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So, I suppose you agree that all humans should have access to the same living standard?
So, we give them the average living standard than average Europeans enjoy
(from your words I assume that you do not agree that scaling down is needed, neither morally nor environmentally...)
The question of resource constraints is another matter. To a first approximation it seems that a standard of living more-or-less equivalent to mine (probably not with horses though) isn't unreasonable. We drive one small car (which we'd rather not, really) we travel a little, not a lot, we use public transport when possible, we have a modest house, eat well, buy nice things but not a lot of them. Various calculators claim that if everyone were like us we'd need about double the resources we have.
Here's the thing: the system we live in is terribly wasteful in ways I can't fix directly. It takes huge amounts of water to provide us with our tap water because of underinvestment in infrastructure. We drive more than we would like to because the public transport is inadequate. Our carbon footprint is large because fossil fuel power generation was the expedient choice for decades. Efficiency and changing our practices would probably account for half our footprint. The details would change, I suppose, but the standard of living wouldn't drop.
3 billion cars (and the oil to go with it, plus the metals), Ipads, Playstation 3, flight vacations, ...
I suggest that maintaining the current standard of living is neither possible NOR desirable.
I remember playing checkers with my grandfather when I was a kid. I now have a Wii. Interestingly I derived more pleasure from playing checkers.
And what about learning a simple musical instrument instead of listening to the latest fad (mainstream or alternative)? Play it to your neighbours. Play it to yourself. In case of simple instruments you can even learn to build it yourself.
A completely different view of the world. On what fullfills life.
Less Prozac.
And what about learning a simple musical instrument instead of listening to the latest fad (mainstream or alternative)? Play it to your neighbours. Play it to yourself. In case of simple instruments you can even learn to build it yourself. Romantic nonsense.
Romantic nonsense.
You haven't played much music in the last couple of decades, have you?
The idea that huge numbers of humans ever did it is romantic nonsense. Maybe 20% of people at peak?
The implied vision I get here - and this is the fault of having been exposed to Irish national mythology no doubt - is of lots of lovely little villagers gathered around their fires playing music and lovely lassies dancing reels at the crossroads. We're rapidly heading for Father Ted territory.
I'll listen to it when it becomes the latest fad.
It's the idea that civilisation always means Moar Stuff, and the inalienable right to buy same, that's suspect.
Here's the thing: the system we live in is terribly wasteful in ways I can't fix directly. It takes huge amounts of water to provide us with our tap water because of underinvestment in infrastructure. We drive more than we would like to because the public transport is inadequate. Our carbon footprint is large because fossil fuel power generation was the expedient choice for decades
like waking up to find you're stuck in amber...or alive in a coffin.
sins of the fathers... "It's very hard to see what is kept invisible" Roseanne Barr
But the short story is:
If liking to play music is "romantic". If people want always "more". If people want to be "consumers". Then we, as a species, are screwed. Maybe we are (in that case, good riddance).
I thought I was the uber-pessimist around, but clear I am not.
I believe most of our current "desires" were invented (See Edward Bernays - There is a Beeb mini-series about this guy, mostly).
The reason we are Over-Prozaced is precisely because this "modern lifestyle" is at odds with our nature.
Tools can help you soften the impact, but I don't think they can negate it entirely - see the effects of being exposed to propaganda even when you know it for what it it.
Of course you can argue that those options are not chosen, but also behaviourally driven.
It's a mindfield out there... You can't be me, I'm taken
Education seems to be mostly defined by "enlightenment" values: Humans are capable of full knowledge, society is there to help and so on.
Humans are actually quite limited creatures (from a cognitive perspective). And easily manipulated. There should be massive educational time dedicated to teach people to deal with their shortcomings and how they can be manipulated.
Bias, self-delusion. Use of misleading arguments. Coping with uncertainty. Coping with lack of knowledge (and the possible inability to acquire such knowledge). Falacies. This things can be taught to a large extent.
Spend much time not on knowledge based learning, but the opposite: learn how not to be (self) deceived, learn how to learn. Learn how ones feelings can cloud judgment. And so on.
Teach people on how to deal with their own shortcomings.
It is not perfection, but we can do better.
Er... really? 3 billion cars? 6 billion flight vacations? I can't see that being manageable. You may try to avoid being wasteful but a plane needs to lift close to a ton per passenger, 10kms high. That alone is a huge energy consumption -and it won't ever be solar... Earth provides enough to satisfy every man's need, but not every man's greed. Gandhi
You don't need to fly for your vacations, in the main. You just need a good train service. (I might need to fly - it may never make economic sense to run a train from the UK to Dublin, but that's another matter.) Not flying wouldn't affect the quality of life.
The point is that the details may need to change, but that doesn't really change the standard of living.
We don't need to kill air travel completely, just stop using it for pointless short-haul and overland stuff.
Anyway, I haven't flown anywhere in two years or so.
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