This article originally appeared in Conscious Choice magazine.
As I
write this, many progressives have lost hope that a Barack Obama
victory will mean a real change in direction for this country. Obama
now supports the death penalty as well as retroactive immunity for
telecommunication companies that gave data on U.S. citizens to
government intelligence agencies, violating our constitutional rights.
Worst of all, Obama offers no far-reaching plan of action to address
the dire ecological crisis — resource depletion, species extinction,
climate change — that threatens our immediate future. At a time when we
need leaders who speak truth to power, he is playing the old political
game.
What kind of policies would offer a meaningful response
to our current situation? Unfortunately, the changes we need seem so
far beyond the limits of current political discourse that it might be
laughable if it weren't tragic. With the earth's population expanding
and burgeoning middle classes in China and India demanding a fairer
share of dwindling resources, the American lifestyle needs to be
radically downscaled. We are four percent of the earth's population
consuming 25 percent of its energy, and this cannot continue.
Currently, the United States government borrows $2 billion a day to
stay afloat, and spends an estimated $1 trillion a year on its
military. This extraordinary sum should be used to transition to
alternative energy technologies, develop sustainable eco-villages and
eco-cities and deploy natural techniques of bioremediation. We need a
national program to promote communal living and sharing of resources,
along with a movement toward relocalization and decentralization of
food, goods and energy production. We should reduce our dependence on
the automobile and rebuild railways, trams, and other forms of mass
transportation.
Around the globe, it has become clear that
"free market capitalism" (a protectionist racket, for the most part)
benefits a tiny elite and works against the interests of the vast
majority. A mix of capitalist incentives and socialized policies, as in
Northern European countries, can create a cohesive society that
protects the local environment. The U.S. model of endless economic
growth based on absurd indicators such as the Gross Domestic Product
should be rejected. New measurements can promote a higher quality of
life rather than a greater quantity of economic transactions.
The effort to secure oil reserves in the Middle East through military
dominance is doomed to failure. We are in danger of seeing our
overstretched military begin to crumble, much like the far-flung Roman
Empire collapsed due to depleted resources and rampant corruption. The
best option would be an immediate shift to a strategy of
demilitarization and pacification. The U.S. could regain its stature by
leading the world in the institution of nonviolent techniques. Our
military bases could become training centers for meditation,
permaculture and other skills useful to local communities around the
world. A global culture of peace will bring true security.
Civil society must be empowered to oversee the development of all
research in science and technology, taking a long view that encompasses
future generations. The legal form of the corporation must be changed
so that profits no longer take precedence over people or places. We
should pay elected officials a modest, working class wage and make them
directly accountable to their constituents, who can fire them as soon
as they renege on campaign promises.
Creating a sustainable
society requires a far more equitable distribution of wealth. Tax
structures should be changed to reflect this. We may also require a
deeper change in the structure of the monetary system, including a
return to local currencies. The "War on Drugs" needs to end, with
personal drug use decriminalized. The prison population can be offered
employment in agriculture, as the shift to small-scale organic farming
will require a large workforce, following Cuba's model.
Facing the severity of our ecological crisis requires a rapid
development of collective intelligence and social awareness in the U.S.
population. The Internet could provide a collaborative infrastructure
to support rapid transition. The mass media could disseminate an
understanding of critical issues around sustainability, and retrain
people's behavior patterns. For this to happen, the corporate
stranglehold on news and information needs to be broken. This will
require a revival of public broadcasting and, perhaps, a partial
nationalization of the broadcast spectrum.
The American diet
must also change radically. Rigid limits must be put on personal
consumption of meat, which requires massive inputs of water and grain,
as well as fish, since the oceans are almost empty and aquaculture
creates toxic waste. The materialism of America can be superseded by a
new focus on creative expression and spiritual development, returning
us to the "can do" spirit of earlier epochs of American life and
reviving the Transcendental ethos of Emerson and Thoreau.
All of this may sound impossibly idealistic. However, it is far more
idealistic to believe we can continue on our current path without
massive social and economic breakdowns and increasingly severe
ecological disasters. What we have been conditioned to want as
individuals becomes immaterial when the planet is no longer willing to
support our way of life.
Image by Scott Ableman, courtesy of Creative Commons license.