Society
will change, one way or the other, for very simple physical reasons such as
peak oil, soil depletion, resource depletion, lack of fresh water, climate change, rising sea levels... There are dozens of factors, any of which on their own would be significant enough. Of course, their coalescence is in no sense accidental, and I'll leave precise description up to the experts. Suffice it to say that a big change is ahead of us (one that the mainstream media will be the last to admit) no matter what anyone thinks.
As for the nature of the change, that is still up to
us.
James Howard Kunstler believes that many people will feel very cheated out of their entitlement - due to believeing the lies of mass media. "US standard of living non-negotiable etc...". However, there is the Cuba experience:- in their post peak-oil society (in which farmers get paid more than engineeers), people are living healthier, more localised, arguably more fulfilled lives. I maintain an optimistic disposition, because I don't feel that this way of being can offer us a great deal. The purposeless of many people's lives is the developed world is almost tangible (not here in
Bangladesh, where 3/4 of people still work the land). Moreover increasing trickiness by a small minority is driving more and more people worldwide into poverty.
In short, I think ever more people are ready for a radical rethink, just as they were in USSR in the 1980s. The lies and violence inherent in the current worldview are clearest at the edge of empire, the global south. However, I think dissent is growing worldwide, hyperbole about terrorists notwithstanding. So the question to the
anti-globalists or
anti-capitalists is what are they
for? Have we got a story which is simple enough for a
dumbed down public to contradict the simple credo that 'greed is good', 'more is better' and 'the devil take the hindmost'?
Surely we have better stories, more harmonious and true! Hunter gathers knew that there was such a thing as a free lunch. Barry's
'Perspective of Renewal' is a helpful angle here. There are many people working away on single issues, often using
money , which I don't believe will allow them to effect a
real change.
I think we would do well to work on a
win/win story, one of sharing, of loving, of embracing differences. A positive
alternative to all the negatives thrown up by the death cult of power and control.