Capitalism: is what's good for me good for Mother Earth?

Subject: Capitalism: is what's good for me good for Mother Earth?

Dear Capitalists, and Capitalist Wannabees. 

 

Like the pyramids, the Great Wall of China and Joe's Bar and Grill, Capitalism is Man made. 

In one form or another Capitalism has come to be accepted as the most practical method of making sense out of our civilization.  If we drop the word Capitalism, we can see that all nations observe some form of ownership of land, and labor.  It is this need to, "own" that is going to be our undoing.  Individual ownership has worked so well for so long that we just can't think of living any other way.  But what if our choices are to either find another way, or become extinct? 

You say that it can't happen? 

We are fast approaching 7 billion people...or did we just pass that number, and we see several billions near the starvation level of existence.  Clean water is becoming such an issue that soon wars will be fought over water rights just as we now fight over oil rights.  Food supplies are often so short in parts of the world that little children are starving to death.  People are forced out of their lands and left to wander about with little or no hope. 

Who will be the lucky one to eat the last fish pulled from the ocean?  And will it be clean enough to eat? 

Who gets to cut down the last tree? 

And who will suck in the last breath of air? 

Our belief that we have some "God given right" to own a piece of Mother Earth is no longer workable. 

Of course I understand that we will continue proclaiming that no one is going to take away all that we have worked hard to gather about us, a home, a plot of land, a car, a basement full of stuff we just can't part with, and all the items that give meaning to our lives. 

And probably those of us who are adults today will go to our great reward still holding onto "our possessions".  But that only speaks to just how over powering Capitalism is.  In order to have meaning to our lives we must have stuff.  And if we have some stuff to buffer us from being cast into the Wilderness, more stuff is better.  We had a decent home in Renton, but we felt we would be more secure if we owned land.  So we bought ten acres and built a large home and then a horse barn, and  on and on.  We bought another parcel  of land for backup. 

And we'll fight to hold on to it all.  We're no different than others on this list. 

But by holding on, and by not beginning to work together for a better way of taking care of our planet, we are helping bring down the roof on all of us.  So individual greed will result in collective suicide. 

We have to step out of our locked in thinking and explore new options. 

Did God really create Man in His own image and make Man master over the Earth?  If so, we are failing because rather than be Earth's caretakers we busied ourselves in dividing it up and then fighting over who gets what.  Did God create Man in His own image and give only to Man a Soul?  Our troubles multiply when we believe this.  We must come down off our smug perch and learn to live with Mother Earth, not just to continuously rape her. 

We are at a crossroad.  One fork says Selfish and the other says Survival. 

we'll see which one we take. 

 

Carl Jarvis