I do realise that in a forum such as this,
where people are busy promoting themselves and their marketable value in the
grand scheme of things, that some of the fundamental issues in life are overlooked,
or totally ignored.
That’s all fine and dandy, but I can’t help
but wonder what places like this will look like after we arrive at the
dystopian future we seem bound and determined to make a reality. You know—when
your ability to find potable water will be the thing that you get endorsed for,
or your skill in sautéing insects.
Now we are not there yet, and there are
those who might say we can yet avoid it. There are others who would say that
it’s never going to happen but I suspect many of those have their heads stuck
up their . . . places the sun doesn’t shine. My point is that there is ample
evidence that the good ship Civilization in steaming straight towards the
iceberg—or perhaps given the issues around melting polar caps that should read
the rocks.
Many of us once believed that while we went
about our daily lives, working and creating wealth and opportunities, that
somewhere in a dark corner of a government building there were people who were
working on this type of thing.
Even if that was the case, and ignoring all
that we have learned about government and its particular ways of doing things,
there is very good reason to suspect that the flight to refuge may have very limited
capacity. You could try to secure passage by amassing a fortune but, given the
expected collapse of law and order, you’d probably get mugged on the way to the
secret take-off point.
No, let’s deal with it, most of us are
going to have to face the music and that brings me back to my point: what
should we be doing about it? If we are going to spend the greater part of our
day in some effort to procure individual well-being and sustainability, can we afford
to be blind to the global factors? Perhaps we might be tempted to hope, like
the generations before us, that this will all blow over—or will not happen in
our lifetime—but the growing tomes of scientific data would seem to make that
less and less likely.
There are many of us who might be tempted
the excuse ourselves from the discussion because we are too busy putting bread
on the table and I invite those to think it through. What’s in the bread and
should you not be using the table to barricade the windows?
Yes. It is a gloomy, doomy kind of future
and, to my mind, allows for two possible approaches—discounting, of course, the
stick-your-head-in-the-sand option. We can quit our jobs, abandon all
responsibilities, take up drug and alcohol abuse (if we haven’t already) and
party like there is no tomorrow. Fill our days with frolicking and fornication,
larceny and looting and . . . yes, I know that sounds a lot like working in
Financial Services and that is the point. Can we not find something to do that
might help to mitigate what we have sown? Can we not find purpose that, at the
very least, would allow us to depart with a bit of dignity?
Or, for those of us who are still
influenced by the balance sheet view of life, there is the matter of karma.
Those of us with religious convictions should be factoring that in and those
who don’t—well, who wants to be remembered for their grasping, selfish,
cut-throat ways?
You see, I have spent time recently with
people who have already begun to transition to the social economy.
What is that? you might well ask. Well it’s really a lot like the regular
model except profit at all costs is not the one and only objective. And if that sounds a bit too touchy-feely
consider this: what right-minded business person (other than hire-for-a-quarter
CEOs) would run their enterprise into the ground for short term gain while
destroying all possibilities of a future. For that matter, what type of person
would work for such an outfit?
We have watched the Credit business flood
the market to the point that entire nations are now so indebted that they
cannot hope to ever pay their way out—no matter how much austerity they apply.
We have watched the Energy industries rape
and pillage the environment to such an extent that the tipping point may well
be in the rear view mirror.
We have watched the Pharmaceuticals become
so invasive that if everyone got well, there would be a total economic
collapse.
The list goes on and on, and to avoid doing
the same I will simply state: we make the world by our daily efforts and it is
not too late to try to make it a bit better—even if only to make the end less
bleak and brutal.
And if you are seeking a career for the end
of the world, should you not be looking for something that has a bit of real
value to it—you know, something with a bit of sustainability? Maybe we should
be seeking something that offers real return because when all other resources
are gone, money won’t taste so good.
)