When the Centre for the Future was established a little over five years ago, we released a 100-year agenda. Mindful Uprising projected a philosophy of 2nd and 3rd order global change. In doing so it pointed to a range of wicked problems facing humanity, and the need to pursue a fundamental shift in human consciousness if we were to resolve these problems in ways that avoided further unforeseen consequences. Designing our way out of trouble, by nurturing a regenerative biosphere fit for our children and their successors to inhabit, and in which they could flourish, was the prime aim.
I always imagined this kind of radical overhaul to our most deep-seated tenets and modes of operating would be unacceptable to the patriarchal elites in developed nations, particularly in the West. Their foundation role, together with a linear concept of progress, blinds them to any alternative. And for all their espoused openness to reform, commonly wrapped in a guarded justification for the status quo, and accompanied by a lethargy which conveniently betrays and delays the need for any considered reform of the world order, our mission was always going to be too intimidating for their congenital lack of imagination and ideological intransigence.
Like army generals who are obsessed with victory, thus sending more and more troops to their death, today’s wealthy power elites assume there is no gain, yet much pain, from a change in direction. Their convictions are both palpable and unsophisticated. Money is the sole driving force while innovation is the means to achieve greater wealth. Biological pandemic or climate change, it matters not – we will overcome. In the end victory over nature will be ours. After all that is what progress means!
This is mass delusion. If we believe they must soon awake from their wealth-induced torpor and find the courage to admit they were wrong, we wait for a miracle. Yet only by admitting their culpability for the predatory nature of capitalism and its toxic effects, and accepting the clemency from society that must follow, can we all be emancipated to take collective action for setting the human project on a very different path.
For those reasons the community to which the Centre for the Future appeals was always going to be a mix of youthful activism, women of vision, and the impoverished - the five billion or so individuals on all continents who are increasingly impatient with those in power and have no desire to inherit the sterile techno-surveillance nightmare which comparatively small numbers of wealthy old white men and their sycophants have been crafting on their behalf.
From its inception we had conceived the mission of Centre for the Future as reimagining the human presence on Earth. By identifying our most life-critical structures, within and across six theatres of human activity, we would discover those that were failing and in most urgent need of renewal. Or so we thought.
Looking more deeply, we noticed something else. A subcutaneous connective tissue acting as the prime agent in a complex web of global commerce and socio-political motivation. A viral-like corrupting influence that has undergone various mutations over the past 200 years and is now a pandemic infecting the entire population.
Needing a label for this destructive pathogen we decided to call it the cycle of desire and consumption – or CoD-c-2015.
CoD-c-2015 relies on continuous, expansive, economic growth to survive. Embedded within its morphology, traces of avarice, envy, and vanity (qualities latent in most humans) alongside prolonged indoctrination and emotional manipulation, give it the power to code and decode, regulate and express itself in ways most of us find habit-forming. These properties enable it to rapidly mutate, adapt, and retain its deadliest qualities in dissimilar conditions. As yet there is no known treatment or effective vaccine. Herd immunity? There can be none. Indeed it offers only herd susceptibility.
Having dramatically increased its infection rates and morbidity over the past 75 years, we can now see that CoD-c-2015 has been incubated by power structures implicit within our own civilization, particularly the ethos of separation (from each other, nature, and other species), the obligation to compete within a paradigm of assumed scarcity, our fidelity to synthetic rather than natural substances, the coercion to generate personal wealth, and linear notions of progress.
This should not come as a surprise given the human population has increased from 2 billion to 7.7 billion people in that time and that an entire industry has been invented to sell the dubious benefits of material possessions. CoD-c-2015 now impacts every individual as soon as they are old enough to have money to spend – often before that as many parents will no doubt attest.
The sheer intensity of our craving for more and more stuff puts untold stress on the productive capacity of systems like healthcare, education, governance, policing, food security or energy, for example, none of which were designed to cater for such large numbers and unbounded variety. We know that these levels of demand and production also cause immense damage to natural ecosystems, although we are still trying to pretend that cannot be the case.
Like any drug that is addictive, its manufacturers invariably seem to advocate larger doses as the cure. Thus advertising and marketing professionals assure us that if we keep medicating on relentless waves of must-have novelties – gadgets, snack foods, accessories and upgrades, we stay in tune with fashion and therefore must at some stage find the happiness we seek.
Except the morbidity rate seems to indicate the opposite. Our society is sick on a plethora of acquisitiveness, while as individuals we are becoming progressively more lonely, anxious, obese, diabetic, depressed and suicidal. To make matters worse, as the cures fail, we start blaming others for the mess we are in. And at that point the cycle deepens and intensifies.
If we step back to view and reframe the problem through a telescopic lens – for this, as you will now appreciate, is not a biological concern, but a question relating to the very morphology of how our societies, cultures, political practices, and economies are intended to work – we start to see a more expansive, predatory, picture unfold.
Like the collective impact of industrial activities on Earth’s climate, CoD-c-2015 has become an evolutionary force in its own right. As yet we are reluctant to classify current mutations of CoD-c-2015 as the enemy, even though the evolutionary pressure it exerts entices us into a deeply distressing and prolonged end-game. Upon reflection, almost every wicked problem facing the human family – including environmental pollution and waste, climate heating, corruption, sickness, and war, can be traced back to one or more features of this unrelenting disease.
Those few people who have identified the damage being done by the CoD-c-2015 pandemic and are trying to do something about it face an uphill battle. This is, after all, a very smart virus that spreads by insinuating itself into the most vulnerable parts of human psychology.
Scrambling for acceptable solutions in what is ultimately a life and death situation, they must:
- Accrue compelling evidence to illustrate that this pandemic, in its most unconstrained forms, is an inducement to societal extinction
- Find ways to slow and eventually halt the industrial production of superfluous goods
- Demand that governments pivot from continuous economic growth (as measured by GDP) to inclusive growth focused on human wellbeing and equity
- Continue to supply the essential needs of the population from appropriately-scaled, locally-sourced, sustainable means of production
- Avoid the trap of psychological withdrawal by calling a halt to manipulative advertising
- Restore physical and mental health, in ways that relieve us of our cravings over time, by finding substitutes for material wealth and meaningless work, as well as the media froth that instills a desire for more stuff and preserves the current paradigm.
Finding solutions for a single addict is difficult enough. Working with a population of billions is unparalleled. Even so, it is an essential part of repurposing the human presence on Earth. And we already have knowledge, processes and tools we can apply to combat this addiction. We must pollute less, eliminate waste by reducing demand, produce only what is essential, utilize renewable forms of energy for production, and create more value from our purchases through recycling. These simple stratagems can help cure us of this condition besides healing the damage we have done to the planet.
I do not for one moment imagine this transition will be easy for anyone. It demands different beliefs and mindsets, alternative modes of interaction, and the acquisition of frugal habits. But I also have no doubt that we must do this. By mobilizing women, youth, and the power of the billions of underprivileged in this world we will prevail.
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