a promise from others to deliver something of agreed upon value in the future.
Normally, in non-formalized promises tend to decay, or be forgotten, or deemed unredeemable, over time. This is the nature of promises, and given that money is promises, it is also the nature of money. This is to say that money is always and inherently something that is not stable, and is prone to deterioration. It does not grow. It shrinks in value as time passes.
Now, step back... take a big step back... and look at what "money" has become. It is not seen as just a promise, but a way to wealth and happiness, and something to be counted, and converted, and gambled, and invested, and which can grow (indefinitely), no matter what limits may exist in the natural world, from peak oil, or climate change, or food supply limits, or etc.
And the system, the monetary system, that most of us participate in a daily basis, is one that is naturally, as naturally as promises, prone to instability and, eventually and always historically, to collapse. This peculiar money system that we currently use has been tweaked, and twisted, and turned well beyond comprehensibility. Now, promises flow from the person (the worker), to the business, to the government, and through every channel in between, and the inequities are growing, as this flow is unstable, and tends to tilt on its own in one direction or another.
Promises, the foundation of money, are now made primarily on paper in the form of mortgages. Promise to provide this much money to the bank in the future, following these rules, and the bank will grant you credit, so you can put yourself in debt. And now we see that these promises are decaying; being broken by the debtor, who may have been envigiled into promising something that they could never ever fulfill. Was it the bank's fault, or the mortgage broken, or the "borrower"? -- This question misses the point that the money system itself is now being distorted as all of those promises made, and spent, now have no one backing them up.
Yes, the builder got paid in bank credit for building the home, but now the borrower has walked away. The mortgage note is worthless. And the home will only sell for half of what it cost to build: our entire money system is a state of crisis -- a crisis unknown to most, and being concealed by most of the rest.
Why do we fail?
We fail because we fail to examine our own promises, and how they are formalized in the money system, and how this money system fails, in practically all ways, to protect the planet, or even to serve our own civilizations stated goals of ending poverty, and bringing freedom and equality to all.
Is there a solution, or are we jumping off the building naked?
This, I do not know. I do know, though, that the environmental movement needs to be in the forefront of the understanding of money, because it is consumption, via the use of money and promises, that are the primary mechanism by which civilization is destroying the earth. I know that there are those out there, such as the Nicole Foss's, and Ellen Brown's, and Tom Greco's, and Steve Keen's, who have great insight into the money system as it now exists, and why it fails; as well as ideas on what might be possible for a sustainable, and perhaps even sustainable money system.
I also know that if we fail to grasp what is going on in the economy, that we position ourselves to fail in even our front-line battles to protect the whales, and he rain forests, and those on the edge of poverty. These are absolutely essential, and our warriors on the front should be commended for attempting to hold the line against the army of civilization. At the same time, those of us who work primarily behind the lines, we must try to figure out the nature of this army, of which we ourselves are a part (unfortunately), and we must explore the possibilities of restructuring our very concepts of promise and money, so that this army becomes one of restoration, rather than one of our own destruction.