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[discussion draft] 1. Treat all people well No differentiation of expected life quality on the basis of nation, culture, ethnicity, sex, or age is acceptable. Therefore our primary purpose is to eliminate all inequality of opportunity and well-being. Bringing underdeveloped human populations up to the health and conflict-free status of the most advanced populations - and fixing our problems too - is top priority for a peaceful, sustainable future. ~ Do unto others as ye would have them do unto you. 2. Respect humanity, environment, other creatures Non-violence can and will become central to human being, once we decide for consistency of course and action. Meat protein can be factored out of our diet, through reorganised agriculture. Killing then becomes a thing of the past, as it steadily leaves our way of life. Adequate sustenance provision for all removes the pressure of people upon people, upon other species, and upon the environment. ~ Thou shalt not kill. 3. No compromise Politics and life are full of liars. Psychology makes us so, defending our self-esteem and advantage. But what will salvage evolution is truth, and telling it requires a very different form of politics. The hard realities must be conveyed, and resolved, for us to continue on a growth path. These generally identify inefficient and immoral resource use and distribution, rather than shortage or 'individual greed' - a disempowering obfuscation and false easy reply, as human beings continuously recreate themselves and all cultural aspects (including 'God' creation myths). However, non-resolution of actual human need is competitively drawing environmental limits closer and faster, against irreplaceable biodiversity. Action for global transformation has utmost priority, and local tinkering must not detract from this. 4. Macro-solution not micro-management The biggest brake on sustainable development is sowing illusions that this can be achieved under the current, fully exploitative economic system. Competing nation-states are the main inhibitor of every facet of progress, excepting the technologies of destruction. Running states unconsciously is the role of the catatonically craven, prostrate before individual profit. The full collective of evolving life will never be served so long as all are governed by narrow interest. The parliamentary system is that social device specifically evolved to absorb and defuse any initiative for change from minority rule. The parliamentarian's sole legitimate purpose, for sustainable development, is to empower - by devolving equal rights and decision-making to - the global majority. 5. Freedom touchstone State interference in our lives is temporary and unnecessary, to be minimised then dissolved. Maximum freedom is what everyone needs - in which to have a safe and stable life, supportive of family - where enabling any freedom impinges not on that same held by others. All require equal freedoms. Legislative leadership taking policy in any other direction than realising this key indicator, takes us in the wrong direction. |
Green Future offers a practical programme for connecting the Green politics of today with a salvaged, surviveable ecosystem of the near Future. 6. Expose the sham, to thoroughly outmode it 'Prosperity' is the realm of an all-controlling minority. Large as the comfortable world is, it is not the majority experience. An international ruling class maintains privileged hegemony through its monopolies of coercive force, newsmedia, and academic authority. Those with acccess to the materialist dream imitate it, aspiring to every element of possession. But most fall by the wayside under this system. A cooperative mode of existence is the only one with a future, because only this values resources - especially human resources - appropriately, and for posterity. 7. Turn society - not the Earth - upside down Permanent peace looks like this: a complete morality shift. Gold and diamonds have only industrial uses. Private ownership of them is frowned upon, abhored even, for the damage extraction does to people and land. 'Shame on you' for misplaced values. Outlaw accumulation of precious raw materials! While we're at it, let's be accurate: "property is theft". ~ It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of Good. Why? Because wealth is the result of consistently getting better than you give (making profitable transactions, means value exchanged is not equivalent). To save the Earth we must attack the exhaustive demands upon it, upon each other, and upon ourselves. 8. Focus on carbon recycling Everything we do to minimise combustion helps. Life's equation bonds energy into hydrocarbon forms. Our excess rate of carbon energy liberation indicates catastrophic rebalancing of Earth ecology, unless we consciously intervene in our global re/production system soon. No other option exists, because the dominant decider - barbaric market force - will otherwise be inhibited only by resource exhaustion. Too much of any substance is poison - clean air and water are, eventually, gravely at stake from waste carbon. Bad weather climate change expresses increased energy pumped into the hydrological cycle - slow the pumps! Alternative fuels and the vehicle fleet are not changing quickly enough to forestall another Depression and Great War reconstruction cycle, so we must start easing change now. Wealth accumulated on top of fossil fuel expenditure is false economy, for two reasons: a) It cannot last, and the fruits will be lost along with that sense of stability; b) It reveals a sickly shallow insight into economic ecology, that must inevitably leave us high and dry. Therefore, hasten social change. 9. Unwaste the economy Cut the fat. Everything redundant must go, starting now. That means a large proportion of vehicle trips to and from the city each day. The financial and bureaucratic sectors are the biggest single resource wasters of all, in perpetuating their privileged roles. Inefficient, profit-driven production supports and follows on from these. Surplus to rational distribution, these must go, but it will take time. What we can do now is ask ourselves whether what we get back from the treadmill is worth what we put in, and reduce our consumption accordingly. Done enough, this steady approach builds more and more options around how we can all contribute productively to society. Healthy alternatives are very close at hand, as soon as we begin severing the ties by which 'the man' holds us. The archetypical New Zealand character is self-employed. All work will soon enough be contracted - in our greater interest - by fully autonomous individual traders of our own skilled labour, once training time has been reclaimed. Administrative overheads will become a thing of the past. ~ Thou shalt not squander thy Earthly inheritance. |