Inner Revolution

On the train platform of Circular Quay a cockroach is crawling in my direction. It seems to be normal here. This animal would easily survive the downfall of mankind if it were to happen soon.  I am alone because I left a group of fellow young environmentalist professionals who went to eat at MacDonalds. Can you blame a hungry lion for killing prey?

Things here at the congress are moving fast. Two  unspoken questions reside in our midst: are we really so good ourselves and aren´t we preaching to the choir? Reaching out is the YPMC´s main task here. We are exploring the ways. How do we take our accruing knowledge out of this inbred crowd, how do we go beyond the given pathways, into the world that does not seem to care? Do people who don´t really exist? I guess that what we really want, is to help others realize that deep inside, they do. Care. Most are merely numbed.

The Congolese minister of environment, great guy, told me yesterday that in order to halt poaching in his country, it needs a citizen movement. New laws are valuable, but not enough, we all need to want them in place. It´s beautiful to see that the trends expressed on this congress match with the mind-set of the visitors. The bottom line: the problems of today concern every single one of us. All people have to be engaged, all should be involved, regardless of culture, gender or any other type of background. We all need to want to obey the rules we set ourselves. Most know it: the system is broken and we are part of the problem. I bought a ticket to this petrol-driven train device with beer in my belly that was flown here from my neighbour country on the other side of the world.

A citizen movement. An inner revolution. That´s what it needs. And it is happening: Barcelona and even Brussels had hundreds of thousands of people on the street some weeks ago. Perhaps linked to this congress, there was a new climate agreement between China and the US very recently. Australia announced a new great barrier reef project. Results of long, hard fights, supported by our presence.

Humanity is bettering. Without knowing precisely what it is, we gradually commit ourselves to the good.  We are heard. It is felt. Governments and people are approaching each other. A new world order is forming and it is one that listens to people´s needs,  not our greeds. The movement is inside us and around all of us. Our influence to shape this order is here and now. All we need to do is keep joining in and keep figure it out. Do something different sometimes. More now than then. It has started, let´s keep it going.

Economy

I enjoy looking up the origin of words in etymology dictionaries. Did you know that the word “mystic” comes from “secret”? And the origin of “sex” may have a relation to “seco”, meaning “cut in half”. Meanings of these words have shifted over the years. The same has happened with the word “economy”. It comes from “oikos”, house and “nomos”, management. How did house management turn into the imperative of growth of states, so closely associated with its modern definition? Can we blame the neighbour?

If we would transpose the original meaning of the word economy onto contemporary society, we would probably end up with a definition such as “global gardening”. After all, managing our highly advanced household nowadays means working to ways of sustainable use of our collective limited resources. It seems, though, that the human mind has trouble taking the concept of limited resources seriously. I think the reason for that is that we somehow fail to care for whatever we don’t feel belongs to us yet.

We are facing a problem that is hard to describe. In the 17th century, when economy received its state bound definition, western humans collectively stepped out of their limited, state bound existence and literally discovered that there is more behind the horizon. In my experience, the turn from heaving the attention on a limited, defined set of “own” surroundings towards an area of the “unknown” not only requires guts, but also a form of blindness. Whenever I leave my safe, managed territory, I enter a place where I don’t know the rules.

In that sense I totally get the way things currently are. We humans are constantly struggling with the “mine” versus “not mine” aspects of our lives. If it is in our control, in our familiar domain, we know the rules and probably accept them. If it is not, if it transcends the limits of our day to day experience and understanding, our known code of conduct does not apply anymore and we are forced to break our known rules. Consequently we allow ourselves to do stupid things.  In the unknown, we don’t know the limits because nobody we trust ever taught them to us. Humans lose part of their ethics if they are in unknown territory. This is what happened in the imperial age, and it is happening still.

So far, the global scale has been far too big and complex for a human mind to think in. As a species, we weren’t evil, just too small and simple to see our physical and ethical limits. But they are upon us now, so it’s time to revalue the rules.

Decay

As I biked by a newly built Dutch house, decorated with at its foot a little pond and a willow hanging over it, I suddenly felt as if I was in Disneyland. The shallowness of these houses, their lack of character struck me. The landscape is covered with a mask. In a flash I saw that when times get rough, this house would be the first to crumble.

Tinkebell publically sterilized herself. After speaking with some experts, she grew convinced that we are running out of phosphorous. She didn’t want to give birth to children in a world where food will be scarce. She wanted to show that our society is out of control. In a powerful way, I think. Apocalyptic thinking is no longer solely biblical. A growing number of scientists seriously doubts humanity’s capacity to maintain itself given its growth. Peak oil is close, water tables are lowering, the climate is projected into an unknown direction. Still, there is very little amelioration in either the western political direction, or the way consumers behave. We do not hold the blueprint of a long-term design. We have collectively raped the dream of prosperity by addicting ourselves to objects and images we don’t need. A bubble that will to burst.

Humans have long seen themselves as rational beings. I don’t see how an intelligent species would lead itself this close to the abyss. We have overvalued our mental capacities. Our future could help us acknowledge this.

When I saw the house crumble, in the set of fall, it made sense. We have built imaginary lives that are not meant to last. Perhaps I’ll live the day in which mankind once again perceives the land’s true face.

Let’s vote per topic

I propose a new democracy.

The problem now, is that there is just one leader. But people are narrow minded. The one leader mainly looks at one topic. Instead, we need leaders and parties on each topic. And we should be able to vote that way.

There should be no time where education or environmental conservation is inferior to rebalancing the economy. They are interdependant. All should get attention. With dialogue from equal positions. Thus, the different topics need equal ambassadors.

What I propose is to have votes per topic. A leader for the economy, a leader for education and a leader for nature conservation. Equal experts. The system should work on guided dialogue instead of debate. With a leading comittee instead of one person.

Some ups and downs:

Ups

• Topics are treated more equally.
• People vote for what they find important.
• More weighted decisions.
• Joint learning in governance.
• People are not forced to take decisions on topics they don’t care about.
• With permanent in and outflow of representatives into the leading comittee, more continuity is ensured.

Downs

• Equality of topics may hamper prioritizing points on the agenda.
• The parliament would need restructuring, but who has the authority to do this?
• More votes.
• Hard decisions need consensus, slowing down the process.
• Complex system.
• Who has the authority to choose the topics to be represented?

The ups add to the current system, the downs are mostly structural and can be overcome. So let’s do it.