A guest post by John Souter.
That’s the underlying problem. The cause of this crises that has sent the bandits of monetary spin into the spins within the spin they’re in.
I don’t know if any of you have read or heard of “Big History” – you can Google or Wiki it and get an outline. Basically it gives the development and their stages through the World from the Big Bang to conception and on through to the present. In essence it gives you the perspective of the wood as opposed to the tree of modern history which, against the measure of world time, is a sapling struggling for space, light, tenure and now given the present crises, legitimacy.
According to Big History our species has been on earth around 200,000 years, the vast majority of which we occupied our time as hunter gatherers – 10,000 years ago we switched to an agrarian lifestyle – recorded history covers the last 5,000 years of this, and 300 to 400 hundred ago (its sometimes called the enlightenment) we entered what they have labelled the modern era. Now, while there are still plots in this world where hunter gatherers still operate and farming has perhaps an even more significant role to play now and in the immediate future than it ever had in the past; the learning and development curve we as a species have had to innovate, refine and adapt to, has possibly accelerated so much in that relatively short time, our senses have been scrambled by the G force. So it’s perhaps not so surprising that a few moves or the odd slick spin should slip under the radar.
After all our brain hasn’t evolved solely to match that accelerated pace. Its capability, to a great extent, has probably been there throughout our history and, while we are slowly uncovering its mechanics and re-assessing its potentials the one thing it, and consequently we, are being swamped with is information.
Problem is some of this information doesn’t ‘do’ what it says on the tin. In fact some information is designed purely to disguise the fact of the information we have gleaned on the mis-information has reduced it to the level of ridicule so we blithely ignore it – which is why producers of soap commercials have been telling us their powder washes whiter year after year and while we ignore the claim with the contempt it deserves they keep using it because we keep buying it.
Okay admittedly that’s a frivolous example. But it’s one of probably thousands of information bights our brains cope with classify and file or dump everyday – a subliminal white noise of information and one that this generation has seen accelerate, had to cope with and hasn’t managed very well.
This model and the intellectual level of communication it demands has not only effected those it targeted it has also infected those who inflict it. They believe it works, as a consequence of which they believe the results it brings, which in turn makes the method adopted seem logical.
An example of this can be seen in Europe. A huge organisation is created, part of which divides its time between two centres, creates nothing but another layer of bureaucracy and political oligarchy, passes a law which says dead fish must be thrown back into the sea!
An organisation that spends a fortune from the money it extracts from its members to build a parliament for expensive representatives who haven’t the democratic power to hold or direct an unelected executive to account.
In an age when clarity and level headed commitment is needed more than ever before, the politicians add another level to the morass that is politics. A self perpetuating growth industry for evangelical liars, tarts and tribunes spouting tripe, demands dead fish are dumped back into the sea in the name of conservation.
Admittedly the above is only a slightly less frivolous example. But it’s one that is mirrored in one way or another in all the institutions, governments and power brokers that juggle for control of our business and the relationship and sustainability it has with the natural elements that makes it all possible.
As I write, these ‘power brokers’ (our businesses executive) are claiming we need to review and revamp the policies and revalue the equity we hold in the business. They claim we have a liquidity problem?
And they are right we do have a liquidity problem. We also have problems of population growth – energy resource and supply – ecology and contaminations – quality and sustainability – we have all sorts of problems that have to be addressed and solved. All are legitimate threats to the continuity and quality of our lives, but not the one they want us to waste our time, efforts and lives on – namely the money game. Continue to allow them to waste our time and lives on that and they’ll lead us into the swamp of oblivion.
Money as an agreed rate of exchange has a minor purpose when it relates to the law of supply and demand of real products and services. Demand is controlled by the availability of resources –if it’s impossible to get a quart into a pint pot it’s asking for a miracle to get a quart out of it – money distorts this and claims it can and our leaders and politicos with all their free loading current account thinking have hitched on to it and pawned our futures by doing so.
Whether we can redeem our future and get a chance to revise the values and objectives of our business depends very much on not only resolving the money issue but in resolving the technical glitch it has highlighted and led us into.
(extract from The People Business) Part 1.
John Souter November 2011
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