Gotta Revolution...
The prerequisite to solving Amerika’s “higher-level” economic and environmental problems is a cultural revolution, the American Cultural Revolution; here’s why…
The Amerikan Culture
The Amerikan Culture is characterized by a depletion/obligation orientation: we continuously supplement consumption enabled by the income we earn at a given point in time with consumption enabled by income generated by depleting our existing economic and environmental reserves, and with income generated by incurring economic and environmental obligations against our future.
We are thereby able to live beyond our means and perpetuate our inflated lifestyles—temporarily.
Specifically:
1. We continue to enable excessive current consumption by depleting our economic asset balances and our natural resource reserves.
· We are selling our economic assets—businesses, real estate, corporate stock—to foreign entities, some of whom are associated with adversarial regimes, at a far greater rate than the rate at which we are acquiring foreign assets. We are thereby living off our dwindling economic asset base, while simultaneously exposing ourselves to the risks inherent in foreign ownership.
· We are drawing down our natural resource reserves, in the absence of corresponding replenishment, replacement, or recycling. We are thereby living off our finite and dwindling natural resource base, while simultaneously exposing ourselves to the risks inherent in foreign natural resource dependence, and ultimately, to natural resource exhaustion.
2. We continue to enable excessive current consumption by incurring economic and environmental obligations against our future and the future of our children.
· We are incurring increasing levels of unsecured and questionably secured debt and unfunded financial obligations at the individual, corporate, and government levels. These obligations carry a high risk of default, and, in the case of our increasing financial dependence on foreign adversaries, a threat to US sovereignty:
o Individual Level Exposure: unsecured credit card debt and questionably secured home mortgages and consumer loans.
o Government Level Exposure: questionably secured federal deficits and debt, unfunded entitlement program obligations, and debt to foreign entities.
o Corporate Level Exposure: questionably secured pension fund obligations and retirement benefit obligations, labor contract obligations, and debt to foreign entities.
· We are polluting today, while deferring the costs associated with today’s pollution prevention, pollution clean up, and ecosystem rectification until some unspecified time in the future. These costs will have to be borne at some point, if we are to survive.
It is obvious that the Amerikan Culture and the fundamental premise upon which it is based—enabling excessive current consumption by depleting our natural and economic resource reserves and by incurring increasingly onerous economic and environmental obligations against our future—are not sustainable. They represent economic and environmental “drains” on Amerika that, if not terminated, will ultimately trigger our day of reckoning.
The American Culture
The American Culture is characterized by a replenishment/surplus orientation: we will consume at levels constrained by the income we earn at the time; we will replenish, replace, and/or recycle economic and natural resources at levels equal to or greater than the levels at which we consume them; and we will refrain from incurring unsecured or questionably secured economic or environmental obligations against our future in order to enable current consumption.
We will thereby live within our means, individually and societally, and abide by the laws of nature and economics:
· You can’t spend what you don’t have.
· Once an irreplaceable resource is gone, it’s gone.
· Whoever owns it, controls it.
· Pollution is cumulative; the earth is finite.
The essence of the American Culture is sustainability—sustainability of both the American Culture itself and of the individual sovereignty and national sovereignty required to preserve the context within which the American Culture exists.
American Cultural Revolution
The American Cultural Revolution (ACR) will foster the implementation of specific strategies and initiatives that will enable us to live sustainably within our means. Through eradicating our addiction to excessive consumption, the underlying problem upon which all of our higher level economic and environmental problems are based, the ACR will provide the context within which these problems can be resolved.
The primary goal associated with the ACR is to induce changes in Amerika’s behavior patterns from those associated with the Amerikan Culture, defying the laws of nature and economics, to those associated with the American Culture, complying with the laws of nature and economics. These behavioral changes will cause corresponding changes to our cultural orientation, from living beyond our means to living within our means.
The result: America will be stronger; we will stop increasing the strength of our adversaries at our expense; and we will render our planet habitable for future generations.
(See www.wakeupamerika.com for proposed solutions; I welcome yours as well.)
The Amerikan Culture
The Amerikan Culture is characterized by a depletion/obligation orientation: we continuously supplement consumption enabled by the income we earn at a given point in time with consumption enabled by income generated by depleting our existing economic and environmental reserves, and with income generated by incurring economic and environmental obligations against our future.
We are thereby able to live beyond our means and perpetuate our inflated lifestyles—temporarily.
Specifically:
1. We continue to enable excessive current consumption by depleting our economic asset balances and our natural resource reserves.
· We are selling our economic assets—businesses, real estate, corporate stock—to foreign entities, some of whom are associated with adversarial regimes, at a far greater rate than the rate at which we are acquiring foreign assets. We are thereby living off our dwindling economic asset base, while simultaneously exposing ourselves to the risks inherent in foreign ownership.
· We are drawing down our natural resource reserves, in the absence of corresponding replenishment, replacement, or recycling. We are thereby living off our finite and dwindling natural resource base, while simultaneously exposing ourselves to the risks inherent in foreign natural resource dependence, and ultimately, to natural resource exhaustion.
2. We continue to enable excessive current consumption by incurring economic and environmental obligations against our future and the future of our children.
· We are incurring increasing levels of unsecured and questionably secured debt and unfunded financial obligations at the individual, corporate, and government levels. These obligations carry a high risk of default, and, in the case of our increasing financial dependence on foreign adversaries, a threat to US sovereignty:
o Individual Level Exposure: unsecured credit card debt and questionably secured home mortgages and consumer loans.
o Government Level Exposure: questionably secured federal deficits and debt, unfunded entitlement program obligations, and debt to foreign entities.
o Corporate Level Exposure: questionably secured pension fund obligations and retirement benefit obligations, labor contract obligations, and debt to foreign entities.
· We are polluting today, while deferring the costs associated with today’s pollution prevention, pollution clean up, and ecosystem rectification until some unspecified time in the future. These costs will have to be borne at some point, if we are to survive.
It is obvious that the Amerikan Culture and the fundamental premise upon which it is based—enabling excessive current consumption by depleting our natural and economic resource reserves and by incurring increasingly onerous economic and environmental obligations against our future—are not sustainable. They represent economic and environmental “drains” on Amerika that, if not terminated, will ultimately trigger our day of reckoning.
The American Culture
The American Culture is characterized by a replenishment/surplus orientation: we will consume at levels constrained by the income we earn at the time; we will replenish, replace, and/or recycle economic and natural resources at levels equal to or greater than the levels at which we consume them; and we will refrain from incurring unsecured or questionably secured economic or environmental obligations against our future in order to enable current consumption.
We will thereby live within our means, individually and societally, and abide by the laws of nature and economics:
· You can’t spend what you don’t have.
· Once an irreplaceable resource is gone, it’s gone.
· Whoever owns it, controls it.
· Pollution is cumulative; the earth is finite.
The essence of the American Culture is sustainability—sustainability of both the American Culture itself and of the individual sovereignty and national sovereignty required to preserve the context within which the American Culture exists.
American Cultural Revolution
The American Cultural Revolution (ACR) will foster the implementation of specific strategies and initiatives that will enable us to live sustainably within our means. Through eradicating our addiction to excessive consumption, the underlying problem upon which all of our higher level economic and environmental problems are based, the ACR will provide the context within which these problems can be resolved.
The primary goal associated with the ACR is to induce changes in Amerika’s behavior patterns from those associated with the Amerikan Culture, defying the laws of nature and economics, to those associated with the American Culture, complying with the laws of nature and economics. These behavioral changes will cause corresponding changes to our cultural orientation, from living beyond our means to living within our means.
The result: America will be stronger; we will stop increasing the strength of our adversaries at our expense; and we will render our planet habitable for future generations.
(See www.wakeupamerika.com for proposed solutions; I welcome yours as well.)
posted by Chris Clugston at 10/12/2006 01:12:00 PM
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