The thing I don’t understand is why we don’t take an alternative strategy and move toward a sustainable future powered by renewables and governed by decentralized power. Seriously – that would be a game changer.
You see the rise of the East appears to be building on the same paradigm the West used to build what we have today. But it’s paradigm based on the centralization of power, debt, and fossil fuels – which we’ve shown to not be sustainable.
A paradigm based on innovation, invention, decentralization, and renewable energy will be the next paradigm if the current one fails – albeit like a Phoenix from ashes. It would represent a real step forward, so why don’t we choose this path instead of letting it choose us.
Why don’t our leaders, (I hate calling them that), take us toward this paradigm shift instead of defending the failing paradigm with our last drop of blood?
My guess is that it’s the decentralization part. You see in the current paradigm, power is centralized in giant corporations and governments. I suspect the ultra rich (masters of the acquisition paradigm) think they would loose everything if power decentralized into a more sustainable model.
But I think that’s near-sighted. I think everyone, even the rich, could have their cake and eat it too if everyone were empowered and power were decentralized. After all don’t the rich make money when everyone else is making money? Who cares how or who controls what when everything is right-sized to a human scale as long as the net effect is productivity?
- Imagine smaller regional governments appropriately sized and configured to suit their local needs. A central framework for peace & balance could discourage regional wars – where regional coalitions of nations apply pressure against those taking things too far militarily.
- Imagine the productivity if micro manufacturing, local energy production, small farms, and publishing took off. While small scale business is not as efficient it does create work and spread wealth.
- Imagine the growth potential when all people feel self-empowered.
- Imagine the stability the diversity would create.
Innovation and entrepreneurialism would flourish if people were shown how to make money by leveraging their ideas and skills instead of convincing them that selling their time and borrowing money was the only way to go.
Maybe the billionaires can’t see that because they are so muddled in their centralist mindset. Maybe they think that kind of talk is idealistic and foolhardy. Maybe it is… but it sounds like a direction that has a hell of a better chance of surviving, and far less dangerous than a global war.
I know that’s wishful thinking, but someone’s got it do it.