INTRO TO GROWTH (Pt. 1)

Image courtesy of Foto76/ FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Before I continue my rant on society's paranoia and the excesses that are leading us towards collapse...I have the need to write something that feels more substantial and more personal. It is a matter that regularly resurfaces for me and that indirectly is espoused in many arguments for slowing down and refusing to chase the holy grail of economics: growth.

Firstly let me point something out about the society we live in. Growth is all to often cut down to only one possible meaning...That of growth in numbers/figures. GDP or Revenue or Profit or any other kind of value that really just means a number in a certain currency. But like any model, this one dimensional model of our world can only offer a weak understanding of the complexities of real life and the world. It can help us understand parts of society, the economy and the functioning of companies and organisations for instance, but as a model it can only ever be a weak simplification of a very complex universe.

Unfortunately this model and simplified view of things seems to dominate everything. In order to make sense of things in society today, they must be valued and then grown. If there is no growth in financial value there seems to be little point. This worldview has been so effective and successful that we try to convert natural goods like water and the air (CO2) into financial value and thereby understand it and manage it better. The only problem is that financial value can never encompass the real world value of any good and financial growth can only ever reflect a fraction of the mutliple meanings of possible growth. So let us disregard the financial aspect of life for a while.

Growth can come in many forms, personal growth for example, learning to interact with other people in a more effective and supportive manner that will help others to grow in turn. Growth in ability in various activities. Growth in understanding of humans, emotional states or even the interplay in complex systems. Sure, all of these can probably be turned into a financial value and then commoditised, as our economy today always aims to do, but the financial value, a one dimensional value, can never encompass all the complex effects that happiness of a single person would have on its surroundings.

The effect that happiness would have on the behaviour of that person alone could never be measured absolutely. The person would have more enthusiasm in what they do, their creativity would be enhanced, their efficiency probably and therefore the end result. The skill of the person would improve faster and all of this would have an immeasurable amount of knock-on effects. Just as you would imagine it to be in a system with almost endless variables. No model could ever encompass all of this.

So in the following post and many others more most likely, I would like to ignore the concept of financial value and growth and concentrate more on personal growth, and of improvement in intangible values of happiness and wellbeing and the experience of being alive in general. After all, we don't live in a simplified model in a computer (at least I hope not) so let's stop acting as if we do.

TO PROTECT OUR HOMELAND

George Orwell

Given the current scandal surrounding the PRISM programme by the American government, it is quite fitting that I decided to read Aldous Huxley's "A Brave New World" a few weeks ago.

His own introduction, written many years later, is fascinating and very much on point with how society seems to have further developed over the last 50 years. And he makes a good point of assuming that the real world will probably resemble more a mix of the dystopia from "1984" and his own earlier vision of the future.

So, what kind of society do we have now?

The internet has developed from a medium allowing the anonymous expression of people's true beliefs to nothing but a technologically capable mirror of human society. The revelations about the American spy programme have confirmed a development that has been evident for a while now.

Especially the growth of internet conglomerates, becoming behemoths that control large swaths of the net has made it easier to track us users and their behaviour (I am certain this page is getting caught up in some kind of net, even if no human actually reads it on the other side). The People still reject official online identities which would tie their doings on the net to their real name, but in reality all this information is already laid bare for those with the capabilities to access it.

So, increasingly we must adjust our online face just as we adjust our face in public or in professional life. The freedom the internet offered in its early years, the wild net, seems to be coming to an end. It is bound, tied down and broken up by commercial interests.

This brings us back to which dystopia we are heading for. It seems like it will be a strange mix of both "1984" and "A Brave New World".

Huxley was right in that consumption must go on and on, grow and grow, to keep the wheels of a stable society turning. The public is numbed and anaesthetised, drawn into a maelstrom of easy delights and empty thrills to keep it from seeing the puppeteers behind the bright flashing lights.

And from Orwell comes the PR and propaganda that washes away any questioning thoughts or any potential to find an escape for your mind (and possibly body, as in the case of Assange and now Snowden)

And finally...if you do find a way out or try to make one, the wrath of the corporate state comes bearing down upon you and in all likelihood will crush you into oblivion. The fanfares and carnival music will then ensure that any remains you leave behind are washed away and covered up so that you don't ruin the public's chance to have a spectacularly monotonously fun time. Business as usual, as the media either ignore the important story or quickly move on  to more "exciting" news.

And the internet plays a major role in all of this.

The questions that should be asked is: Is there anybody who is somewhat in control of this all, who has managed to evade being enveloped by the propaganda and infected by the life of the consumer? Somebody who is in charge of the old power structures that are trying to grab hold of the net and the power it radiates.

I don't believe so...

As Huxley and Orwell prove, society has been developing in this direction for a long time and anybody born into it and conditioned by it would have an extremely hard time to evade its clutches. Would there realistically be a "World Controller" as in a "Brave New World" that has the intellectual capacity and one must also say, strength of character, to stand untouched above all this turmoil?

It is unlikely.

So how can we, as eternal members of global society, stop this cycle or make it change course at least?

Our world won't keep revolving in this way. It simply cannot do it indefinitely. One of its cogs will have to break. The environment is already disintegrating dangerously rapidly as it cannot sustain the ever spreading pillage. The system itself is showing structural cracks already, exponential growth with limited resources is simply impossible. Human efficiency can only be improved so far.

Pressure is growing on all fronts on each human; environmental, psychological, in terms of physical wellbeing, people just won't be able to cope anymore.

We are potentially headed for a sudden break, a ruder awakening than the "financial crisis" in 2008 and the still reverberating aftermath. 

Or...

... hopefully the slow progress and relentless chipping away of innumerable initiatives can bring meaningful change. The change at the small, individual level has been preached for a long time. With more people leading the way with interesting projects hope grows. One just has to look at the slew of TED videos to see many things to be hopeful about.

Overall, one thing must happen however. Those countries with supposed democracies must defend themselves against the consolidation of power of today's "leaders". The struggle for "freedom" has been tremendous over many generations. We seem to be all to willing to just give away these freedoms that many people struggle and died for.

We aren't too far off living in the worlds of Orwell and Huxley. It seems we need a new writer to compose a dystopia (or utopia depending on your point of view) of 2063...

Or if there is anything out there already I would be delighted if you let me know.