Insight and inspiration in turbulent times.
So while ancient and modern commoners may share a disdain for capitalism, ancient wisdom traditions bring much more gravitas and insight to the challenges we face than, say, politicians and political parties.
If critical masses of people could recognise this fully, and join forces to finally say ‘enough!’ to this misleading belief about ‘making it’, perhaps there would be a real chance that something better could arise in its place.
The “migrant crisis” was manufactured and is the fault of both Trump and Biden. We need to understand that the U.S. needs immigrants more than immigrants need the U.S.
The proposed model, Community Development and Resilience Cooperatives (CDRCs[1]), relies on three fundamental pillars to articulate its strategy: direct democracy, cooperativism, and agroecology.
Somebody needs to buy U.S. trade policymakers a periodic table of elements. China last week banned export of the key high-tech metals antimony, gallium and germanium to the United States. In this case, China has the upper hand.
So, forget imposing resource caps as such. We need to set targets for reduced resource use, yes. And then use credit guidance to adjust investment flows accordingly, until the targets are achieved.
Recent research has found that we have more than enough productive capacity to end poverty forever and ensure good lives for all 8 billion people on this planet – with even less resources and energy than we presently use, thus also achieving our ecological goals – if production was organized around human needs rather than capital accumulation.
We can choose to stop the economic growth machine and keep it idling in a steady state, preserving the little environmental integrity that remains, before the machine is forced to a halt. This will require thinking outside the box and using monetary policy tools unconventionally.
I want ‘The Good Life’ to be inclusive of everyone, to be truly pluralistic in not leaving anyone behind across ideological and geographic lines.
I am not sure that my employer quite understands the changes that have been set in motion. The gossip chain spread that story within days. Now, we all know that we have leverage. We can demand. Wouldn’t it be great if such a thing were to happen in your community! So what’s stopping you…
We see the potential for a national support programme – but this will require major funders – and our own sector – to see the value in the recovery and renewal of social clubs as a unique opportunity to expand the democratic economy in our everyday lives.
Ultimately, The Serviceberry is a hopeful book. It offers a way out of what Kimmerer calls a “cannibal economy”, where endless consumption depletes the world around us. Instead, she imagines a system where resources circulate through communities, creating webs of independence that nourish both humans and nature.
