In the fourth and final part of this Frankly mini-series, I suggest responses that reside in the intersection of the ‘Four Horsemen of the 2020s’ and the ongoing/accelerating risks to Earth's ecosystems, and the web of life. What can we do? How can pro-future thinkers reconcile ‘Just Stopping Oil’ when the Superorganism dynamic of the global economy will continue trying hard to ‘Keep Pumping Oil’? The ‘what to do’ part of this story will always be the hardest, because a) it’s incredibly complicated and complex and b) what one chooses to do depends a lot on what they care about, and what their life circumstances are.
We must disconnect the "turbocharger" of Capitalism. This is the most critical aspect of degrowth we are going to need to address. We have to do this before we can "look ahead". If we want to get ahead of energy, technology, and profits and get two steps ahead, we need to change the root-cause of the growth & profits. We need to change the incentives. What CAUSED the system, and its incentives?
The key will be the development of complementary currencies.
Financial Capital, our money and all our economic systems are built on something that cannot possibly exist in real Universe.
All our most intractable problems have their roots in that impossibility.
The thing that cannot exist is our money: as we create, define, and use it.
Money is anything that a society agrees to accept in exchange for every other thing or service in that society. When we use money in exchange, it represents the work that was done to earn it.
Real things, and real work obey the laws of thermodynamics, just as every other real thing in our universe obeys those laws.
But OUR money is special. Money, as we use it now, represents debt: it is created as debt with interest.
We define it by the way we use it, and we use it as though it breaks the laws.
But we can’t break a law of physics. We can only break something else, somewhere else, probably belonging to someone else.
What if money really is limited by the laws of physics? What if we have built our entire socioeconomic system on a mistake? What if we have constructed the entire massive edifice of human civilization on a foundation of sand?
Great work. I love the call to individual action - what can I do? I feel the more people who are exposed to the thinking, to understand what the real issues are, the more society could start to embrace some of the actions needed. However, the battle against misinformation and the status quo is unbelievably hard.
Here in NZ we are soon to go to an election and I've never seen it more stark - it is a contest between those that would maintain the status quo (and go further with existing thinking) and those intent on progressive change. And, at the moment, the status quo is winning!
Here it is, 13 months later, and I had to go back and review this episode after reading a 2010 report by David Korowicz of FEASTA and the Risk/Resilience Network called Tipping Point: Near-term Systemic Implications of a Peak in Global Oil Production, an Outline Review. At 50 pages, some outline! He explains why degrowth is impossible without crashing The System. We can't even put The Superorganism on a diet. I got to this Frankly in search of a more thorough explanation of the Four Horsemen, which I still haven't found.
I've applied for a volunteer position on the steering committee for my little town's new Comprehensive Plan. In all the forums that count, I am alotted no more than 3 minutes to say my piece. I'm hoping to find a way to condense the Four Horsemen of the 2020s into 3 minutes. It could make the difference between a prepared community and yet another commitment to growth.
PPS, if I get appointed to the Comp Plan steering committee, I need to have my magic wand in order -- the ONE THING I would do to improve my borough's chances for its human and more than human futures.
I'm leaning towards limiting investments in favor of increasing flexibility and avoiding sunk costs.
This community already values the natural world, at least relative to other suburbs. Despite all the invasives, we have a great tree canopy, a government Tree Committee, we are a Tree Town, a Bird Town, and are working on being a Bee & Butterfly town. We sponsored a zoom with Doug Tallamy, founder of Homegrown National Park. If anybody can stretch the boundary of what's possible, it's us.
PS, a borough of population 6,600 doesn't sound like anything. But if I could influence the upcoming Comprehensive Plan to even consider TGS, our influential college town could affect nearby boroughs and start a beneficial cascade. In Pennsylvania, due to the State's system of municipal charter templates, boroughs have powers that townships and cities do not.
One borough council member even listens to TGS because I introduced him to it when he was campaigning for office. He is a cusp millennial/GenZ with ambitions for higher office. He is already getting hamstrung by The System. However, our 6,600 human borough has enough liberties to potentially get un-hamstrung.
Exactly. I've heard it a million times, but trying to find the most concise & informative version is hard. So far, JSO#3 is the winner, at 7 minutes 45 seconds starting at 5:02. Now my job is to figure out how to condense even that into 3 minutes zero seconds, since that's all I get in any public forum.
My goal is to goad SOMEBODY, ANYBODY in power into giving me even a twenty minute hearing.
Unfortunately, although I've gotten many att-a-girl's from audience members upon hearing my Public Comments at government meetings, not a single one is willing to so much as write the local government a brief email of support. The impotent whining is unbelievable. If I even had a group of 3, I could break through the institutional barrier to being heard. Groups get 20 minute hearings. Individuals get 3 minutes.
Au Contraire Nate
First:
We must disconnect the "turbocharger" of Capitalism. This is the most critical aspect of degrowth we are going to need to address. We have to do this before we can "look ahead". If we want to get ahead of energy, technology, and profits and get two steps ahead, we need to change the root-cause of the growth & profits. We need to change the incentives. What CAUSED the system, and its incentives?
The key will be the development of complementary currencies.
Financial Capital, our money and all our economic systems are built on something that cannot possibly exist in real Universe.
All our most intractable problems have their roots in that impossibility.
The thing that cannot exist is our money: as we create, define, and use it.
Money is anything that a society agrees to accept in exchange for every other thing or service in that society. When we use money in exchange, it represents the work that was done to earn it.
Real things, and real work obey the laws of thermodynamics, just as every other real thing in our universe obeys those laws.
But OUR money is special. Money, as we use it now, represents debt: it is created as debt with interest.
We define it by the way we use it, and we use it as though it breaks the laws.
But we can’t break a law of physics. We can only break something else, somewhere else, probably belonging to someone else.
What if money really is limited by the laws of physics? What if we have built our entire socioeconomic system on a mistake? What if we have constructed the entire massive edifice of human civilization on a foundation of sand?
Complementary Currency:
https://www.amazon.com/Big-Shift-Rethinking-Governance-Economic-ebook/dp/B075FMLXW4/ref=sr_1_12?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1505084479&sr=1-12&keywords=the+big+shift
Money that actually works:
https://bjchippindale.substack.com/p/coming-soon?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=web&utm_campaign=substack_profile&showWelcome=true
Great work. I love the call to individual action - what can I do? I feel the more people who are exposed to the thinking, to understand what the real issues are, the more society could start to embrace some of the actions needed. However, the battle against misinformation and the status quo is unbelievably hard.
Here in NZ we are soon to go to an election and I've never seen it more stark - it is a contest between those that would maintain the status quo (and go further with existing thinking) and those intent on progressive change. And, at the moment, the status quo is winning!
Keep up the great work.
Here it is, 13 months later, and I had to go back and review this episode after reading a 2010 report by David Korowicz of FEASTA and the Risk/Resilience Network called Tipping Point: Near-term Systemic Implications of a Peak in Global Oil Production, an Outline Review. At 50 pages, some outline! He explains why degrowth is impossible without crashing The System. We can't even put The Superorganism on a diet. I got to this Frankly in search of a more thorough explanation of the Four Horsemen, which I still haven't found.
I've applied for a volunteer position on the steering committee for my little town's new Comprehensive Plan. In all the forums that count, I am alotted no more than 3 minutes to say my piece. I'm hoping to find a way to condense the Four Horsemen of the 2020s into 3 minutes. It could make the difference between a prepared community and yet another commitment to growth.
Aha! What I wanted was Just Stop Oil #3, the previous frankly!
ive said it multiple places - not sure where is best
PPS, if I get appointed to the Comp Plan steering committee, I need to have my magic wand in order -- the ONE THING I would do to improve my borough's chances for its human and more than human futures.
I'm leaning towards limiting investments in favor of increasing flexibility and avoiding sunk costs.
This community already values the natural world, at least relative to other suburbs. Despite all the invasives, we have a great tree canopy, a government Tree Committee, we are a Tree Town, a Bird Town, and are working on being a Bee & Butterfly town. We sponsored a zoom with Doug Tallamy, founder of Homegrown National Park. If anybody can stretch the boundary of what's possible, it's us.
PS, a borough of population 6,600 doesn't sound like anything. But if I could influence the upcoming Comprehensive Plan to even consider TGS, our influential college town could affect nearby boroughs and start a beneficial cascade. In Pennsylvania, due to the State's system of municipal charter templates, boroughs have powers that townships and cities do not.
One borough council member even listens to TGS because I introduced him to it when he was campaigning for office. He is a cusp millennial/GenZ with ambitions for higher office. He is already getting hamstrung by The System. However, our 6,600 human borough has enough liberties to potentially get un-hamstrung.
Exactly. I've heard it a million times, but trying to find the most concise & informative version is hard. So far, JSO#3 is the winner, at 7 minutes 45 seconds starting at 5:02. Now my job is to figure out how to condense even that into 3 minutes zero seconds, since that's all I get in any public forum.
My goal is to goad SOMEBODY, ANYBODY in power into giving me even a twenty minute hearing.
Unfortunately, although I've gotten many att-a-girl's from audience members upon hearing my Public Comments at government meetings, not a single one is willing to so much as write the local government a brief email of support. The impotent whining is unbelievable. If I even had a group of 3, I could break through the institutional barrier to being heard. Groups get 20 minute hearings. Individuals get 3 minutes.