Radical Noesis - Thinking outside the box

b>So What Do We Do?
Partnership:
Obviously, we need to look at our relationship to our planet and each other in a very different way. If we cannot stretch so far as to see the equal importance of each life form, then let us at least stretch as far as to see each other as partners. As partners on this planet, we view the world through mutual benefit. For those embedded in the dominant culture of the United States,that means shifting from a paradigm of win-lose to one of win-win.

The consequences of such a shift would have enormous consequences. For example, as sustainable development has moved into the mainstream, it has taken on the format of being environmentally friendlier, but not environmentally friendly. Destructive practices have to stop. Sustainability should close consumption loops rather than opening new ones. Closing loops allows for the natural processes of recycling.

Permanence and Flexibility:
We are stuck in a cycle of consumption. Planned obsolescence rules the day. This must wear out or break to force people to buy things repetitively. Forced technological development also forces "replacement" of quite functional technology. Computers and cell phones are just two such examples. If technology is not either upgradable, or bio-degradable, then it should not be produced.

Consumption's Bad. Get It?
Our current system links the consumption to personal and social status. This has led to increasing conspicuous consumption at every level. Some attribute this to greed, but it is more closely tied to fear - fear of looking bad, fear of loss of acceptance. Let's renew the value of being "thrifty."

"Marketing" has to transform itself:
Marketing has reached new heights of linking value to objects that have little value, and increasing personal insecurity an want. Marketing's focus is not to inform us of products, but to create consumers. It has been said that the biggest threat to the resolution of our environmental problems is advertising. Further, that as long as we have an industry whose sole purpose is to create consumers and expand consumptions, we will never come to terms with the problems we face (The Ad and the Ego).

There are no technological fixes:
Technology and science are not magic. Our history of technological solutions to date have largely created other problems. If we look at technology and science within the framework of the items discussed above, then perhaps it can help. However, too frequently technological advances are used to increase consumption rather than decrease it. High tech solar energy can assist us in decreasing the amount of electrical energy we us. However, high tech solar is not environmentally friendly in terms of the materials used and the processing needed to currently make solar panels and storage batteries. In the pursuit of high tech solar, the very thought of passive solar has become largely a relic of the past. Maintaining the current world view leads to "cheaper energy" will actually fueling increasing energy demands. This is similar to hybrid engine technology being used to increase power in vehicles rather than decrease fuel consumption. Another example would be that the more fuel efficient vehicles of the 1980s drove the popularity (and possibility) of the gas hogs.

Look to the seventh generation (Great Law of Peace of the Six Nations of the Iroquois Confederacy):
We have to start thinking in a much longer time frame. We need to move out of the "immediate" and into the long term. How will our choices, our technologies, our actions now effect our children, and their children to the seventh generation? We need to move beyond "this will cause problems, but we'll fix them later" with yet another round of technology. No more creation of dangerous substances that take a geological age to "recycle." No more technologies aimed at transforming the very nature of nature. Folks, we just don't know enough.

In summation, we need to get smart and we need to become wise. We have the potential for both, but do we have the will?