Regeneration
I am with John Lampen in his article on economic growth (26 July). Infinite economic growth is simply not possible if the means of life on Earth – its natural systems – are to survive our plundering of it for economic use. Yet John is also right in wondering if environmental groups are failing to carry the public if their message is too often one of fear, not of hope. However, I am suggesting it’s not a matter of fear or hope, but of regeneration.
First, we have to recognise you can’t put new wine into old wine bottles, or, as often quoted, you can’t use the cause of a problem, along with its inevitable negative outcomes, as the means of changing it. Because when John says our leaders are best placed to create a blueprint for change and a new vision, that is what he is suggesting.
This is to take, as writ, the centralising and globalised mindset, dominated and owned by global corporations, causing us, as economic dependents on it, to blight the Earth – while also leaving us isolated, struggling, probably angry, and depressed.
And so, while we feel hopelessly unable to make the changes needed, our leaders’ focus is on the status quo, not new visions. Which is why we all pin everything on the delusion that by fiddling at the edges with tick-boxing schemes for wildlife restoration together with piecemeal tech fixes, it will all somehow be sufficient to mitigate against the disintegration and collapse of Nature – leaving us to carry on as usual, consuming and charging around everywhere in compensation for our discontent.
And yet, we have always had the actual solution in our own hands – increasingly localised, community-sharing material arrangements. In effect, ‘indigenous’ economies, which is how small social groups have lived within and as part of the Earth’s modus operandi. Most of us are in some position to build towards this, now, co-operatively, thus also building-out the isolation and personal and social disintegration that we see all around us. Our testimonies in action, in fact.
Andrew Sterling
On the market
John Lampen’s article was thought-provoking. He says that he’s aware of the need for more money to halt the decay in hospitals, schools, prisons and public services. I’d like to question some assumptions. Are hospitals trying to do too much, especially as we approach death? Do we need to spend the existing (or a reduced) NHS budget more wisely? Is keeping children in schools, commonly from the age of four to eighteen, really in the interests of children and society?
John is right in saying that we need a vision for positive change and that it can grow from the grassroots. Quaker testimony, especially in relation to simplicity, provides such a vision and many Friends live a simple lifestyle. Unfortunately, there are also a lot of Friends who continue to live in a way that’s extravagant with Earth’s precious gifts (resources) and this undermines the contribution that Meetings and Friends in Britain might otherwise make, by failing to embody such a vision.
‘Will we only change when catastrophe forces us?’ I fear that the answer is mundane. By failing to be the change that’s needed, we pave the way for authoritarianism that will compel us to change.
Wendy Pattinson
