Provocation #200

Lets assume that any system that breakes the environment and destroys its people is a broken system, what happens next?

I have been thinking that maybe it’s pretty simple. Look at the sequence

phase	characteristics
Hunter gatherers	Detailed local knowledge, fire, language, kinship systems
empire	Wars, hierarchy, slaves, agriculture
economics	Growth, Finance, mass production, consumerism, individualism, treaty of Westphalia
?	?

Each system has its virtues which turn, with time into its undoing. The Treaty if Westphalia was entered into to prevent wars, but led to the nation states which fought terrible wars. The individualism of commerce led to isolation of each from each and the separation into extreme inequalities and detachment from the environment which broke the system. What next?

The corrective is a period of relationships, the internet, caring, art and human development across the life cycle. So the four phases become

phase	characteristics
Hunter gatherers	Detailed local knowledge, fire, language, kinship systems
empire	Wars, hierarchy, slaves, agriculture
economics	Growth, Finance, mass production, consumerism, individualism, treaty of Westphalia
relationships	Caring, it takes a village.., Internet, art, health and education

It is important to see that there is a system beyond economic centrality. So much thinking is going into trying to preserve economics as central, but that means maintaining growth, owner/worker caste society, wars and exploitations. It is important to see that after economics a new society is possible. It will happen anyway because the economic system is not (look at the weaknesses at Davos) will self destruct. Not that it entirely goes away, but it will cease to be central as it dawns on everyone that taking care is more important than growth.