Our Crisis Is Not Economic -- Part Two
I have argued since March that our current crisis is not economic. It is political, but even that does not go far enough. If I say it is spiritual, I am open to severe misinterpretation. So let me take this tack. It is a crisis of what Dietrich Bonhoeffer signaled with the phrase "world come of age". That Harvey Cox suggested by the term secular city. That I suggest with the title Beyond Creed: From Religion to Spirituality.
It's implicit in Al Gore's "inconvenient truth".
We are in the birth-throes of a global move beyond "capitalism", beyond "communism", beyond the fatalism of understandings based on ignorance, superstition and divisive belief systems (theories, ideologies).
What's coming is not a new world order because there is still massive disorder and it won't be that new. We're talking about a beginning recognition that the world is in serious need of a polity that is global in fact. Global in operation. Global in consciousness.
The notion of a global forgiving of past debts is not beyond the meaning of this evolution.
Nor the notion of a global currency.
Nor is it any more a heresy to suggest that by continuing our automobile economy we are throwing money, architecture, design and ecology down a black hole.
The notion of designing human settlements and their dwelling units on a scale that would permit their being more than superficially green is now viable to anyone who thinks realistically. This means green is not merely retrofitting, it is new designs and new notions of how to build "villages" that are self-sustaining.
I mean communities less vulnerable than skyscrapers or sprawling detached units. Less subject to being washed or blown away.
The change involves, also, beginning to recognize that war itself is oh so retro. We can do better, cheaper things to resolve our disputes. We can decide to do that.
We can also decide to solve our transportation problems by moving to a more trusting public polity. In other words, a more tolerant and rational humankind. This is existential for the reclamation of rights of way and their rational use.
We need, in short, a resolute war against the blinking populace that Nietzsche once flagged. Not striving to be super persons, but moving some beyond obesity -- seen in a far broader context than mere body mass.
As I have noted previously, "The reason the current crisis is not economic is that our economy is by any measure unsustainable."
It would be too much to expect that Barack Obama could single-handedly midwife the sea change that I believe we are being swept into by the hand of -- shall we say, forces we need to learn to live with? (AKA us.)
The most important thing Barack said in his recent interview with Charlie Gibson went largely unnoticed. Here it is:
I mean, if you think about previous crises -- you know, FDR. There were a whole bunch of programs that he tried that didn't work. But what he was able to provide to people was a sense that somebody's in charge and we're going to get through this.
And -- and that is as important as anything. SOURCE
We may not be sure what to do, but we can get the people we need to figure it out. This is laughable to the sophisticates of punditland. But it is exactly why we should be glad if Barack is President.
If we are to have faith in anything, it is that the better side of our nature has from the beginning of time produced what we venerate as great and imaginative and enlightening.
We may wish to encompass this still with the stuff of creedal religion. But I firmly believe that the day of creedal religion is fading precisely as we begin to learn some self respect -- even as we acknowledge that we are spectrum people -- that everything is a spectrum. As Ken Wilber made clear more than thirty years ago.
Barack is an imperfect person like the rest of us. But he seems to have been tapped for the job of midwifing the change I am talking about.
We need to sit loose to it, think beyond past envelopes, give some space to reason and be willing to slough off a good deal of junk that is materially as noxious as the bonds and other paper that we are beginning to see as pure Wizard Of Oz.
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The American crisis is simply educational. This country is flushing the brains of generation after generation of its kids down the drain by spending obscene amounts of money on destruction technology and almost nothing on education.
Unless you solve that, nothing else can make a difference. In a world built on knowledge only the knowledgeable can prosper. So far you have kept up appearances by importing educated people. But even that is coming to an end. What remains are those who think that a trailer park is the highpoint of urban architecture and maintaining a road surface is rocket science.
America spend more per student than any nation on the planet, however, the money is (obviously) not used productively.
The US typically ranks second or third on an absolute basis. But the clincher is that where most other countries try to give the same level of education to all their students as a matter of democracy and fairness, in the US the disparity between poor and rich students ranks from as low as $5000 in public school of some states to something like $25,000 in private schools. So while the average per GDP is high, the majority of students receive a poor education while a minority will receive many times more than those in other nations. Not to mention that the US spends more per student on university, again skewing the distribution towards the rich and already smart, leaving everyone else behind.
As for productivi
Sorry to disagree with our basic tenet; what we need is less global thought and more village level thinking. Globalism, especially in finance and corporatism, has created this greedy mess we call America today.
Time to get back to simpler, closer to the land, personal/tribal thinking.
Wow. I vastly regret if this is taken as anything less than what you are advocating. If you check the links you will see the linkage between global and local. I am sure you know them. But I am sorry the balance does not come through.
Visited the sites, and yes, we agree on the application of solutions on a more personal level. But I have a problem with, "Nor the notion of a global currency." If by currency you mean money. The major problem in today's "global economy" is the consolidation of power in the ever fewer hands of the elites. And just as in Jefferson's or Lincoln's or JKF's time, the enemy is global banking--and their fondest wish is for one currency. Sort of like the ring in the Lord of The Rings--One ring, or in this case--currency, to bind them.
Ideally your solutions would find an international application. But, since this is where I live and have the most impact, my concerns--and I would guess those of most readers here--would be much closer to home, at least to begin with. One worldism, the new world order, or any other Rockefelle
Stephen,
The age of the efficient transportation is about to begin. With very fuel efficient automobiles our current distributed infrastructure retains its value and we maintain our freedom of mobility. This means fuel efficient automobiles. Not as you suggest, no automobiles. Instead 100 MPGe to 200 MPGe automobiles can provide with the freedom of transportation that our society depends on.
Check out the wikipedia on fuel efficiency of transportation. Note that transportation efficiency better than walking(200 mpg) is possible. We have had it for years. It is the bicycle.
http://en.
Walking - 235 MPGeUS
Biking - 653 MPGeUS
2008 Prius - 46 mpg–U.S
Amtrak - 39 MPGeUS
Airtravel - 49 MPGeUS
60 MGPe, 80 MPGe, 100 MPGe ---> Freedom
I see this as a genuine policy issue. I would argue my position because I am confident that the line you suggest will be part of the future. I am trying to go for a more balanced option and one which would gradually offer an alternative to our current distribution AKA sprawl.
Walking is not a relevant mode of transportation. Neither is biking. It's healthy, though.
Hybrid cars have about a factor of two left in them technologically, but the main improvement would be to shorten the distance traveled (better urban design) and to get more than one person into a car (ride sharing).
Electric trolley buses achieve 750 passenger mpg in inner cities. And that is probably a hundred year old technology.
Amtrak fuel efficiency proves only one thing: the US stopped investing in rail systems in the 1940s latest. Modern rail makes 2000 passenger miles per gallon possible.
Air travel, at the moment is NOT the efficiency bottleneck. It will be once we solve the car problem. But that won't happen for decades to come.
KTM,
Walking and biking are energy efficiency benchmarks. If the amazingly inefficient human body can walk and get 235 MPGe or power a bike and get 653 MPGe, a well engineered personal vehicle should get at least 200 MPG.
The bicycle is an example of a personal transportation system, that is right in front of us all, that shows that far better energy efficiency than 200 MPG is possible.
It is also a hint that our current personal transportation design point of greater 3500 lbs and more than 100 horse power is a dead end.
Think of it. Your horseless carriage is being pulled by the power of more than 100 horses and their waste made colorless and odorless is being pumped into the air. Seems like way to many horses.
Regards,
First, let us talk about curbing human population growth. Only then can we begin to speak of Utopia.
This butt-kicking fly in the ointment here is that without population growth there can be no sustainable economy other than the most primitive.
Disagree. I think pop. growth is a consistent red herring -- the easiest explanation for why things are as they are. It gives rise to Club of Rome thinking with which essentially is a scarcity model. I grant you the force of the arguments that have been marshalled and their provenance, but I think they are generally wrong..
That is already happening. Unless you want to fight the demons of the 1960s and 1970s, we have bigger fish to fry. Mankind will level of slightly above the ten, eleven billion mark. That is entirely sustainable with proper technological choices (i.e. renewable energy and a limited beef diet for most of the world's population).
Nothing's wrong with dreaming, but perhaps we need to review our fundamental understanding of ethics in a world transmogrified by technology. More specifically, and most urgently, how do we teach our children to act in a world in which the most tempting action is to remain a spectator of the entertainment industry? How do we ourselves behave? Well, this is my last post to HuffPo, for one thing. Take care.
Why leave? Good post. And this is one of the few places where comments (at least in my limited experience) have conversational aspects.
"Give us this last man, Zarathustra! Make us this last man!"
Geez.
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