Last saturday morning, I have had a very
interesting conservation with my family about the world welfare, the world
economy, world health, the problems of food scarcity, and the actual system the
world runs on.
There are a few things I would very much like to comment here, because
I believe it is of great importance
for people to become conscious of how things are at this moment.
Our actual system (with that I
include EVERYTHING. Economy as well as politics, lifestyle etc) has come to an
end. Let me explain. This system has worked a long time, and in the age it was
“invented”, it was a quite good system, producing welfare, growth, and advance.
Of course not perfect, but good enough. But the system is now outdated. We have come to our physical limit of this system. A limit
is a mathematical concept, but applicable in every aspect of life.
For long we believed our system to
be good, to provide us unlimited growth. But we have come to a big problem: we
have become addicted to money, and
thus the system has experienced an exponential growth, accelerating the process
till its limit.
This addiction to money is what will
truly lead us till the end of this system. This addiction to money has, in my
eyes, done almost more harm than it has actually done well. Because, like my
family commented with an example about cars: before, (beginning 20th
centaury) the car producers had as main objective making cars in such way as to
please their customers. They gave more importance to making a good product. But
then came the ideology of the stock market and globalization. And little by
little the wishes of the shareholders became more important than the wishes of
the customers. And what was the wish of the shareholders? Money, and more money, and more
more more! And the only way for the companies
to fulfill this wish (which actually became more and more a demand) was to
produce more, to make as much profit as
possible in as little time as possible. With as consequence exploiting
people and resources, and ceasing to make truly good objects. This example is
not only for the car producing industry, but for all producing industries.
With this, individual companies
ceased to be individual, as that wasn’t profitable, and went up into the
globalized market. Gone is the true
creativity, the true wish to fulfill the customer’s wishes. And although globalization is of great use,
and many profit from it, it isn’t always
the right thing to do. More and more around me I hear people say, upset,
about so many companies being fused together, about schools being brought
together. This has as consequence the loss
of identity. An identity many people liked and were proud of, but which now
is lost.
I must include here, in the context
of individualization and globalization, an advertisement my brother commented
to me. The famous advertisement of the Volkswagen Beatle “think small”
This is a very complicated theme, dear reader, so forgive me if in this blog I present many different thoughts, and
do not always seem maximally coherent. I’m
trying my best. It is difficult because this, what I call system, is a system that contains all
of human, and also the natural, world. It is a system so complex; it is like a knot made out of trillions of threads, and
talk just about one will undoubtly lead you straight away to tens of other
threads. It is a system so complex, a human
mind can’t even understand all of its complexity, can’t see all the
infinite links and relations. For that we now need computers. The system has
become so vast, that it has gone above
and beyond the human mind.
Since 2008 we know for sure that
this system is failing. It is then when the economic crisis started. Although
it isn’t only an economic one, but
also a political, social and
environmental one. It is a crisis of
the human being. At the beginning of the crisis the world leaders said; we’re
bringing together the greatest minds of our age, to think up a new plan. But
now, 3 years later, still seemingly no one has come with a new alternative to
our actual system. This is because of what I’ve just said: to change this
system, it is extremely complex. Not impossible, but very near to it. What of
course makes it so much harder to change is all the people who are at this moment profiting
from this actual system. They don’t
want to change, and unfortunately they are often those who have most power in
the world. Of course I understand that people want to profit, but it seems to
me that now we have to put our money addiction beside and understand that this
system just can’t go on any more. It has reached its limit, it is outdated, and
not profitable anymore for all.
The conclusion to which I and my
family, and also others with whom I have commented this, have come is that this system has come to its end. There is a need of change. A change that
will come, must come, because going
on like this is simply not possible. Going on like this leads to a dead
end.
So there is the next dilemma.
Because: How do we start with this change?
I’ll explain the different options
with a metaphor: our actual system is a building, containing EVERYTHING. Our
building was built long ago, based on the world of then, but with the passing
of decades the world has gone through a great change, the building has had to
be repaired and rearranged many times to keep up with the world. But now the
building is old, it is presenting deep ruptures, into its very foundations.
These ruptures we have seen in the real world! It is the economic crisis since
2008, the latest crisis in Europe... so…
we can’t go living on in this old, dangerous building. It’s not safe, and it’s
just not possible anymore. So here are the options we have:
- While we are still “living” in the old building, start building a new one, a better one, concentrated on sustainability, with a vision to the future and long lastingness. Totally independent of the old building, with totally new materials. And once it has completed go live in the new building.
- Break down the actual, old building, and in an epoch of confusion and disorientation, try to build the new building.
- Just wait, don’t do anything, and at some moment undoubtly the old building will collapse. And in its downfall, it will take many people with it. Only then we will start building a new building, obliged by the circumstances.
Now let me comment the consequences
I believe these possibilities have:
- The 1st option seems to me the best and safest option, with its vision fixed on what must truly change and be done. This option will give us enough time to build our new building and avoid chaos, confusion, and disorientation of what we truly seek.
- The 2nd option I dislike, because it would mean the new building must be built quickly (as of course no one wants to be without a building), so it won’t be so well focused on what must really happen as in the 1st option. Or maybe even first there would have to be built a provisional building, with the danger that in our laziness we keep that one
- The 3rd is dangerous. A worst case scenario in my eyes. And it is exactly what we are heading towards. This is the worst option, but in our actual state of mind, maybe only an obligation can be the driving force for us to start building a new building. Even though it has the same dangers as the 2nd option; that the building will be built rapidly or provisionally
So, dear reader, what do you think of it? What is your
opinion? Before I end this text, I would like to end it rightly, with a
last few lines, to make you see and understand the message of this text.
I think it is time for change.
Whether we are ready for it or not, the
time is soon to come. In order to make this change optimal, to ensure
maximum profits and minimum damage, we must act NOW! We must reunite all
countries, for this is a matter that, directly and indirectly, concerns the
entire world. We must reunite politicians, economists, environmentalists,
philosophers, sociologists etc... All the wise ones of the world and all the
knowledge of the world. We must think up a plan NOW because the signs this
crisis is emitting shows us that not much time is left with this actual system.
We must act now, for our own good and that of all those who come after us. I ask people, to become conscious, and to
act. The time of endless debating has ended, the time to do something has
begun.
I am just one small individual. I cannot give all the answers to all the
surging questions about this subject. I cannot give alternatives right now to
the actual system. All I can do is give a
voice to what I see that is happening and to the people, and make everyone I
can, conscious.
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