Planet and PEOPLE

The power of words:  do we have agency or are we all doomed?

According to the Buddha, we have six sense organs:  eyes (vision); ears (sound); nose (smell); mouth (taste); skin (touch); and not least a brain to process the electrical and chemical information received.   It is the brain that ‘makes sense’ of its surroundings.   Our senses are actually quite limited in the ranges they can detect.   And other animals and plants may be able to detect more than us.

When humans build technology to increase the information receivable, our brains will process it in particular ways characteristic of humans.   If we were all spiders, for example, we would experience the same universe in a totally different way.  One characteristic we can observe in humans (as in all other species) is variability.   Humans break experience into concepts, words, and then use these bricks to create vast conceptual structures that we believe will benefit us in some way.  We test these structures and find some more useful than others.   When some fail disastrously we may examine the engineering and we may also look at the foundations and materials – the words – used to build them.   It’s the way we work.

As Alan Watts says (This is It) , what really matters is the relationship between things. Thus while Victorian science was mainly about classification, the science of ecology has developed to look at the relationships and communication between species. This has revealed the complexity and sheer wonder of the wider system. The universe is not meaningless. But we need to have some agreed starting points, some concepts, words, to work from. As Orwell makes clear, those who would have power over others will try to influence, even control our thinking by attacking the language itself.  If words have no agreed meaning, both external and internal communication – and thus independent thought – become impossible. People become confused and disoriented.

Our powers of communication are key to our humanity. Because humans are unable to communicate very effectively with most other life forms, and they are not like us, it becomes easy to assume that they are inferior.   A culture or ideology based on exerting possession and control over planet and people,  develops tools, technologies, to do so and assumed  that technology-creating minds must be uniquely clever.   Not only animals, but other people(s) without such tools of power and control are objects of scorn.   The ‘expert’  rules.  And the technology may be psychological as much as physical.   

So we have colonialism, exploitation, forced conversion, and so on – driven by a people and a culture with an addiction to power and control.   

In ‘western’ culture we have assumed that ‘greed’ is an innate human characteristic.   But this is not so.   In reality human nature is no different from other forms of nature.   Hunter-gatherer societies do not destroy their habitats or  their neighbours in a vain attempt to possess and control them.

So what has driven this exponential growth in the belief that life us a struggle to the death?  The ‘survival of the fittest’ simply cannot mean the survival of the most psychopathic and narcissistic:  in such a struggle, all lose, because without a life support system there can be no winners.   When the game of Monopoly ends, all the property and money become worthless.   

The answer is surely that fear breeds fear.   I have known some extremely wealthy people from powerful families who were seriously insecure, fearful people.   In fact it’s probably true to say that the more people have, the more they fear losing it.   Jesus was spot in about camels and needles.

So the more wealth, the more fear it is likely to generate.   And the more fear, the more urgent the need to find ways to secure and increase the wealth and power.  Which brings you into conflict with others who have the same ideology.    A technological arms race develops because if technology gives us power and control over everything and everyone, it becomes the answer to everything.  If there are unfortunate side-effects – the destruction of the exploited – develop yet more technology to deal with them.  

The result is that fear has become planet-wide and all pervasive; and that it is now compounding the crisis it has brought on us.   Technological solutions to the planetary crisis are simply pouring petrol on the flames.   The planetary ecosystem cannot be converted into a digital metaverse and forced to obey frightened oligarchs.   There is no escape to Mars, and the idea that ‘you’ll own nothing and you’ll be happy’ is ludicrous nonsense.   Ecosystems do not work like that.

 ‘Technology’ is only as good as its purpose.  The crisis we now face is the direct result of this fear-based, ‘western’  ideology of power and control.   The reckless destruction of everything is accelerating as the wealthy start to see that there is no ‘master race’, no ‘chosen people’, no Emperor, priest, technocrat or ‘scientist’  who will come to our rescue.  When we put our cleverness in the service of the ecosystem, the life-support system, we all depend on we will surely see the system respond with extraordinary generosity and abundance.   But we seem to be too afraid to put our trust in the planet and just look for more ways to exploit, possess and control it. We cannot save nature by declaring war on it.

All very well, you may say at this point, but what’s the relevance of all this philosophy to the real world?   Realistically the powerful and greedy will just carry on exploiting and destroying us unless we fight them.  To this I’ll answer, we have nothing to fear but fear itself.   

The whole ‘western’ conceptual construct is based on foundations of fear.  If we don’t change that,  we are just pouring petrol on the flames.

Wealth and power are merely concepts.   Oligarchs have nothing to offer us but more destruction,  misery and death.  In reality, the planetary ecosystem holds all the resources and indeed the intelligence needed to re-create a wonderful world  for us all.   It is far older, wiser, and capable of healing and growing than a few fearful, cowardly, bullying humans.   I’ll put my trust there. Let’s listen to the planet.

Up to now we have been offered jam tomorrow – work hard, do as you are told, however unethical, and you can build up investments, pensions, property, luxury goods to be enjoyed later.    This is now exposed as a lie.   These things are merely dreams.   There is no future, so the promises have become threats.   Because we are all -planet and people alike – mere resources to be exploited and discarded as ‘waste’.    ‘You’ll own nothing and you’ll be happy’?   It’s not not appealing.   Especially when it’s ‘you’ rather than ‘we’ – much as we might appreciate the self-sacrifice of the World Economic Forum who, owning everything, will presumably forfeit their happiness.

It is all a meaningless, nihilistic philosophy of utter despair and it’s time to reject it.   It is nonsense to claim that we are all isolated individuals fighting for survival and dominance in a meaningless universe, that ‘hell is other people’ (Sartre) or that morality is for slaves (Nietzche); that humans are driven by an ethics-free ‘id’ (Freud)’; that humans are divided into ‘classes’ that must fight each other for dictatorship (Marx); or that evolution proceeds by competition rather than co-operation (the Darwinists) … I could go on and on.  

Radicalism means going to the root of the problem.   Certain people locally tell me they are ‘conservative  with a small c’.   Well, I am Radical with a big ‘R’.  Neither of us has anything to fear from each other.  We may just see things differently. But one way or another, we do need to talk, and listen to each other. It is the only way we’ll save ourselves and the planet. And to do that we need to agree about what the words we use mean – and oppose any attempt to destroy the language. No more Lost Words!

So please feel free to contribute your constructive comments and positive ideas! I will be offering a few of mine for you to comment on. In fact I have a few very political proposals I’d like your views on. Watch this space.