Surviving Capitalism (Not) : Ted Trainer and the Simpler Way

We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Friday, April 20, 2012

Ted Trainer and the Simpler Way

Click here to access article by Samuel Alexander from Energy Bulletin. (Author Samuel Alexander is a co-founder of The Simplicity Institute of Australia. He writes: "I feel Ted's vision is absolutely critical to getting out of the mess we're in, and yet his position doesn't get anywhere near the attention it deserves.")

This is an edited, abbreviated version of the PDF formatted essay to which a link has been provided for people who wish to learn more about Trainer's excellent ideas. His proposal for a new sustainable social model is in sharp contrast to the present planet and soul destroying system of capitalism.

After presenting his critical analysis of the global situation, Trainer describes his vision of The Simper Way, which is a vision of communities creating highly localised, zero-growth economies, based on far lower resource and energy consumption than what is common in developed nations today, and in which the profit motive has been largely or entirely removed. Since Trainer believes that governments are inextricably intertwined with the economic imperative to grow, his theory of change is fundamentally ‘anarchistic,’ in the sense that he believes that ‘top down’ parliamentary processes cannot be relied on to play any significant role in restructuring society for The Simpler Way.

It appears that Mother Nature is going to evict us from our planetary home, the Earth, because we have been trashing the place. It's shocking because many of us thought that we owned the place, but the truth is that we are only renters. It looks like we have only two options: 1) either we immediately stop trashing the place, which means changing the economic system, or 2) we immediately look for another planet and a means of getting there. If we don't stop trashing right a way, she will start the eviction process; and then its only a matter of decades before we are out of this world, which will leave only the second option.