Changing the World for the Better
As legendary environmentalist Paul Hawken points out in the lecture to which I referred here, there are now over 200,000 groups on the planet devoted to causes within the umbrella of sustainability and humanitarianism. So, when we contemplate the challenges we face in bringing the concept of eco-consciousness to a population of over seven billion, we should certainly never feel that we’re trying to do it alone.
Having said that, there are huge interests that would prefer that you and I knock off our attempts to change the world, and go back to our assigned positions as cogs in the wheel, robotically doing our jobs in the workplace, quietly contributing to their profits in much the same way that our forebears did at the dawn of the Industrial Revolution. In fact, these interests are spending a fortune to keep us riveted in our positions as consumers, ravenously hungry for better or newer “stuff” of all types.
If you think this is a rash and paranoid generalization, or that it’s fallacious to assign human-like thoughts and motivations to the inanimate corporations that enjoy an ever-increasing control over our lives, here are a few things you may wish to think about: (more…)