It is part of my hope for changing ICON that I no longer stand on the soapbox without offering concrete ideas for change. I forgot to include those ideas in my most recent posting. So, here is my addendum...
How does one change the world so that we can be a more sustainable society on this planet? Anthropologists and many other scientists will tell you that it is already too late. The carrying capacity for this planet has already been exceeded and short of killing off half the population of the planet (or more) there simply is no way to keep everyone alive equally. We have become locked in a race against time to see if we can beat the planet before it beats us. I disagree, but I think the changes that need to be made can't be made for the same reasons that we've done them in the past - there is no margin for profit, politics, or power. If we are going to change the planet for the good of all, then we must all benefit and share the burden equally.
Thinking on a microscale first, we need to reassess the way we view our planet. Instead of power being in the hands of the nations and wealth in the hands of individuals, we need to put power into the hands of local communities and wealth in the hands of the world. Instead of a top down approach, where the Federal Government is in charge of everything, we need a bottom up approach where the people tell the government what to do. If anyone should have Veto Power, it should be the American people. Allow each community to set its own standards, within a framework that allows all people to share in such basic principles of life as to eliminate all but the most petty arguments. I.E. The Feds say that all people will recycle. But each community decides how that is actually enforced. The Feds say that all people will receive a free education, but each community can decide what that actually means (within certain parameters). In theory, this is the way it is now. In practice, as money becomes involved, control is maintained at higher and higher levels. You will never hear of a local school teacher absconding with millions of dollars of Federal money, but you will always hear about teachers not having enough money to buy basic supplies like books, paper, and pens. This is a very backwards system.
Once we have turned our world into thinking first of the places we live and work, I think then we need a world government to start thinking of the issues of our human society at large. This planet is too small to carry us all. We need to expand and survive. Mars should be colonized. The Moon as well. And on into the other planets. Technology should be used to find means of keeping us fed, healthy, sheltered, and our environment cleaned. We need to begin to undo the damage we have done before our house falls down around us. We need to share information and rid the scientific communities of people who seek only to create destruction and disease. We need to rid the world of our shadow world of spies and secrets. We need to embrace truth, even harsh truth, and learn to forgive.
We are not all going to agree. There are deep seated divisions in the human race. We create some of those divisions ourselves. It is not enough for us to say our religion is the only truth. No. We must also destroy anyone who doesn't believe as we do. These things must stop. Genocide must become a thing of the past. Domination can no longer be allowed to occur. War must end.
I believe these things can happen. I believe we can turn the world around before its too late. I also believe that these things won't happen unless we want it so badly that we are willing to fight for it with all our might. God will help us, but we must pick up the cross first and bear the load.
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