Frame of guilt and blame concerning environment
some lines from David Suzuki and Mark Mancall in material prepared for the Bhutan meeting of The International Expert Group on a New Development Paradigm 2013 SUZUKI some of my thoughts 36 economic growth has become the aim of society ME: For economists and some others "growth" as be all end all. most people see surviving in the dog-eat-dog market as the challenge. fixation on growth is really fear of scaricty. Less there is, the more i have to compete for mine. 36 iNSAtiable appetite for stuff" 37 humans and nature on collison course. 1/2 nobel laureates 1992 38 And we create concepts such as capitalism, the economy, corporations, markets, currency, and then treat them as if they are independent forces of nature. Yet MARK MANCALL,Stanford ME: BLAME 43And we create concepts suc++Instead, our present trajectory is the path of unreason, prioritizing immediate comfort instead of hopefully avoidable death. The choice we face is stark indeed. p43 *++he second factor that daunts us is the unwillingness on the part of all too many to admit that our present institutions, our current ways of life - even the most fundamental political and social values with which we wake in the morning and go to sleep at night - must be called into question and perhaps cast aside if we are to avoid the looming catastrophe. Yet 45 The culture of the political leaders of liberal democracy and of the captains of industry in the capitalist economic system is built on the core value of individualism, on a belief in infinite growth, and on the conviction that it is in the very nature of a human being to seek to maximize his or her own advantage p44 POPULATION but can it feed a population that is increasing precisely because of the benefits that technological innovations in medicine, sanitation, etc., have made available in modern times? POLITICAL 44 ++And just as the leopard cannot change its spots, the capitalist economic system cannot be changed in the absence of political leadership prepared to invent a more appropriate economic system. H DEMOCRACY ++ NO illustrate why a radically new paradigm is necessary in the face of the catastrophe we are confronting. First, our present paradigm assumes that in liberal democracy people will, naturally, vote according to their interests.
Woody Harrelson, "Talking Paper with Woody Harrelson," Yes! 67, (2013): 6