The Future Value System
After watching Jared Diamond's talk about his book "Collapse", it leads me to think for the importance of people becoming vocal about the future value system.
The current dominant value system of the United States, and indeed, most of the industrialized world, is steadily leading to the over-population and collapse of our current civilization.
Currently, we are, through our choices and use of dollars, steadily cutting down the world's forests; polluting it's soil, water, and air; destroying billions of individual creatures causing the extinction of hundreds of thousands of species; burning fossil fuels at an ever increasing rate, and leading to global warming and climate change. We are already well into the second era of the use of oil, as we passed three years ago the inflection point in the oil supply, and we are at the point of peak oil.
Slowly, people are becoming aware of these connections. These people are challenging their own beliefs and beginning to think about their own value system. Some of these people have moved to action and have began to adjust there very lifestyle to that of their new value system.
During the summer of 2005, I was deeply thinking about my own value system, and a value system that would help to restore the planet. I read about various religions, including Christianity, as well as doing thought experiments about values that would be good, if adopted by all.
There are several values that are interrelated and essential to a society that will be able to survive indefinitely. They are...
* Renew
* Compassion
* Communication
* Truth
* Life
In order for humanity to live for even another thousand years on this planet, a top value of humanity must be to renew all of the destruction that we or our predecessors have caused.
The value of "renew" goes beyond "sustainability" in that sustainability is simply trying to keep going indefinitely, with no regard to nature, other than trying to get it to support humanity forever. Renew is the value which recognizes that we need to restore wild lands; restore prairies; restore rivers, lakes, and streams; restore forests; and even restore very ecosystems.
The value of renew informs us as to our choices. Do our choices, day after day, have the overall impact of destroying or renewing? By asking that question of every action, we can understand what decisions agree, or do not agree, with our value system.
Renew is in direct opposition to consumerism, since buying goods and services in our society are the direct result of environmental destruction. Every purchase we make reflects our value to satisfy our own selfish desires at the expense of others and the planet itself.
The use of currency itself, no matter the good spending or values of the spender, quickly ends up behaving as if it was an agent of the dominant value of society. Until we have a sea-change and the overall value system rolls-over to one of renew, the use of money is destructive. The only hope for good people is that their use of money now, despite its destructive impact, will lead to positive change in the future.
One of the greatest problem that will quickly follow peak oil is the peaking of global food production. The use of greater and greater amounts of energy, via oil, has enabled the world to grow more food, and support a greater human population, than any time in history. After the peaking of oil will come the peaking of food production, which will lead to famine and starvation, as many peoples of the world are no longer able to buy food due to rising prices, and there simply is no excess food to be sent to starving nations.
Compassion is clearly a value that must come into play at this point. It is quite possible that some of our neighbors will not be well prepared, and their family will be hungry or on the verge of starvation. It is our responsibility to provide aid, to be compassionate, and to share both our knowledge and our food. This clearly takes some short term sacrifice and suffering on our part, as we also have to go with less food. At the same time, the benefit of helping others is in community, friendship, and mutual aide.
Clear and truthful communication will be essential for being compassionate and in moving to a value system based on renew. Talking with neighbors, talking with colleagues, talking with others in a totally honest way is the way to build trust, friendship, and community. It allows us to become a strong and self-supporting community.
At the same time, growth is not a value of this new culture. Unfortunately, our current economy and monetary system is based entirely on growth. The movement to our new value system will mean the collapse of the not only the economy but also the current monetary system itself.
Those who move to this value system of renew will be able to insulate themselves from the collapse in the economic system. By becoming self-sufficient, both individuals and communities will be able to aide late-adopters in transitioning to a the new system of trade.
The value of life of others goes hand in hand of that of compassion. By valuing the life of not only other people; but also of the environment, the planets, the animals; we will be modeling a value system of renew.
The dominant value system of the future will be very unlike the value system of today. Whether people change of their own accord, in their own time, or due to the necessity of adapting to a new future, people will change the way they act in the world.
The current dominant value system of the United States, and indeed, most of the industrialized world, is steadily leading to the over-population and collapse of our current civilization.
Currently, we are, through our choices and use of dollars, steadily cutting down the world's forests; polluting it's soil, water, and air; destroying billions of individual creatures causing the extinction of hundreds of thousands of species; burning fossil fuels at an ever increasing rate, and leading to global warming and climate change. We are already well into the second era of the use of oil, as we passed three years ago the inflection point in the oil supply, and we are at the point of peak oil.
Slowly, people are becoming aware of these connections. These people are challenging their own beliefs and beginning to think about their own value system. Some of these people have moved to action and have began to adjust there very lifestyle to that of their new value system.
During the summer of 2005, I was deeply thinking about my own value system, and a value system that would help to restore the planet. I read about various religions, including Christianity, as well as doing thought experiments about values that would be good, if adopted by all.
There are several values that are interrelated and essential to a society that will be able to survive indefinitely. They are...
* Renew
* Compassion
* Communication
* Truth
* Life
In order for humanity to live for even another thousand years on this planet, a top value of humanity must be to renew all of the destruction that we or our predecessors have caused.
The value of "renew" goes beyond "sustainability" in that sustainability is simply trying to keep going indefinitely, with no regard to nature, other than trying to get it to support humanity forever. Renew is the value which recognizes that we need to restore wild lands; restore prairies; restore rivers, lakes, and streams; restore forests; and even restore very ecosystems.
The value of renew informs us as to our choices. Do our choices, day after day, have the overall impact of destroying or renewing? By asking that question of every action, we can understand what decisions agree, or do not agree, with our value system.
Renew is in direct opposition to consumerism, since buying goods and services in our society are the direct result of environmental destruction. Every purchase we make reflects our value to satisfy our own selfish desires at the expense of others and the planet itself.
The use of currency itself, no matter the good spending or values of the spender, quickly ends up behaving as if it was an agent of the dominant value of society. Until we have a sea-change and the overall value system rolls-over to one of renew, the use of money is destructive. The only hope for good people is that their use of money now, despite its destructive impact, will lead to positive change in the future.
One of the greatest problem that will quickly follow peak oil is the peaking of global food production. The use of greater and greater amounts of energy, via oil, has enabled the world to grow more food, and support a greater human population, than any time in history. After the peaking of oil will come the peaking of food production, which will lead to famine and starvation, as many peoples of the world are no longer able to buy food due to rising prices, and there simply is no excess food to be sent to starving nations.
Compassion is clearly a value that must come into play at this point. It is quite possible that some of our neighbors will not be well prepared, and their family will be hungry or on the verge of starvation. It is our responsibility to provide aid, to be compassionate, and to share both our knowledge and our food. This clearly takes some short term sacrifice and suffering on our part, as we also have to go with less food. At the same time, the benefit of helping others is in community, friendship, and mutual aide.
Clear and truthful communication will be essential for being compassionate and in moving to a value system based on renew. Talking with neighbors, talking with colleagues, talking with others in a totally honest way is the way to build trust, friendship, and community. It allows us to become a strong and self-supporting community.
At the same time, growth is not a value of this new culture. Unfortunately, our current economy and monetary system is based entirely on growth. The movement to our new value system will mean the collapse of the not only the economy but also the current monetary system itself.
Those who move to this value system of renew will be able to insulate themselves from the collapse in the economic system. By becoming self-sufficient, both individuals and communities will be able to aide late-adopters in transitioning to a the new system of trade.
The value of life of others goes hand in hand of that of compassion. By valuing the life of not only other people; but also of the environment, the planets, the animals; we will be modeling a value system of renew.
The dominant value system of the future will be very unlike the value system of today. Whether people change of their own accord, in their own time, or due to the necessity of adapting to a new future, people will change the way they act in the world.