I am currently reading „The Limits of Growth“ (D.L.Medows; 1972), a book that is often brought up and refered to in conjunction with sustainablitiy and global development. On page 20 one can find this interesting graph, that basically shows how the perspective and concerns of most human beings only extend to their closest circle of relationships and a very short period of time. Though i have no numbers or graph to back it up, i strongly assume that this is as true now, as it was 40 years ago.
"Although the perspectives of the world's people vary in space and in time, every human concern falls somewhere on the space-time graph. The majority of the world's people are concerned with matters that affect only family or friends over a short period of time. Others look farther ahead in time or over a larger area-a city or a nation. Only a very few people have a global perspective that extends far into the future ." - Limits of Growth -
The
Points i would like to adress in this Blog are the problems that come
with such a limited perspective, the reason for it, which contains
then also the solution and from there i´d like to look at the
benefits that will open up with expanding ones own perspective and
equally allow everyone else to do so.
Starting
with the problems on the space-axis, we can see that far away
events/things seem to be of lesser concern for the individual. This
means that one will care less about the people in ones neighborhood,
than in ones family, less about the ones in another city than in ones
neighourhood , less about the ones in another country then in ones
own contry and so forth....Therefore it seems to be easier to
disregard, abuse and exploit people of other groups. We see this
manifested as constant conflicts, wars, one
family/region/country/groups fighting each other. The exploitation
and abuse of „far away people“ has become the very driving force
of the economies in for example Europa and USA (watch „Darvins
Nightmare“ to get perspective). Its pretty easy to turn a blind eye
and ingnore what you do and participate in on a daily basis, when you
have money in the pocket, food on the table and a roof over the head.
The same is true with environmental Issues, for example pollution,
the farther away, the lesser we care, and one can bring up all kinds
of reasons and Justifications for why that is so, and that one can do
nothing, knows nothing about it etc. but that is in fact only cover
ups to hide ones responsibility as an equal participant.
Looking
at the time-axis, the limited perspecitive does not allow us to see
what we accumulate – which is what we have to face and live with -
and what we leave as a legacy for the generations to come – Again
this can be exemplifed with the social and envirnmental aspects and
condensed to a question: Do we want to leave behind a burnt,
destroyed, polluted Planet and a conflicting mess of society? Will we
even leave behind a „conflicting mess of society“, or just vanish
completly, basically self-destructing ourselves? Why are we so
„short-sighted“?
The
reason for our limited perspecitve as a human is quite simple: We
are living in a System of Survival – where one needs money to
survive and to get this money, to make this money more and to spent
this money has become the primary reason for „living“ - thus we
cower in and hide behind family, relationships, groups etc.; to
secure our survival. More than half of the Population lives under the
breadline and has to literally fight for their life, which should be
a given right, they are the ones that do not have the time or
opportunity to broaden their Perspective in any way whatsoever, as
all their tought/mind/self and body is focued on getting something to
eat/survive for the next day.
Then
we have the so called „developed countries“, but the only thing
we have developed is our greed and fear - in fact we exist in the
very same position that: if we dont have/earn money = we have no
right to life, no unconditional support - but our mind/self and body
is consumed by constant desires that are implanted into and presented
to us by the very System we live in – we are constantly on the
search for the next fix, the next energetic experiance, that we can
buy, which is always short term and so we dont see beyond the limited
horizion of the next Pay-Check. Point to note here is that all of
this is driven by FEAR.
One
can go quite into detail with showing how every act of abuse or
disregard, based on a limited human perspective, has its root in the
way money/the money-system functions, yet at the same time it is so
obvious, that it seems we are running around with extremly narrowed
down blindfolds to not have to see it all the time, everywhere –
For the sake of consistancy we can take the examples of how most
wars/conflicts are fought over some kind of resource or land - which
can be translated into money - or how it is simply less expensive for
companies to dump their waste into the sea or rivers, causing
pollution, than to properly take care of it.
Giving
everyone a Living Income Guaranteed will enable the human to slow
down in a way, like we have been all running and chasing after
something the whole time and now we can stop within ourselves and
take a Look at what is really here, both what we have created as our
Systems and Stuff as well as what is here as Nature, the Animals this
Earth and what our effects on it, we will be able to look at each
other, people in other coutries, without at the same time thinking
that „O dear God, thanks that i am not that poor sucker“, we can
look at the conflicts and wars going on and ask the questions why
they are going on – where its the question if after all, with all
people having enough Money to live a decent life, who will go to war?
What
does it mean to give a Living Income for all on the space-axis? It
means, that everywhere on earth, at minimum, a being recieves the
necessary amount of Money to lead a dignified life and so to have a
equal Living Perspective free from fear of Survival. The interesting
thing is, that with having your Living Guranteed as Money provided by
the government, which is basically all of the People/Citizens, your
interesst will automatically be „all of the people/citizens“,
instead your close relationships with family/friends, that where only
so „close“ in fear of Survival, and so automatically the
perspective change.
With
LIG everybody has the certain perspective that their living in this
word AND that of everyone else is taken Care of and so one will be
abole to look beyond only ones own life and more readily consider
others as well. Most of the worries and concerns about the people in
ones immediate environment/relationships will chease to exist –
Parents wont have to worry and fear about the future of their
children, neither Children about the retirement and wellbeing of
their parents, for example in their older years, as each will be
given a Living Income and in this have their basic Human Rights
guaranteed. If one is in an abusive Relationship of any kind and
staying because of money to secure ones survival, the LIG will enable
one to leave, which is only one way in which it will assist and
support the human to live Self-Determination and Self-Responsibility.
In
removing worries and fears we can create a Climate of Freedom to be
able to change your relationships and to care for the things that
really matter, which is ourselves and everything and everyone else
that is here with us as part of the Living Organism called Earth.
This then has the potential to really fundamentally change our
Perspective on what is Here, on what is Life. So - one can
essentially say that LIG is opening up the individuals perspective to
seeing and considering a global perspective that can be condensed to:
supporting everybody, everywhere, all of the time.
