Having had endless discussions with well-meaning people who want to change the world over the last ten years, I have found the same shadow-chasing errors repeated over and over, which I believe are stifling any real attempts at progress.
Recently, I found this old Twitter thread which sums up my thoughts on this perfectly and thought I would recycle it into its own post. I think it’s vital that we have a greater understanding of what we’re trying to change if we’re to have any hope of succeeding. Here it is:
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You can’t have solutions until you understand the problem. I think most change agents don’t understand the problem.
1. A good start is understanding that billionaires aren’t bad. They’re just lucky players in a game that everyone plays. Understand the game, forget the players.
2. We are brought up immersed in an idiotic pop culture of good guys vs. bad guys. Real life isn’t like that. Stop dichotomizing everything.
3. Consumer culture teaches us to outsource all our problems. It’s not always someone else’s fault. Think and be responsible for yourself.
4. Consumerism doesn’t stop with goods and services. We also rapaciously consume the opinions and outrage of others through media. Find your own moral compass.
5. The highest objective of any solution should be human happiness which is neither linked to prosperity or idleness.
6. The problems of society are not due to some unfair system; they are due to the collective will of society’s participants, whether by proactively seeking gain and status at the expense of others, or by quietly acquiescing to those who do. All unfair rules ride on those rails.
7. If we accept that society’s problems are due to the collective individual fears and expectations of people, then nothing major will change until those fears and expectations can be demonstrably addressed.
8. While it’s true that environment shapes behaviour, it’s actually a two-way process. Barring natural events, our behaviour is the only thing that shapes our environment, and it’s the only one of the two that we wilfully control.
9. Any solution for changing the economy is useless unless it’s targeted specifically at the middle class. At almost 2Bn people, the global middle class are undeniably the engine of capitalism. Without them, nothing moves. Fix them and you can fix everything.
Good luck!
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Original thread: https://twitter.com/openaccessguy/status/1491538463350575104
Someone asked me to expand on this statement from my recent blog: “Any solution for changing the economy is useless unless it’s targeted specifically at the middle class. At almost 2Bn people, the global middle class are undeniably the engine of capitalism. Without them, nothing moves. Fix them and you can fix everything.”
My response:
The problem with the middle class (generally) is that they believe the fantasy of the market being infinite and everyone wants to climb to the top of that ladder, or at least to have all the best things in life. That’s not feasible, but of course, people in business continue to sell that idea and consumers continue to believe it. The point here is that the ultimate power is in our consumer choices. As long as we keep buying what they’re selling—and no-one ever questions that logic—then we are heading for climate and inequality disaster.
Look at this way, if I set up a cult that believed that Elvis was alive and everyone should wear Elvis suits, and I had millions of followers, who is responsible for that nonsense? The person who conceives it, or the people who believe it? Of course it’s the people who believe it, because, without them, it’s just some guy crazy talking nonsense to himself.
Hitler and Stalin were nothing without their hordes of followers. How many other deranged idiots throughout history were stopped in their tracks because no-one paid them any heed? Everything good and bad is about where we the people put our attention.