Friday, January 7, 2005
I want to explain why I created this website. The reasons are basically two-fold, but they are intimately related in my mind. One of the reasons was my desire to be self-employed. I want the work I do to come from my heart. We live in a world that requires us to work. Even if money weren't an issue (imagine living in a tribe or a commune where money is not used) everyone would still have to work. It's a necessity of survival -- building shelters, gathering food, clothing ourselves (as protection from the elements), gathering fuel, collecting water, cleaning up. These are tasks that are basic to life no matter where you live or at what time in history. In fact, money is an invention that allows some people to avoid work, and/or to hoard more of the collective fruits of labor to themselves.
Work is something that will always be with us. What is at issue is the quantity and quality of work that we do. It would be beneficial for all people to begin to take a serious look at this issue for two reasons (and these are related to the two reasons why I created this website).
The first reason is that we don't need to work as much as we do. The idea of full-employment (every able adult working 40 hours per week) is preposterous! And the second reason is that it's destroying the Earth!
Our economic system is like a fast-spreading cancer across the body of the Earth because it's based on growth and consumption. We need to slow this down, get the cancer under control. But I know this isn't easy. It's a catch-22. We end up forced to work 40 hours per week to make money to pay the bills because the prices are based on everyone working 40 hours per week. You can only cut back so far because the water level is set at everyone working 40 hours per week. Some people can't cut back at all because their hourly wage is too low.
Most people find it impossible to go against the flow and give into it. Not only do they give into it, but because they work so hard, give so much of their life-energy to their work, they then spend every penny (plus go into debt) in an attempt to salve the pain. And that too is part of going with the flow. Buy a big house; fill it will nice furniture; buy fancy clothes; buy a shiny new car; go on exotic vacations. We all know how it works.
Well, most people are simply sold on this system and nothing short of utter environmental or economic devastation is going to change that. But I know for a fact that there are many people out there who would give anything to get out of that system for the chance to do work that comes from their heart. But like everyone else, we need money to survive in this world too. I can't say I've found the solution, but I won't give up trying.
I have some idea of what's needed. I have a vision in mind and this website is the first glimpse of that vision. The things humans need first and foremost for survival are: clean water, food, and shelter. I could probably survive on $750 per month if I didn't have to work. That's enough to cover housing and food for myself and my daughter, but since I have to work in order to earn that $750, my daughter has to go to day care while I'm at work, so that raises my monthly expenses to $1000 per month. So when I think about my goal, I can think about finding a means of self-employment that allows me to earn at least this much.
The second thing is to find other people who share my vision and we can put our resources together to live and work communally (or tribally, as Daniel Quinn says). If we put our resources together, it will actually require less from each person to provide ourselves with the clean water, shelter, food, energy, and other things that we need. Right now, our economic and cultural system pushes us to be individualistic which requires more from each person to provide these basic needs. As I said, this system is based on growth and consumption and individualism works in favor of growth and consumption.
So one reason I created this website was to create a means of self-employment for myself and others, and to begin to build a community in order to free ourselves from the current economic system.
The second reason, which I said is intimately related, is the environment. A system based on growth and consumption, which makes profit the highest value, has led to serious environmental devastation. I'm not blaming everything on it. There are plenty of examples of environmental destruction that had nothing to do with capitalism (but were still caused by growth and consumption). And there are many examples of capitalism that have worked to benefit the environment, such as new forms of technology that are better for the environment.
I'm not going to make the simplistic statement here that all problems in the world are caused by capitalism. It has to do with values. If we value the environment, we will protect it regardless of our economic system. If we don't value the environment, we will destroy it.
Yes, we live in a world where we have to earn money in order to survive. But that doesn't mean we have to destroy the environment to meet our needs and live comfortably. We can be conscious of the way we exist in the world.
Yet it does appear that our work in the world is intimately tied to how we interact with our environment. As Thomas Berry pointed out in The Great Work, creating jobs and protecting the environment do not have to be in opposition to each other. The two can complement each other. In fact, this makes more sense to me than just about anything I can think of. But unfortunately, the world hasn't yet caught on to the logic of this.
If you are here reading these words, and you understand the vision I'm trying to create, what I'm asking of you is to put yourself in the vanguard. The world is going to change drastically in the next 45 years. Things can get better or they can get worse. The human condition is dependent upon what we do now.
If you can imagine yourself stepping into a time machine and visiting the year 2050, what do you see? Do you see a world of 12 billion people where the majority live on the edge of death in a barren desert while those of us who are "fortunate" scrape by in concrete and steel jungles?
Or do you see all humans living close to the Earth, breathing fresh air and eating nutritous foods and drinking clean water, where the beauty and bio-diversity of nature have been preserved? Can you envision a world where you work fewer hours in a way that is deeply meaningful to you?
The future will arrive on schedule, but what will we see when we get there? It depends on what we do now. It's not just about the future. It's about the here and now. Create work that is meaningful to you right here, right now. Learn to live in harmony with the environment right here, right now.
Why?
I won't bother to answer that question because if you don't already know the answer to that question then nothing I say will make a bit of difference. My words will just be little smudges behind glass.
If you understand my vision, if you share that vision, then bring it forth with all the passion within you and create your work, create your community, create the world. Right here. Right now.
Work is something that will always be with us. What is at issue is the quantity and quality of work that we do. It would be beneficial for all people to begin to take a serious look at this issue for two reasons (and these are related to the two reasons why I created this website).
The first reason is that we don't need to work as much as we do. The idea of full-employment (every able adult working 40 hours per week) is preposterous! And the second reason is that it's destroying the Earth!
Our economic system is like a fast-spreading cancer across the body of the Earth because it's based on growth and consumption. We need to slow this down, get the cancer under control. But I know this isn't easy. It's a catch-22. We end up forced to work 40 hours per week to make money to pay the bills because the prices are based on everyone working 40 hours per week. You can only cut back so far because the water level is set at everyone working 40 hours per week. Some people can't cut back at all because their hourly wage is too low.
Most people find it impossible to go against the flow and give into it. Not only do they give into it, but because they work so hard, give so much of their life-energy to their work, they then spend every penny (plus go into debt) in an attempt to salve the pain. And that too is part of going with the flow. Buy a big house; fill it will nice furniture; buy fancy clothes; buy a shiny new car; go on exotic vacations. We all know how it works.
Well, most people are simply sold on this system and nothing short of utter environmental or economic devastation is going to change that. But I know for a fact that there are many people out there who would give anything to get out of that system for the chance to do work that comes from their heart. But like everyone else, we need money to survive in this world too. I can't say I've found the solution, but I won't give up trying.
I have some idea of what's needed. I have a vision in mind and this website is the first glimpse of that vision. The things humans need first and foremost for survival are: clean water, food, and shelter. I could probably survive on $750 per month if I didn't have to work. That's enough to cover housing and food for myself and my daughter, but since I have to work in order to earn that $750, my daughter has to go to day care while I'm at work, so that raises my monthly expenses to $1000 per month. So when I think about my goal, I can think about finding a means of self-employment that allows me to earn at least this much.
The second thing is to find other people who share my vision and we can put our resources together to live and work communally (or tribally, as Daniel Quinn says). If we put our resources together, it will actually require less from each person to provide ourselves with the clean water, shelter, food, energy, and other things that we need. Right now, our economic and cultural system pushes us to be individualistic which requires more from each person to provide these basic needs. As I said, this system is based on growth and consumption and individualism works in favor of growth and consumption.
So one reason I created this website was to create a means of self-employment for myself and others, and to begin to build a community in order to free ourselves from the current economic system.
The second reason, which I said is intimately related, is the environment. A system based on growth and consumption, which makes profit the highest value, has led to serious environmental devastation. I'm not blaming everything on it. There are plenty of examples of environmental destruction that had nothing to do with capitalism (but were still caused by growth and consumption). And there are many examples of capitalism that have worked to benefit the environment, such as new forms of technology that are better for the environment.
I'm not going to make the simplistic statement here that all problems in the world are caused by capitalism. It has to do with values. If we value the environment, we will protect it regardless of our economic system. If we don't value the environment, we will destroy it.
Yes, we live in a world where we have to earn money in order to survive. But that doesn't mean we have to destroy the environment to meet our needs and live comfortably. We can be conscious of the way we exist in the world.
Yet it does appear that our work in the world is intimately tied to how we interact with our environment. As Thomas Berry pointed out in The Great Work, creating jobs and protecting the environment do not have to be in opposition to each other. The two can complement each other. In fact, this makes more sense to me than just about anything I can think of. But unfortunately, the world hasn't yet caught on to the logic of this.
If you are here reading these words, and you understand the vision I'm trying to create, what I'm asking of you is to put yourself in the vanguard. The world is going to change drastically in the next 45 years. Things can get better or they can get worse. The human condition is dependent upon what we do now.
If you can imagine yourself stepping into a time machine and visiting the year 2050, what do you see? Do you see a world of 12 billion people where the majority live on the edge of death in a barren desert while those of us who are "fortunate" scrape by in concrete and steel jungles?
Or do you see all humans living close to the Earth, breathing fresh air and eating nutritous foods and drinking clean water, where the beauty and bio-diversity of nature have been preserved? Can you envision a world where you work fewer hours in a way that is deeply meaningful to you?
The future will arrive on schedule, but what will we see when we get there? It depends on what we do now. It's not just about the future. It's about the here and now. Create work that is meaningful to you right here, right now. Learn to live in harmony with the environment right here, right now.
Why?
I won't bother to answer that question because if you don't already know the answer to that question then nothing I say will make a bit of difference. My words will just be little smudges behind glass.
If you understand my vision, if you share that vision, then bring it forth with all the passion within you and create your work, create your community, create the world. Right here. Right now.
posted by Evon Davis at 5:39 AM
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