Modern Day Living : An Inadequate Answer To Life

At the beginning of the 21st century we are faced with a whole series of global problems which are damaging the planet and human life in ways that may soon become irreversible. Few people seem to understand (or even want to understand) the seriousness of the implications brought about by the way most of us are living in modern day civilization.

On a general level this is defined by a completely unsustainable way of living, which could ultimately prove cataclysmic for future generations of this planet. This is characterized by an unrelenting growth in global population, poverty, pollution, waste accumulation, resource depletion, species extinction and an overwhelming growth in human physical & psychological dis-ease. One of these such problems, climate change, could prove the most devastating of all, as it could result in the most dramatic world-wide changes the earth has ever seen.
It could therefore be said that those of us alive today are living in one of the most unprecedented times in human history - because what we all choose to do in our lifetime, will effect the direction that this planet will take for hundreds, if not thousands of years.

By trying to look at the root causes of these global problems, namely the socio-economic systems, we can begin to understand the driving force behind why these problems persist.
Our current capitalist economic system is a competitive economic system that is primarily based on the self-interested accumulation of financial wealth, which manifests itself on many levels, including the individual, the corporate, and the national level. The main measure of “success” within a society founded on this economic system is primarily derived from how much wealth is accumulated and the state of the economy. All other considerations like human well-being, physical and mental health and environmental integrity are considered secondary to the economy, and inevitably suffer as a result.

One specific imperative of this economic system is that it demands a completely unsustainable adherence to the principle of limitless economic growth. By trying to sustain economic growth in a world of finite resources, it ensures that natural resources become ever more depleted. And in a world of dwindling resources the effect is even greater competition, from individuals to nations, especially for highly valued natural resources like oil, as we see with the U.S & U.K government’s exploits in Iraq.

Thus we see that when economic factors become the over-riding concern, the environment suffers, whole eco-systems suffer and even human life is a secondary consideration.
With economic globalization, the most powerful nations and multi-national corporations have extended this ruthless system around the world. Under this savagely hierarchical system, most power and decision making is held by an elite minority which holds most of the wealth, who are able to set the social & economic frameworks through which the rest of the world must adhere to. This has therefore entailed a grossly disproportionate share of power and influence, as the wealth generated by this system is shared ever more unequally throughout the world, inturn leaving massive sections of human civilization dis-empowered and without a great deal of self-determining capability.

Within this economic system its functioning is now largely dependent on the corporate model of mass-consumption, and it is now within this particular area where most problems of environmental & human exploitation occur. We see a further devastation of the resources of the natural world; whole portions of humanity exploited through (slave) labor and workers subsequently exploited as consumers in the drive to further maximize profits. But it does not seem to matter that our service in this absurd system is making many of us miserable, bored, angry, sick and isolated.

It is clearly apparent that in this commercialized consumer system all our material 'needs' are being provided for - from cars to dishwashers, tv's to electric toothbrushes, but at what true cost? It seems that our internal emotional & psychological needs are suffering relative to the fulfillment of our material needs. Therefore those who are living in economic abundance, also seem to be living in emotional, psychological & cultural poverty.

We see people all around us who do not seem to care about anything – the great issues of social, philosophical and political life, the planet, the future, themselves, or others. This is because the fundamental functioning of our current system requires that we blindly accept its principles, that we decline to discover better alternatives, that we even refuse to acknowledge the existence of any problems to be solved, that we therefore live according to an entirely inadequate set of values, that we therefore suffer profound and devastating psychological, physical and environmental dis-ease; that we suffer and, if necessary, die for profit.

Ultimately all the problems we now face, must be seen as just parts of one single overriding crisis; that most of us, especially those in the worlds most dominant social institutions, are currently subscribing to a destructive and inadequate answer of how to live harmoniously within this globally interconnected world. There are solutions to our problems, some of them simple, and the first solution is that more of us recognize that there is indeed a problem to be solved, and this requires a radical shift in our thinking, values & actions.