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RE: Is Capitalism Responsible For Environmental Destruction? A short thought exercise!
I think we can do a lot better than we are, and moderate use with regeneration is much better for our long term survival and success on the planet. :)
I absolutely agree! However, just for sake of discourse. Are you suggesting that this moderation can be found in capitalism?
I suggest it can't as it goes against the self-serving principle our system promotes. We would have to design a system where it is self-serving to not destroy nature. We have since the 70's been talking about setting our own limits. Even in the past few years, our destruction of the world has only accelerated, regardless of how widespread the knowledge of destruction is.
A whole mindset needs to change, but forms of capital based on work done to create it can be done. I don't agree that anyone can just go buy land that somehow others gained through "might makes right" and then sell it down the line of history. Whoever has the money can make more money by not caring about the long term effects and only short term gains. It's rampant in society (online, and here too). That attitude needs to change. Thinking long term for the betterment of all needs to be part of the concern. We all need to be in on it, or else then people straggle because "well if I don't do it, the other guy will and he'll be making money but not me". Capitalism as #1, do anything for money... is long a problem. Owning up the world... got a dominator mind-virus problem lol.
Exactly! Which is why I'm proposing new systems that reward collaboration, reward the building of natural capital, and reward creating more beauty and diversity of life in our world! (we're inherently intrinsically motivated by these aspects anyway, why not design a system to extrinsically motivate as well!)
However, the problem should be relatively easy to fix! Since a new model would be so vastly superior to the old one in being able to meet our needs, it wouldn't take much convincing to have people join! Even people who are 'successful' in capitalism show deficits in their needs being met. (sometimes even more extreme than those in 'poverty'). So, this is my purpose. To create this system so when I raise a child it will be done within this new system. So, that he will be part of the new paradigm of minds that have never been programmed by our present dominant systems and will seamlessly carry our systems forward! (this needs to happen before we complete our global extinction)