Schuetz

Wake up ,mankind! Part Two.

In part one of this series readers were challenged to examine their mindset in regard to their values and capacity to reason as well as understand that the current socio environmental problems are the result of our passive endorsement of the industrial culture.

A brief synopsis of the industrial culture:

What defines a culture is the ways in which human needs are satisfied and whether we can allow for more adequate satisfaction of the entire system of needs depends on how we organise our economic system. There is basically one culture remaining on this planet, the Industrial Culture. All others seem doomed to disappear. One of the most important tenets of the industrial culture is the belief in the eternally growing economy. However the spirit of industrialism is rapidly losing its' grip. The doctrine of material growth has signally failed to provide people with any lasting ideals or values. The social order is expending all of its' creative energy on just maintaining the status quo. When personal alienation feeds on ecological breakdown then all we have to look forward to is a veritable technocracy of ruins. We are now an overpopulated and over consuming society that is pressing the carrying capacity of the global ecosystem.

Political parties invariably, if understandably, have difficulty in adapting themselves to conditions other than those which gave them birth. By clinging with growing desperation to the industrial paradigm, by supposing that the politics of plenty is still the only way to achieve progress, they condemn both themselves and us. To them will fall the increasingly thankless task of dividing up an ever diminishing economic pie that they have promised should be getting larger; to us will fall the sordid consequences of so profound a failure collectively to get a grip on reality. The longer we resist the inevitability of change, the less chance is there that we will achieve it peacefully; the sooner we commit ourselves to change the easier such a process will be. We know that continued economic growth in developed countries will be at the expense of those who really need an increase in material well-being, the underprivileged in the Third World. There is no connection between increased living standards (beyond sufficiency) and happiness/contentment. There can be now doubt that material living standards in Australia have increased since 1960. However consider the rate of murder and other violent crime, the increase in drug and alcohol abuse and suicide. It would appear that we live in a less happy society in the third millennium than in 1960. It is difficult to draw a line between sufficiency and extravagance, however it is certain that in Australia we are dying of the stresses of abundance rather than the stresses of scarcity.

Again I state the theme of this series, if you want to change your world you must first change your thinking. Your primary resource is your life, your primary responsibilities are your actions and those of your children. What do you want out of life?

Make a list and then compare it to these: beauty, truth, love, freedom and peace.

I suggest that if you dont know what you want, you will end up with something else. Therefore the first step must be to identify what you want, then to quantify it. These values mean different but similar things to everyone. I dont expect you to dismantle to global political and financial systems in order to achieve a more satisfying life, I only suggest you realise what is really important to you and concentrate on obtaining those things and not suffer distractions.

Think about how you spend your average day and therefore most of your life?

The majority of people in industrial cultures spend their days mindlessly occupied performing unimportant tasks in the pursuit of increased wealth with which to purchase more consumer goods to make up for the fact that their lives lack meaning and value. It is not only possible to live in a luxurious house with a wealth of consumer goods and feel impoverished, it is in fact very common. Imagine you are at the end of your life, then do a rough calculation as to the percentage of it that really means anything, that was really worthwhile.

You like your contemporaries live the life that your society expects of you if you seek to live otherwise you are branded anti social and outcast. This has always been the case, people have rarely if ever been able to escape the confines of their times. Ants, sheep, people, not a lot of difference in the mind set really. The first step to escaping such a prison is understanding, the second is reason. The connecting link between the material man and the spiritual man is the intellectual man, for the mind partakes of both the material and immaterial qualities. Realise that your day to day existence is not in your best interests nor is it the way to achieve your potential in this life. Once you have done that, the rest is easy. Your values and attitudes will change accordingly, you may appear to continue your boring existence, but your thoughts and motivation will be altered. Your goals will be of a higher order. Ultimately you will work yourself out of the rut that you live in rather than to mire yourself deeper. Ie If you have got yourself into a hole, stop digging.

Realise that the day-to-day life in the industrial culture has no higher purpose.

Basically, WAKE UP! Live consciously; dont merely exist in a dream state moving from one situation to another as they present themselves.

You accept that the way you live is not just right but the only way when in fact it is neither. Look at our past beliefs,

The earth is flat,

The earth is the centre of the solar system, galaxy and universe,

Man is separate from his environment and not a part of the web of life,

The laws of science are changed when a new theory comes along that fits with reality better than the previous theories.

So now we have the big bang theory that is being proven wrong by the discovery of new galaxies further away than would be possible under that theory. We are told that the universe is expanding out form a single point and that all of space is moving away from all else, and yet we see details of galaxies colliding which should not be possible. We have special and general theories of relativity because neither theory works under all conditions. All my life I was told there were nine planets in our solar system, astronomers discover some more and now there are only eight.

The studies of finance, economics and politics are not subject to the same scrutiny as science and yet remain largely unquestioned. A great part of our word starves whilst for economic reasons food is left to rot or is destroyed.

A few individuals have massed wealth greater than whole countries, and while these people have not necessarily done wrong in creating wealth and in many cases apply much of their wealth to the relief of poverty and hardship, the fact remains that wealth represents excess use of natural resources at some point. In order for us to create wealth we have had to produce more than our immediate need, this is stored as wealth.

What is needed is a new concept of wealth in order that it would be conceivable that every person on the planet could hope to attain it without destroying our delicate ecosystem.

I do not measure wealth in terms of what I have, but rather by what I am not lacking. I have my health, I have the love of my children who are also healthy, I have a (very) modest income and the ability to earn sufficient to meet my needs. I have more freedom than most, I have a roof over my head and sufficient healthy food, I can choose the hours I work around the local beach conditions, I can surf when I wish, lay on the beach when I wish and when I work, it is neither stressful nor boring. Nor is it well paid but that is the choice I made.

The result of my lifestyle choices is that I am free to live and think as I see fit on a daily basis, what I do and dont do each day are the result of conscious choices. In the absence of the biases that arise out of the need to conform to society I have been able to think through to a new reality with independent values, new concepts of right and wrong based on a clear understanding of good and evil. A belief in a higher purpose that is supported by more than blind faith and yet allows understanding of the faith of others.

This has resulted in a self-actualisation where the needs of being a means to and end and the effect of being an end in my own right are reconciled.

Thus concludes part 2 of this series, part 3 will expand on understanding of human needs proving how these needs are interdependent and how to develop an ethical set of values.

Lew Spratt an Australian Social Physicist with a background in banking and finance, community and industry development, social welfare and technology. Now seeking to engage modern Information and Communication Technology to support and assist older people and people with disabilities. http://www.goldenagenet.tk