Contribution to Greenpeace UK Manifesto:
Submitted: 3 May 2019
Well done Greenpeace UK, on starting this Manifesto process… It is needed, and as a few have already said: A rich, crafting road, ahead!
Our problem is not one of Fossil Fuels and / or Emissions. These are symptoms of a deeper problem!
Our Problem is one of a flawed Ideology, one that requires us all to compete, consume, and strive for more and more ‘To Be Happy’. (Whether that be striving at the individual, community, nation or global levels. Globally ‘we’ are a group of nations competing against each other, and then the whole of Humanity as a group, ‘competing’ against Nature)!)
Americanism is the flawed ideology, a virtual religion / culture. This isn’t about Americans, as the huge unhappiness in the USA today is America challenged by Americanism.
In almost every nation around the world, ‘everything’ is in the process of being globally ‘algorithmised’, into a ‘Systematised Way of Living”, and relating to each other, with Americanism, and economic liberty as the dream! Facebook, Google, Amazon, AirBnb, Uber, Phones, Twitter, YouTube, etc…. ‘They’ and many more, not just US brands, are all built to make us interact in a certain, non-soulful way, around an Americanism ideology. This supposedly to help us be more Successful, and Economically Liberated.
The Ideology’s Engine: A turbo charged form of capitalism, is Americanism’s powerful, enabling engine.
The Fuel: A never-ending supply of human printed money, linked to ever-expanding Debt, is this engine’s, illimitable, high-octane fuel.
The Elusive Dream: The whole system, and our own use of personal debt, lures us into thinking we have a perpetual growth machine that will bring each of us closer to ‘The Dream Life’ and its ‘prize’ of ‘Happiness ‘.
The current Manifesto proposals are about Picking off this system’s easy fruit and doing a Green Energy, Blood Transfusion. This ‘remedy’ on a deeply flawed socio-economic system, built around americanism ideology, won’t solve the problem. At best it will slightly delay inevitable Extinction.
Of course, Decarbonising is needed, and fast! But decarbonising ‘something’ that is way too large, and in lifestyle design, is unfit for enabling humans to belong sustainably on the planet, is not Beginning with an End in Mind. An ‘End’ that is the begining of Sustainable life for Humans in genertions to come.
These adhoc actions, may seem expedient, and to be “at least doing something”, but it distracts us from the urgently needed, Extinction Prevention remedy.
We don’t have time for mistakes as large as this……!!!!!
The under lying ideology is what needs to be radically changed, and this needs a unified, global effort, and us, the electorates’ around the world to want this change.
A Key Part of any UK Plan must be acknowledging that without Global plan, individual nation action is putting the ‘Extinction Prevention’ priority in the wrong place. This needs the UK plan to include radical, confrontational, Global Activism by the government and its people: For a Global Consensus on a Global Plan for Ideology change. Including, enforced, punitive sanctions for those nations (like the USA currently), not participating or obstructing consensus building. This is where justice will start.
Given the state of global unity today, the leadership of the UK, if it chose to go it alone for even a Zero Carbon goal, would be committing almost all UK inhabitants, to a foolish path of increasing misery.
This while ‘the world’ looks on protecting their economies, and the current Humanity Path to Extinction, is materially unchanged. Trying to keep the economy afloat to provide jobs while it is been downsized by between 50-70% is an impossible task. That’s the magnitude of the change ‘we’ need, unless one is a Green Growth ‘sucker’.
Green Growth is a fatally flawed dream that is favoured by the elite, because it is based on the ideology of today, bringing the solution for the problem. It seen as a ‘positive solution’ for Our Problem, so like candy, it is very palatable, but bad for us!
The ideology today is THE Problem, and as such, ‘it’ will never be able to ‘Fix Itself’.
All the neo-liberal political parties around the world punt for Green Growth, because they are built on Americanism, and it personally works, The Dream’ for them.
It’s criminal……! Extinction will Prove it!
If we want to avoid The Extinction path and change course within a democracy context, ‘we’ have to move (quickly) to the point where:
The Majority, ie more that 50% of all democratic electorates around the world, ‘Have to ‘Despise’ the current ideology. That is you, me, your friends, business and the political party leadership….!
When more than 50% of the UK (the World) electorate ‘hates’ / opposes ‘our’ enslaving Americanism ideology, the road will be clear to take The Right Action: The Right action that is needed to Solve our Extinction problem.
The problem is that ‘we’ are all part of the ideology today. Many either deeply addicted, or enslaved, and so, mostly can’t see its ‘Extinction Enabling’ flaws.
The Green Peace Manifesto needs to be about this Ideology Change, rather than ad hoc tampering with some of The Symptoms of the flawed ideology.
Central to this is Money: Its place in our society, how it’s created, how it’s valued, and how it flows around society. This is a fundamental change in the way society is organised today.
