What really matters

POSTED BY: 1kiki
UPDATED: Saturday, December 27, 2025 05:23
VIEWED: 8767
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We do seem to agree that finding better ways to care for the earth is a matter of life and death. But so far, the bulk of humanity has failed to even slow down the mismanagement we've perpetrated. In the case of the US, business has failed to address the problem. Government has failed to address the problem. And professional interest groups that take our donations have failed to address the problem.

What can we do so that they are all more accountable?

Or do we give up on them and try to organize without them, from the ground up? - 1KIKI

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Good question, and one that I've been trying to answer to myself for quite a while.

Generally-speaking, it's difficult to effect large-scale effects from small-scale (individual) actions. We might each individually buy fuel-efficient cars, but not have any say over land-used planning and mass transit availability. "Hitler would not have been prevented by dumpster-diving".

http://www.alternet.org/story/141260/taking_shorter_showers_doesn%27t_
cut_it%3A_why_personal_change_does_not_equal_political_change

OTOH, it's almost impossible to steer our Federal government from the ground up. Our government, like most governments, is an oligarchy; it represents the richest and powerful, not the "common person", certainly not the unborn generations, and most definitely not "the (non-human) commons" .... the vast natural infrastructure that we all depend on and which can't be "monetized".

So although I think we all need to take personal responsibility - yanno, reduce, reuse, recycle - I think we also take collective action at lower decision-making levels.



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"Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor"- William Blake

"If you aren't aware, Texans don't have much concern for the well-being of Yankees or Californians, even Yankee factory workers in Indiana "- SECOND

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Here is the article about Hitler and dumpster-diving. I thought it was profound.

Also, it's very difficult to re-create a "community" of people trading work, and developing/ participating in the "gray economy" because people move around so much.

But of course, given the scope of the problem "How can we save ourselves?" I guess the question whether we should ...

Take personal action OR
Develop a "gray economy" community OR
Pressure our cities, counties and states and regional entities (look at those closely: most people don't even know that they exist or what they do) OR
Vote at the Federal level, Or
Donate money to NGOs which have proven effective, OR
Volunteer time to organizations.

... is kind of a moot point. I think the answer is All of the above.

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Would any sane person think dumpster diving would have stopped Hitler, or that composting would have ended slavery or brought about the eight-hour workday, or that chopping wood and carrying water would have gotten people out of Tsarist prisons, or that dancing naked around a fire would have helped put in place the Voting Rights Act of 1957 or the Civil Rights Act of 1964? Then why now, with all the world at stake, do so many people retreat into these entirely personal “solutions”?

Part of the problem is that we’ve been victims of a campaign of systematic misdirection. Consumer culture and the capitalist mindset have taught us to substitute acts of personal consumption (or enlightenment) for organized political resistance. An Inconvenient Truth helped raise consciousness about global warming. But did you notice that all of the solutions presented had to do with personal consumption—changing light bulbs, inflating tires, driving half as much—and had nothing to do with shifting power away from corporations, or stopping the growth economy that is destroying the planet? Even if every person in the United States did everything the movie suggested, U.S. carbon emissions would fall by only 22 percent. Scientific consensus is that emissions must be reduced by at least 75 percent worldwide.

Or let’s talk water. We so often hear that the world is running out of water. People are dying from lack of water. Rivers are dewatered from lack of water. Because of this we need to take shorter showers. See the disconnect? Because I take showers, I’m responsible for drawing down aquifers? Well, no. More than 90 percent of the water used by humans is used by agriculture and industry. The remaining 10 percent is split between municipalities and actual living breathing individual humans. Collectively, municipal golf courses use as much water as municipal human beings. People (both human people and fish people) aren’t dying because the world is running out of water. They’re dying because the water is being stolen.

Or let’s talk energy. Kirkpatrick Sale summarized it well: “For the past 15 years the story has been the same every year: individual consumption—residential, by private car, and so on—is never more than about a quarter of all consumption; the vast majority is commercial, industrial, corporate, by agribusiness and government [he forgot military]. So, even if we all took up cycling and wood stoves it would have a negligible impact on energy use, global warming and atmospheric pollution.”

Or let’s talk waste. In 2005, per-capita municipal waste production (basically everything that’s put out at the curb) in the U.S. was about 1,660 pounds. Let’s say you’re a die-hard simple-living activist, and you reduce this to zero. You recycle everything. You bring cloth bags shopping. You fix your toaster. Your toes poke out of old tennis shoes. You’re not done yet, though. Since municipal waste includes not just residential waste, but also waste from government offices and businesses, you march to those offices, waste reduction pamphlets in hand, and convince them to cut down on their waste enough to eliminate your share of it. Uh, I’ve got some bad news. Municipal waste accounts for only 3 percent

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1KIKI

Monday, December 26, 2016 2:13 AM

Thanks for your thoughtful responses. They're informed and well-reasoned. You've helped me along in my thinking.

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How did your beloved 'democratic' party fuck up so badly?

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To get back to the 'how' of creating a survivable way of living on this planet - looking back to the days of Reagan, even at that time republicans focused on grass-roots, local, county and eventually state political action. That seems to be a winning strategy. But what it takes are mobilized citizens, not passive ones.

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How did your beloved 'democratic' party fuck up so badly?

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Microplastics Are Changing Our Oceans—And You Can’t See It Happening

https://indiandefencereview.com/microplastics-are-changing-our-oceans/


Garden of Eden 'FOUND' as scientist claims Biblical paradise is linked to the Pyramids of Giza

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-14580021/Garden-Eden-s
cientist-claims-Biblical-Pyramids-Giza.html?sfnsn=scwspmo

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