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| | The Building an Open Future Network is not currently active and cannot accept new posts | | Open Future Basics | Views: 961 | | Oct 12, 2008 4:46 am | | Open Future Basics | # | 
John Stephen Veitch | | The current global financial crisis is a time of opportunity. The world on the old development trajectory was headed toward CERTAIN ecological, social and economic disaster. Resource constraints were one barrier, global warming another, social and political instability were a third.
So, the next two, perhaps three years, will be very difficult, but it does offer us the chance to find a way to establish a sustainable future.
So where do we begin? For all of my life politicians have claimed that we have to build the economy, so we could fix the problems in schools, make the streets safe and protect family's from poverty. We've been told that we need to grow the economy to get enough money to "protect the environment".
Once upon a time I believed that. That is what Economic theory says. But economic theory is wrong on that issue, back to front.
Therefore, we begin in a different place. The creation of an environment that is, diverse, clean and productive is the first objective.
The creation of a social and political environment that meets people's needs is the second objective.
Business and Government and Non-Government Organisations ALL exist inside the envelope created by the environment and inside the envelope social and political environment.
Once you begin to think in this way the whole structure of what government and business does changes. The FIRST responsibility is to protect the environment and to protect the social structure of the community. Many activities that people and business and governments choose to indulge in are destructive of that environment. A key role for government is to identify and to quantify that harm.
SUNLIGHT is essential, real information in the public arena about the real effects on the environment and on our social structure of the things we do. This gives a whole new colour to the idea of an "information society". I'm saying that we need the information about how the two most critical public common's the natural environment and social environment are effected by the activities we choose to do.
Then there is a NEW OPPORTUNITY to regulate and tax bad effects. We must accept that some degradation of the environment will occur. But we can have some control, and we can make it costly to engage in those activities if we choose.
So in my view that's a whole new starting point.
John Stephen Veitch
Open Future Limited - http://www.openfuture.biz/
Innovation Network - http://veech-network.ryze.com/
Building an Open Future - http://openfuture-network.ryze.com/Private Reply to John Stephen Veitch | | Nov 16, 2008 3:57 am | | re: Open Future Basics | # |
John Stephen Veitch | | When the original post was made a month ago I was editing early drafts of the 10 new pages that are now in my web site.
http://www.openfuture.biz/
As the world economy continues it's meltdown, these ideas that have been growing in my mind for many years become more and more important. We CAN have an open future, but to do so we have to change how we think about a lot of things.
That means you and I have to change, we have to engage in our own deschooling. If we don't have the courage to do that, if we are locked into how we currently think and behave, change becomes impossible, conflict will boil over into riots, environmental pressures will cause shortages of essential goods, (food, water, copper, zinc) territorial disputes will become wars.
I anticipate that we're already too far into this mess to get out clean and free. But if we understand that WE are the CAUSE and that WE HAVE to be responsible for changing that, the outcome might be much less disastrous than I imagine.
John Stephen Veitch
Open Future Limited - http://www.openfuture.biz/
Innovation Network - http://veech-network.ryze.com/
Building an Open Future - http://openfuture-network.ryze.com/Private Reply to John Stephen Veitch | | |
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