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| luminous:karelse_hands_on_change [2010-02-07 15:25] – theunkarelse | luminous:karelse_hands_on_change [2010-02-07 15:26] (current) – theunkarelse |
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| With regard to change, joy is a keyword in contrast to the clash between human culture and the environment, dominated by appeals for austerity and reduction. These force the debate into negative arguments that closely follow the Christian tradition of Man as the species fallen from Grace, which now has to suffer. This self-denial is not a very inspiring message, as it focuses on a negative set of actions for us to take. It is hard to imagine a positive revolution happening on a global scale, based on negative arguments. It is not inspiring and certainly not very sustainable, because people are already getting demotivated. Instead we should focus on positive changes that are inspiring. This debate should be dominated by the possibility of increasing the quality of life in our social lives, our food and in the way we spend our time. | With regard to change, joy is a keyword in contrast to the clash between human culture and the environment, dominated by appeals for austerity and reduction. These force the debate into negative arguments that closely follow the Christian tradition of Man as the species fallen from Grace, which now has to suffer. This self-denial is not a very inspiring message, as it focuses on a negative set of actions for us to take. It is hard to imagine a positive revolution happening on a global scale, based on negative arguments. It is not inspiring and certainly not very sustainable, because people are already getting demotivated. Instead we should focus on positive changes that are inspiring. This debate should be dominated by the possibility of increasing the quality of life in our social lives, our food and in the way we spend our time. |
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| ==== Future Nosttalgia ==== | ==== Future nostalgia ==== |
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| For those who think our quality of life is at a high standard, I would like to point the omnipresence of depression in Western societies. Just watch the expressions on the faces of people you meet in the streets or supermarkets in any major city. It looks like what Theodore Dalrymple describes as the “transcendental boredom”((Theodore Dalrymple in //Nexus// #44, 2006, Nexus Uitgeverij)) of a vast middle class who are unlikely to gain or lose much in material assets and whose lives are lived in passive consumption of goods offered by large anonymous corporations. He suggests that this feeds into a myth of self-destruction, which originated with the great Romantic poets, and which has developed in the 20th century into the pinnacle of post-modernity; José Ortega y Gasset’s “mass-man,”((Rob Riemen in //Nexus// #44, 2006, Nexus Uitgeverij)) people liberated even from thinking. Together these phenomena combine with unrelenting news of our deteriorating habitats to form a picture so saturated with fatalism that even our visions of the future have become dominated by nostalgia, a classic sign of depression. | For those who think our quality of life is at a high standard, I would like to point the omnipresence of depression in Western societies. Just watch the expressions on the faces of people you meet in the streets or supermarkets in any major city. It looks like what Theodore Dalrymple describes as the “transcendental boredom”((Theodore Dalrymple in //Nexus// #44, 2006, Nexus Uitgeverij)) of a vast middle class who are unlikely to gain or lose much in material assets and whose lives are lived in passive consumption of goods offered by large anonymous corporations. He suggests that this feeds into a myth of self-destruction, which originated with the great Romantic poets, and which has developed in the 20th century into the pinnacle of post-modernity; José Ortega y Gasset’s “mass-man,”((Rob Riemen in //Nexus// #44, 2006, Nexus Uitgeverij)) people liberated even from thinking. Together these phenomena combine with unrelenting news of our deteriorating habitats to form a picture so saturated with fatalism that even our visions of the future have become dominated by nostalgia, a classic sign of depression. |
theunkarelse