A Vision of A Post-Insanity World

Photo by Todd DeSantis on Unsplash

What are we trying to achieve?

Our Age is characterized by small thinking, fear, and a complete lack of vision. We are not only in a bad place; we can’t even imagine a better place to be.

This is totally unacceptable. It’s important that we face and overcome our crises. But that’s not nearly enough. We need to do more than survive.

What politician, what billionaire, what movement, what entity is providing a real vision of where we need to go and how we can get there?

Well, there are some false prophets. Marxists and Libertarians have visions. These are ideas that are so malleable that they can accommodate and “explain” any situation—and provide unproven, and in some cases disproven “solutions.” But the non-religious Marxists are always awaiting the impending collapse of capitalism and victory of communism with the same quaint certitude of the Christian who sees Jesus returning any moment now.

Marxists and Libertarians and, yes, Christians, by providing vacuous “explanations” for everything, explain nothing. Reading the tea leaves of history to fit them into pre-conceived notions, or gymnastically wordsmithing the text of an allegedly divine book—well, they are a distraction at best.

A Fresh Look

We need to see and think about the here and now.

It’s absurd, for example, to argue what the framers of the Constitution wanted and meant. They are dead along with the world they lived in. WE are here now, and regardless of what’s on the papers they left, WE need to decide what’s right, what we want, what we will do.

We cannot be hamstrung by the thoughts of dead people. We may, in some cases, decide their thinking is correct. But we shouldn’t follow or support those ideas out of some odd obsession with tradition.

Slavery was a tradition-indeed a part of the tradition supported by many of the founders. Most of us have now recognized that was a terrible mistake.

We can’t punt our responsibilities to our forefathers. This is OUR planet now.

The Start of A New Vision, and A Way To Get There

It’s like the whole world has been on an adrenaline rush of impossible expectations. Our lives have been transformed, largely by modern technology. We are now capable of producing enough—more than enough—to provide for every person on Earth.

And yet this hasn’t solved our problems and, in fact, accelerated an existential problem.

We are technologically capable of properly feeding, clothing and taking care of everyone. But the political and economic systems—nearly everywhere—prevent this. Furthermore, our society is committed to producing mountains of unnecessary stuff, wasting everyone’s lives in exhausting labor simply to provide excessive wealth for an undeserving few. This is true in Putin’s Russia, in the West, in nearly every country on the planet. And that excessive wealth creates gigatons of deadly CO2 emissions, rapidly rendering the Earth largely uninhabitable.

That’s just crazy and really, really stupid. We KNOW better, yet keep doing this. This is crazy for the “leaders” who “benefit” from it-and they will ultimately “rule” a dead Earth. And it’s crazy for us who carry out their orders, working literally to doom our own children and grandchildren.

We need to see this clearly, talk with each other about this, and STOP CARRYING OUT CRAZY APOCALYPTIC ORDERS. This is, admittedly, tricky because our societies demand that we work or die. There IS a way out of this, which is beyond the scope of this essay. But we have a movement and a group-The Saners-who are tapping the lessons of history to create a promising movement to replace our dying civilization with a sane and humane one. (see WeAreSaners.org)

The outline of the vision is this:

1. Less work, less stuff, more time…and more actual LIFE.
2. Recognition that producing crap is a waste and that human relationships, art (which is simply a word for creative self-expression), and living in accord with Nature is a much better civilization and a more meaningful existence.
3. Working ONLY to produce essentials (like food, medicine, and the like) would take a tiny fraction of the labor we are doing now, freeing up our time.
4. Generosity—giving this food and medicine to everyone who needs it—is far more sensible and humane than requiring transactions. That’s because we will be producing ONLY what’s needed—enough—so everyone has much, much more discretionary time. Indeed, “free time” would characterize 80%-90% of our lives.

Here’s the kicker. Our vision and our view and our plan is far more realistic than the current path we are one. To keep doing what we are doing right now literally impossible-we cannot continue a modern technological civilization because in doing so, we are destroying the biosphere. While political dissidents may threaten the status quo, the bigger threat to the current system is the status quo itself.

Our idea for a humane and sustainable civilization IS the realistic option. It’s not easy but it is credible and doable. Our plans do not violate Natural Law—they only challenge human law and human rules—which are not immutable. Biologically, we don’t require most of the crap we produce. Slashing CO2 emissions is absolutely required for mere survival. And, in return, we will get BETTER LIVES…yes, with less stuff, but more TIME!

The path there requires nonviolent noncooperation which has a history of powering successful movements. Our group, The Saners, has studied (and continues to study) history to guide our actions and give us the best chance of success.

This is a perilous time. We are facing an existential crisis, and our current leaders and systems have failed catastrophically. But WE can succeed.