The poisoning of our minds runs deep.
Our civilization is dying and our species may be doomed — largely because of a series of horrific values and decisions that it was built on.
First of all, our modern systems — the industrial revolution and what followed — is built on oil. Burning massive quantities of oil, along with other destructive activities central to our civilization is ruining the biosphere. When that’s no longer livable, we are finished.
Then, there’s work. And especially, work for money.
This is the core mistake. A system that is built on work for money is a hell hole. It rewards the worst in human beings and punishes the best. Greed, competition, and ultimately hatred and bigotry are essential elements of our society. ANY society built on oil and money.
Especially money.
This isn’t only capitalism, although capitalism is the “winner” in the competition of systems. (Oligarchic capitalism, but whatever form, it’s still capitalism.) But pretty much every country and system on Earth uses money. Which means it uses people as a means to an end.
In other words, people have no value except insofar as they produce wealth for others, elites — whether that’s communist party officials or American plutocrats or whoever. Our civilization is based on the notion that people have no inherent value. What is valued is money and stuff.
Not life. Not time. Not love or play or Nature. In other words, we value the valueless (money is just a stupid idea and has no value except for our pretending) and everything that really matters is seen as frivolous and useless and childish indulgence.
Most Work Is Useless or Destructive — and REQUIRED
Our jobs, if we think from the perspective of human beings and not invented economic systems, are an entirely useless waste of our short precious lives. Yet we give this activity priority over everything else.
We do this because our society is organized such that without doing useless work to enrich other undeserving souls, you will be unable to get food or shelter or medicine. You will die.
Yes, there are some modifications of the system in place, some slight guardrails of grudging compassion. These are benefits which we pay for, yet are still unwillingly provided. These slight bits of humanity are a bitter concession by the elites, and one they are forever attacking.
But make no mistake: work is a vice. You waste your life doing it, sacrificing your limited time and energy. And, the overproduction of mountains of crap (“commodities”) ruins the planet for humanity and dooms everyone’s children.
This is a lose-lose situation. Even the elites lose IF they actually care about their own children…which apparently they don’t. Who really wants a dead planet? Who wants to be a doomed species? Yet the elites believe they are winning.
That’s why our group is called The Saners and we describe our civilization and its leaders as being insane.
We Have Been Taught That There Is No Alternative. Bullshit.
Our systems are killing us, and ruining our lives, yet we support the system. We believe it is necessary. We cannot even imagine an alternative. So we either resign ourselves to it, or fight hard for slight modifications, a few minor concessions to humanity.
This would have been like pre-Civil War slaves fighting for half a day off on Sundays. But letting slavery continue, including the complete lack of freedom and the incessant beatings.
What we need to do is ditch the entire system, and do something completely different. We need to start from the idea that people matter, and that, except for actual human requirements like healthy food and medicine and shelter, stuff is completely extra.
We should also recognize that every bit of unnecessary production to some degree defiles the Earth and threatens our biosphere. So unnecessary work should be minimized.
Oh, and no work should ever be done for money. We cannot be a transactional civilization because that ruins everything — it ruins the planet and our values and human relationships.
We can and must replace transaction — “economic man” who is a soulless inhuman creature — with unconditional love.
Yes, that’s what I said: “unconditional love.” You are probably thinking “that’s pretty squishy and vague and unrealistic.” That’s what you think (heck, it’s my instinctive reaction, too!) when you’ve spent your entire life being gaslit by elites and their systems.
But nearly all of us exist because love is a core part of human nature. Newborn humans are completely helpless and they require others to sacrifice and care for them. They require unconditional love.
This is a genuine and important part of human nature. Yes, its true that human nature includes some bad and destructive instincts, too. But those instincts have been magnified by a society that rewards cruelty and greed. And our better instincts have been suppressed.
We must reverse that. We can reverse it. To do this, we do not need to battle — to go into a war of good versus evil.
Good Has A Decisive Advantage and Can Easily Win — With Focus and Discipline
Nazi concentration camps had gates out front declaring that “work makes you free.” Worldwide, we all still live by this lie.
And although we do not live in conditions even remotely as cruel as concentration camp victims, we are still suffering needlessly. The current civilization — which doesn’t value human life — is still built on evil and crimes against humanity.
We won’t let this continue. We will stabilize the climate and we will replace our stupid cruel civilization with a society that values and protects life.
We can do this. The reason we can do this and have an advantage over the elites is that the elites do nothing. WE do everything for them. We don’t need to take power from them. We simply need to redirect the power we have to activities that help humanity, and away from being the servants to our abusers.
We always hear the cry “but what will you replace it with?” And then we break into feuding groups about the merits of socialism, or communism, or whatever.
But it’s simpler than that. We do not need to start with a fully-fleshed out new way of living down to the finest detail. We can and must start with broad strokes and correct course as we go along. In fact, this has always been true of change. That’s the nature of the new and the (at least partially) unknown.
What we need to do is start from a vision. And although I have been thinking about this for a long time and have worked out more details of this vision, we don’t need that. Please see this video below. It states clear truths and offers a different and better way of living. For now, it’s enough.
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