Introducing

A Question of Direction

Patterns in the natural world can illustrate patterns in human affairs. The following can shed light on critical issues of our times.

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CRaCK! Fire wood splits, revealing the swirling grain around a branch. Within the swirls are little spots that, when a branch dies and lets daylight through, can become animated, swell into buds and grow a new branch.

On another level, all around the forest floor, seedlings stand ready to fill in when old trees fall, opening the sky. Old trees do fall making way for new. When they do, their remains decompose and soak into the soil providing nourishment for those that come after.

The cycle is endless thanks to organisms of decay. We often malign fungus, bacteria, mold and others. But where would we be without them? Nutrient substance would be absorbed by living things, but nothing would be released when they died. Before long, all available nutrients on the planet would be incorporated in perfectly preserved corpses, leaving the Earth as a desolate monument to a system that could not work.

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This illustration helps explain some problems with markets and growth and the way in which we measure well-being.

Nature and Society

In the way that 'biosphere' refers to the interconnected web of life encircling the Earth, 'noosphere' refers to the sphere of thought and feeling encircling the globe of human awareness.

In the forests of understanding, old established ideas make way for new ideas. Many of the basic concerns are perennial. How do we eat? . . . provide shelter? . . . care for the very young, the sick and the elderly? . . . How do we maintain community integrity for accomplishing tasks that are beyond individuals? . . . How do we entertain ourselves and find enough challenge to occupy the immense capabilities that being human has blessed us with? The cultural elements are the same but techniques evolve.

All around the forest floor of the noosphere, the ideas of individuals and citizens' groups focus on the circumstances around them and look for ways to make the world better, now and into the future.

Some of the solutions found in earlier times have grown into mature institutions. They absorb the majority of the energy coming from our collective human activity. As we approach the new millennium, many institutions are aging and will soon fall. To minimize the confusion social change inevitably entails, it seems appropriate to nurture the 'sapling' cultural innovations which are developing, waiting for the sky to clear.

The eight point sustainability guidelines, were derived from a four year study of the concerns and aspirations of voluntary and non-profit groups. As such, they provide an overview of things to consider as we recreate society for the unfolding future. (It is important to remember that these eight points are only very broad indicators of the range of interests found. They are open to questions and additions but not omission.) The service the eight point outline renders is that of a flag. It identifies a world view which many people feel offers better prospects for long-term well-being than does the path presently pursued by society.

The strategy that has developed around this 'common denominator' of popular concerns and aspirations is outlined in A Strategy for Sustainability .

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Problems with Markets
and Growth.

"The marketplace has been constantly evoked over the last quarter-century as the source of freedom and democracy as well as the only possible force to lead us back to growth. But after two decades of having their way, the exponents of this theory have no results to show us. . . . they have held and continue to hold the levers of power, and they have not produced. This is a very long trial period . . ."

John Ralston Saul, The Unconscious Civilization

Without addressing some basic assumptions of our economic system, many brilliant and effective solutions to serious problems will wither for lack of nourishment.

Since life began, plants and animals have grown and died, returning their substance to the world from which they emerged. Presently, this billion year old cyclic pattern is broken by corporate structures and investment portfolios.

Corporations grow, but they don't necessarily die and return to the common sources the resources they have absorbed. We are in a situation today where the primary nutrient of social structures, money, is increasingly being caught up in the workings of a few hundred corporate entities. The levels of economic growth necessary to provide for their established and expanding demands is hard to maintain, to say nothing of providing for other human needs.

Investment portfolios are another sort of immortal organism removing the nutrients of society from circulation. Trade in financial instruments, bonds, currencies, stocks, futures options, etc. presently make up 98% to 99%, by monetary value, of all financial transactions made. This means that 50 to 100 times more money is exchanged for abstract financial instruments than for all goods and services combined. Because the money being made through this trading is quickly reinvested it does not show up as income and is not taxed. Little or nothing is returned to nurture the whole. Furthermore, the appetite is endless, there is no concept of enough. Billions of dollars can grow to trillions; and these institutions just carry on looking for more. It comes as no surprise that there is less and less money for education, environment, social services and the rest. Nevertheless, financial institutions and multinational corporations absorb the bulk of the growth so persistently pursued by governments today.

With the media endlessly trumpeting the wonders of growth, we get the impression that it is necessary for survival. There is, however, another side to the story. See: The Growth Illusion: How Economic Growth has Enriched the Few, Impoverished the Many and Endangered the Planet by Richard Douthwaite.

Along with growth the message from the media is that we have to do everything we can to expand markets and through them the amount of stuff made and consumed.

There is a remarkable self-organizing nature in the market system, but it lacks sensitivity to critical issues of community well-being and ecosystem health. To correct these omissions, markets have to be governed. Making Markets Work for Sustainability is a review of some policy suggestions which could be adopted within the present structure of things. More examples can be found in The Effectiveness of Taxes in Reducing Waste. When our governments say there is little they can do, they should be made aware that many of the proposals in these files are actively operating in a number of countries.

When one begins to question the 'Church of the Bottom Line', the faith it is founded on appears increasingly out of touch with the world today. The accompanying paper on Economic Heresy, offers food for thought.

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Measuring Well-Being;
the need for change.

Economic Growth means increasing the amount of money changing hands. GNP or GDP simply measure the volume of financial transactions. One might think that money spent dealing with social failures like increasing crime or polluted water subtract from our well-being. Not so! It makes no difference to conventional economic measurement whether expenditures are made for good or ill. Any money spent is added and is said to indicate increased well-being. When a hurricane devastates a community, the local economy booms as people spend insurance money and their savings trying to restore their shattered lives.
A revealing account of this odd arrangement is available in the National Film Board of Canada's video Who's Counting: Sex, Lies and the Global Economy. Complementing Who's Counting is the "Genuine Progress Indicator" (GPI)

The GPI aims to sort out the mistaken messages that come from confusing money spent on positive contributions to our well-being with money spent trying to deal with problems we have created and should be working to avoid. In addition to subtracting undesirable costs, the GPI adds values for activities that help society but which GDP ignores because no money is spent on them. This includes families caring for their elders, voluntary community work, meals prepared at home, household fix it, and food grown for family consumption.

Clearly different decisions would be made by governments if increasing the GPI were the their goal rather than GDP. GDP or GPI which is the appropriate goal for society? This is essentially the question of values. More detail about the GPI.

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A Question of Direction

"If the citizenry exercised its right to choose the policy by which society is governed, would we choose to expand economic activity indefinitely when we are already de-stabilizing planetary ecosystems? Would we continue to give enormous amounts of our tax money to people who already have more money than they can possibly spend while others starve or are forced into desperate action? These are topics worthy of public debate." Sea Wind, December 96

For most people, day to day living takes up all of their time and resources. Few of us can take the time to address long-term problems. However, through the taxes we pay and the use of public lands there is a large surplus which can be applied to accomplishing goals that are beyond the capability of individuals and even the most effective citizens' organizations. It is the goal toward which this collective wealth is used that is due for review.

A Question of Direction is about what goal people feel is best suited to guide decision making in our present circumstances. Is it better to base decisions on the goal of maximum economic expansion or on the goal of sustainability? See Outline for a Great Debate.

Wherever this question is sincerely raised, awareness that there is a choice, spreads. If this awareness spreads widely enough, conditions will be created to present the options for democratic reckoning. Besides the possibility of establishing a mandate for change, public discussion of social direction would result in comprehensive public education with all the resultant benefits outlined in the Strategy for Environmental Recovery .

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The Media Won't Help Us.

Among those who actually benefit from present policies are the owners of the mass media. As long as they are able, they will avoid any questioning of basic direction. They will continue to spread the illusion, directly, and subtly, that perpetual growth is the only goal society can have. Considering the extraordinary persuasive power they command, stimulating public discussion about the goals of society will require focused action.

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It is up to Us to Raise the Issue.

If the established order were to promote a public discussion, they would make sure that everyone knew the question. Everyone would know that everyone else was thinking about the issue. We are challenged to approximate these conditions, without millions of dollars for promotion or media cooperation.

Sustainability cards are a key tool for accomplishing this. These cards are made from recycled paper, they are inexpensive to produce and the message they carry is, of necessity, short enough to be read in a minute or two.

Giving and receiving business cards is a well established custom and many people have a particular place where they store cards for easy retrieval. The chances of a business card being saved and referred to again is many times greater than that of a flyer or newsletter.

By comprehensively distributing cards in any particular community, the issue of sustainability or perpetual economic expansion can be raised. If the cards bearing the reference for sustainability have been distributed at a meeting, in a class, around a neighbourhood or anywhere else, questions about sustainability can be easily asked. "Is 'this' what we want to accomplish?" Without a statement to refer to, the question would be too long to follow. With the reference, one word - 'this', can represent an entire world view.

Let your imagination wander through the possibilities of how to get these seeds of change into the hands of your community, into the hands of anyone who plans to spend the rest of their life in the future. When the options are known, the goals we want to pursue as a society can become a topic for discussion.