how am i not myself

the myth of sustainability?

I agree that the entire system that we live in is unsustainable. But we have to qualify that statement. What I mean is, until now the system, no matter how many crises it has had, has not completely collapsed. So this system that we have has sustained itself until now. The million dollar question is, until when can the current system sustain itself? Or put another way, over what time frame/time scale does the current system become unsustainable. For that I don’t have an answer, but I have a gut feeling that we still have a few more generations before the system can no longer sustain itself.

The next question I ask myself is, will we change the system before it becomes unsustainable, or will we change it only after it becomes unsustainable? For that I have a very strong opinion that it will be the latter. This is a very important point for me. For me this means that the goal of developing these “alternative lifestyles”, or alternatives to the current system, the goal is not to force the current system to change (as I once wanted to do, and as I get the feeling a lot of people want to do), but instead to develop alternatives to the current system and allow those alternatives to mature sufficiently so that they will be ready to be implemented when the current system is no longer sustainable.

And these new alternative systems will of course be sustainable, just as our current system is sustainable, over a specific time frame… but it is unlikely that the new systems will be sustainable indefinitely.

We may someday come to an equilibrium with the earth and find a sustainable system for living indefinitely on our planet. But even then, someday our sun will burn out and the system will fail. We may even find a sustainable system for moving from solar system to solar system, or even simply creating our own “stars” so to speak by harnessing fusion reactions like those found in the center of the sun to power our civilization. But that to could someday become unsustainable if the universe collapses in on itself in its endless cycle of big bangs and big crunches, as some scientists have theorized.

But if we don’t find a “sustainable” system for living on this earth, the game will be over much much sooner, and I for one want the game to go on as long as possible.

Ultimately speaking, sustainability is a myth, just like perfection, but it is an ideal still worth striving for. 

theory in action

I watch another movie tonight about how the monetary system works, and I started feeling hopeless, like I have in the past when watching other films about how money works, fractional reserve lending, and usury.

Okay, I learned in therapy the other day that you can’t feel hopeless because it isn’t an emotion. What is really happening is that I am thinking that things are hopeless and then I am feeling sadness or grief, why, for the loss of a dream or belief in freedom and living a good honest life.

But is this thought that things are hopeless really helping? NO! So let’s change it. I decide to think there is hope.

I see hope in one single fact: exponential growth is not sustainable. If we don’t decide to face this basic fact, there will come a day when we will be forced to face this fact, and it will come soon relative to the history of homo sapiens. At that point the system will be forced to change.

So lets start thinking about and developing new ideas and theories for systems that will work in a sustainable way. Let test them and refine them and develop them as much as possible so that when the day does come, wether in our lifetimes or not, these alternatives are matured and ready to be put into practice.

It is an exciting time we live in, not a time to be depressed, there is work to be done. Let us work together for a sustainable future.