And what makes this doubly damning is not only that so much of what a community needs to have get done, day to day, does not happen because the community supposedly cannot afford it. Cannot afford it because we view what is there to be done as cost centered commodities in the first place, as opposed to the list of tasks that need to be performed that keep things going. Which, of course is bad enough, but to add salt to the wound, we we also have the situation where the very technology that makes human skill not so competitive any more, could also be used to allow non experts do things that only experts used to be able to do. A reality which would make moving from a cost based economy, to an effort base one, a good deal more straightforward than one might think at first glance.
It all boils down to a straightforward equation, I can tell you. If you have energy, information to apply, all of the other material resources, and a will to get things done, the question then becomes, how do we best organize ourselves to make use of these things. And the thing is, we do have those things, or most of them.
The resources part is especially tricky now because a cost based economy doesn't like to recycle, and can't help itself in going overboard on packaging. And when I talk about packaging I do not mean just the physical containers stuff gets sold in. One also needs to include all of the pre-purchase marketing conducted to create, and maintain brand, as well as individual product identity, and what you're actually putting on, in your mind, when you purchase it. In that, I can assure you, is an amalgam of materials, energy, and human effort, worth perhaps several moon shot, or New Deal, programs a year. Just think of what we might have available to make use of if we could recycle with a lot less, structured opposition, and eliminate most of what we think of as packaging.
The whole of it. The goddamn, mind boggling whole of it, is not only polluting the planet, it is tearing us apart from the outside in, and making us insane from the inside out. It has become an almost brilliant, absolute opposite, to something that helps build "thoughtful, loving structure." And it has to stop. It just has to stop. And only we can make that happen.
Ask deeper questions. Become better informed. Ask yourself what you could be doing to take this argument forward to a bigger audience. And then you need to take action. Don't just continue to sit on the sidelines, pretending you can keep doing your business as usual. You can't. That's just the way it is.
When a Man’s Unemployed, His Wife Bears the Emotional Costs
See Also:
CONSOLING THEMSELVES
The Young Men Leaving Behind The Real World
As video games get better and job prospects worse, more young men are dropping out of the job market to spend their time in an alternate reality.
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