"I think the crises we have today, income inequality, ecological collapse -- is because of the design and the assumptions in our economic system. Technology will play a role as we replace fossil fuel supplies with more efficient and cleaner energy sources. But to do that you need pressure from people's organizations " to create the rules, to redesign with the intention of internalizing the ecological costs, of considering what the social impacts will be of certain technologies. You either have organized money, which is what the Koch brothers and the corporations have right now, or you have organized people and votes as a countervailing force against that."
"Returning the fate of the earth to the center of economic and social decision-making," will require an overhaul of our nation's and the world's system of regulation. But as Menotti points out it's obvious that a pre-requisite for this change to occur will be a move toward greater democracy that can only be won by organizing a mass movement that effectively demands a revolutionary transformation in our collective values and priorities.
The IFG has sketched their reasonable, albeit difficult to attain view of what that transformation could look like: "What is needed is new consciousness, and new economic strategies that break from the assumption of human dominion over nature and the planet ("anthropocentrism"), while rejecting the idea that more technology is the way to save the world. What is required are new economics that will bring us together; reforming our economies toward fairness, and placing the health of nature as the final measure of success. Tweeting won't save us."
Listen to audio recordings of several teach-in presentations here:btlonline.org/2014/spec/ifg2014.html
(Article changed on November 25, 2014 at 00:17)
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