It's
time for most of us to abandon the dream of retiring comfortably, and
to focus instead on leaving a legacy we can be proud of.
As
a
recent report highlights, our economic system rewards those who
speculate, and victimizes those who work. It is also a global
Ponzi scheme that threatens not only the economic wellbeing of
the majority but availability of physical resources all of us depend
on for survival. Essentially, we are participating in a game that
cannot, nor should be, won. As I explained in a new meme,
that game ─ unrestricted
competition ─ can only result
in the death of everyone.
I
have detailed in multiple blog posts (and the upcoming book, Death
Stoppers Anthology) my personal struggle with the inherent
conflict between personal and global responsibility that we now face
because of our proximity to global ecological limits. I shared it,
along with evidence
of that conflict, to be part of a conversation about how to
create a future that maximizes our ability to survive and thrive as a
species, and to be part of a team dedicated to realizing that future
regardless of the personal consequences.
The
competition that threatens us is not totally unrestricted yet, but
the few who have the upper hand in that competition are focused on
removing what few restrictions remain. This is especially obvious in
the subversion of the U.S. political system, which made major gains
in the recent mid-term elections in large part due to the
weaponization of money enabled by a Supreme Court that values
unrestricted competition. In a critical time when the world must be
setting the stage for rapidly reducing carbon emissions (along with other stresses on Earth's life support systems), the social
infrastructure dedicated to protecting common resources needed for
our survival has become at-best useless, and at-worst is being
co-opted to remove existing protections and make the situation much,
much worse.
Many
of us are held in thrall by the hope that we might still live
comfortably following a life of service to the system we've been
taught to believe is a legitimate source of value to the world, but
in fact is dedicated to sucking us dry, just like the other
"resources" that supply our pursuit of happiness as
embodied by monetary wealth. For those of us who perceive the threat
to our existence and that of future generations, this misperception
and the hope it fuels must be replaced with a more accurate and
comprehensive vision of real value that our lives can attain: a
legacy that is testimony to whatever good remains in us, that is
physically embodied by a better chance for the survival of our
species. We must also share this vision with as many people as
possible, and build up a critical mass of support so we might succeed
despite the huge odds aligned against us.