My intention is that by identifying the core features of the economics of Separation, we may be empowered to envision an economics of Reunion, an economics that restores to wholeness our fractured communities, relationships, cultures, ecosystems, and planet. – The second installment from Sacred Economics: Money, Gift, and Society in the Age of Transition.
Despite four decades of detailed warnings, industrial civilization has failed to turn aside from self-destructive policies of exponential growth and dependence on nonrenewable resources. At this point, stark limits of time and resources as well as a failure of political will make attempts to prevent the fall of industrial society an exercise in futility. Individuals, small groups, and communities can still prepare for the approaching crises by mastering low-tech survival skills now to lay foundations for a sustainable society in the future.
I would like to point out a little bit of insanity. On the one hand, most people don’t really like their jobs; at least, they wouldn’t do them unless they were paid to. On the other hand, we are seeking to create yet more of these jobs — not because we need more stuff on this earth, but simply in order that they have money to live. We already have enough stuff. Why is the only way to distribute it seem to involve the production of even more of it?
Times like this are hard to live through. People may respond in a panic by trying to write instant, comprehensive new stories, but often they don’t have purchase because they have no depth and no connection to peoples’ reality; they have not had the time to bed in. Or they cling resolutely to old stories – to both the dominant narrative and to counter-narratives that made sense once but don’t seem to now, however hard they try to fit them around a rapidly-unfolding reality. They – we – do this because everyone needs a story, and an old, worn-out story seems better than no story at all.
Sometimes I wonder what it would have been like to be a psychotherapist in Ancient Rome in 350 AD. The usual problems would have brought people to my office, of course. Personal troubles, sexual difficulties, family quarrels, mental imbalances. But as I listened daily to my clients’ tales of woe and also picked up wider news in the forums and gossip from my slaves I would have become more and more aware of the larger issues intruding on the decreasingly comfortable lives of all Romans — shortages that our overextended armies could no longer control, the changing complexion of the Roman Legions themselves, northern tribes in rebellion, the gradual disintegration of our political systems, roads and infrastructure. What did it all mean?
We are a nation on the edge of a nervous breakdown. We consume two-thirds of the world’s anti-depressants as we battle for position in the economy. Why not just declare a cease-fire with the Joneses we’ve been trying to keep up with? We’ve bought into the notion that if we’re not wealthy, we’re not good enough, which creates horrible stress and anxiety. Why not become citizens again, creating employee-owned businesses and member-owned credit unions that can reduce both killer stress and unnecessary expenses? (Credit unions save $8 billion a year in interest on loans because they are non-profit) Why not invest in community bonds, portfolios and banks and make living returns on our investments?