G'day all ~
Doug asks "is there anyone else who thinks that it is almost a waste
of time
to argue about global growth with our heads, and find some way to do
something substantial about it with our hearts and bodies?"
I believe that Doug raises a very important point in terms of how we
work
towards a more humane and ecologically sustainable economic system.
We
can't just do this through rational arguments.
There are a number of important things that need to be done. These include
(not in any order of importance):
** The development and advocacy of policies concerning alternatives
to
growth-based economics, to influence the media, government, non-government
and popular opinion leaders, activists and change agents, etc to consider
the importance of alternative economic thinking. This is largely
"head-work" - presenting and advocating arguments that will sow seeds.
There are still many potentially sympathetic people who do not realise
that
there are alternatives to capitalism and communism - there is much
that we
can do to simply create awareness of alternatives. For those who are
less
sympathetic to our arguments, the long-term work that we can do to
establish
our credibility in their eyes and continue a respectful debate may
pay off
when they come to the point where they too begin to realise the need
for change.
** Grass-roots economic conscientization strategies that invite
ordinary citizens to see how current economic thinking is one of the
major
roots of the problems and pressures that affect their lives and that
of
their families - with the aim to help develop popular support for new
economics thinking. NGOs in the Majority (Third) World are leading
the way
in how to do this. This is often called economic literacy, though I
don't
like this term as it assumes one-way learning. I prefer to think in
terms
of creating spaces where conversations regarding economics-related
issues
can occur in the community. Many people inwardly know that there is
a
tremendous need for fundamental change - we don't have to spend all
of our
efforts convincing people of this. Rather, a major challenge is to
create
the spaces whereby people can turn their inward thoughts and heart-felt
anxieties into public conversations.
** Linking lifestyle movements to economics. As several posts have
hinted at, there is tremendous potential for the growing voluntary
simplicity movement to become involved in this respect. Many people
are
attempting to simplify their lives because they can see the damage
that the
debt-overwork-consume cycle is doing to their lives. Why don't we use
this
trend to discuss with people the growth-based economics that causes
this
debt-overwork-consume cycle, and how through simplifying their lives
they
can contribute to the development of a new economic system?
** DOING new economics alternatives such as LETS and local currencies,
community-owned banks, cooperatives, community-supported agriculture,
sustainable settlements, etc, to demonstrate that alternatives are
possible
and to develop and model manifestations of more appropriate economic
thinking.
** Nonviolent direct actions to cast attention to the wrongdoings and
flaws of current economic thinking and the institutions and corporations
that benefit from them. This involves a lot of heart, spirit and
connectedness in addition to good intellectual analysis. We have nonviolent
direct actions to stop logging, uranium mining, etc - why can't we
also have
ones that focus on the international monetary system, globalisation,
etc?
If done well, grounded in the philosophy of nonviolence, these can
be very
successful in generating attention from people's minds and hearts to
the issues.
** Working with sympathetic social marketers (social marketers often
have a different value-base than their counterparts in the consumer
behaviour game) to develop long-term strategies to define and promote
concepts in ways that will most likely be seen as relevant by the
mainstream. As change agents, we face major questions such as "How
should
we talk about growth economics with different groups in the general
public?", "What are the entry points to begin dialogue?", "What issues
should we avoid touching on?", "How can we make it relevant to them?",
"What
communication channels / forums can we use?" etc - why don't we run
some
focus groups, have discussions with our unsympathetic friends, etc,
to find
out? I'm not here talking about attempting to convert the mainstream
to our
view. Rather, I'm focusing on how we can promote the issues so that
people
will engage in dialogue about them - so that the questions which need
to be
asked are indeed asked.
** Creating safety nets for people who will be disadvantaged by the
transition to new economic systems. We have become good, for example,
at
explaining how a new economics system would be more likely to meet
people's
needs for work than the current system. We have done less, however,
in
explaining to the people who would lose their jobs how their welfare
can be
supported in the transition. To the millons of people who work in
fossil-fuel based industries, abstract discussions concerning how work
needs
would be met by a new system may mean little when their primary concern
is
"They're telling me that I'm gonna have to lose MY job! No way!".
Each of us doesn't have to do all of this - we all have our strengths
and
passions which will direct us to some points on this sprectrum. Rather,
our
collective efforts of producing and advocating policies, economic literacy,
promoting the positive lifestyle implications of non-growth economies,
doing
new economics on the ground, nonviolent direct actions, making connections
with the mainstream, and creating safety nets will create synergies
that
will facilitate change.
And furthermore, change agents who focus on a particular range of the
above
spectra will need to respect and link with the efforts of others. For
example, there is an important role for NGOs that listen to and learn
from
what is occurring in small communities on the ground, translating these
learnings into policies that make sense on the macro-level, and advocating
these in national and international fora.
I'm sorry for the length of this post!
Sustainably,
Rodney
Perth
Australia