1 00:00:09,421 --> 00:00:13,062 TEDx Ojai | x = Independently organized TED event 2 00:00:13,702 --> 00:00:15,786 The title of this presentation is 'The Big Question: 3 00:00:15,926 --> 00:00:19,989 Environmental Misalignment and the Value War'. 4 00:00:20,129 --> 00:00:24,516 Human society today has two diametrically opposed systems of economy. 5 00:00:24,656 --> 00:00:28,354 One is our traditionally imposed mode of monetary-market economics. 6 00:00:28,494 --> 00:00:31,039 The other is a physical-rule structure emerging 7 00:00:31,179 --> 00:00:34,247 from our growing scientific recognition of reality 8 00:00:34,387 --> 00:00:37,286 both environmentally and sociologically. 9 00:00:37,426 --> 00:00:41,510 The consequence is an ever-increasing level of social destabilization 10 00:00:41,650 --> 00:00:44,109 and an ongoing decline in public health. 11 00:00:44,249 --> 00:00:47,039 I've divided this into two brief sections. The first part is called 12 00:00:47,161 --> 00:00:51,656 'System Clash: Market Efficiency vs. Technical Efficiency' 13 00:00:51,796 --> 00:00:56,285 Part two: 'Values Wars: Societal Potential, Collapse and Transition' 14 00:00:56,425 --> 00:00:59,780 (what we're capable of doing, what's in store for us if we don't 15 00:00:59,920 --> 00:01:02,126 how we can get out of this system, etc). 16 00:01:02,266 --> 00:01:06,175 Before I begin part one, what is economy? 17 00:01:06,315 --> 00:01:08,660 It's defined in Greek as the management of a household 18 00:01:08,800 --> 00:01:10,848 a definition that's often lost. 19 00:01:10,988 --> 00:01:14,135 To economize, what does that mean? It means to increase efficiency. 20 00:01:14,275 --> 00:01:16,311 Keep that in mind: reducing waste. 21 00:01:16,451 --> 00:01:18,531 That's what economy is supposed to be. 22 00:01:18,671 --> 00:01:21,313 Defining my terms, we'll use two terms throughout this presentation. 23 00:01:21,453 --> 00:01:26,464 The first is a theoretical notion of the 'Earth Economy' which I'll define as 24 00:01:26,604 --> 00:01:29,999 "Decisions made directly based upon scientific understandings 25 00:01:30,139 --> 00:01:34,629 as they relate to optimized habitat management and human health." 26 00:01:34,769 --> 00:01:37,945 Production and Distribution is regulated by the most technically efficient 27 00:01:38,085 --> 00:01:40,473 and sustainable approaches known 28 00:01:40,613 --> 00:01:44,173 compared to our currently existing 'market economy' defined [as] 29 00:01:44,313 --> 00:01:47,266 "Decisions are based on independent human actions 30 00:01:47,406 --> 00:01:49,787 through the vehicle of monetary exchange 31 00:01:49,927 --> 00:01:52,549 regulated by the pressures of Supply and Demand. 32 00:01:52,689 --> 00:01:55,282 Production and Distribution is enabled by the buying and selling 33 00:01:55,422 --> 00:01:59,999 of labor and material provisions, with the motivations of a person or group 34 00:02:00,139 --> 00:02:03,073 (the self- interest) as the defining attribute of unfolding. 35 00:02:03,213 --> 00:02:06,345 This is a chart of seven economic attributes. 36 00:02:06,485 --> 00:02:09,155 [There are] many more but this is what I wanted to focus on here. 37 00:02:09,295 --> 00:02:14,206 Basically they are intrinsic to each economy, in comparison. 38 00:02:14,346 --> 00:02:17,860 I'm focusing on the market economy and its relationship to a natural system 39 00:02:18,000 --> 00:02:20,005 what we're calling the 'earth economy.' 40 00:02:20,145 --> 00:02:23,034 The only caveat here with these asterisks 41 00:02:23,174 --> 00:02:25,774 are elements of our sociological development 42 00:02:25,914 --> 00:02:28,247 based on scientific integrity and ingenuity: 43 00:02:28,387 --> 00:02:31,787 the evolution of science and our knowledge of ourselves and the environment. 44 00:02:31,927 --> 00:02:35,396 That will be talked about as we touch upon each one of these. 45 00:02:35,536 --> 00:02:37,451 1) Consumption 46 00:02:37,591 --> 00:02:41,098 In a market economy the entire thing is based on consumption. 47 00:02:41,238 --> 00:02:43,421 The only reason that you're wearing clothes, that you're eating 48 00:02:43,561 --> 00:02:46,418 or that you have a home is because someone somewhere is 49 00:02:46,558 --> 00:02:50,804 buying or giving a service, exchanging money in some form and consuming. 50 00:02:50,934 --> 00:02:52,437 That's what this system is. 51 00:02:52,537 --> 00:02:54,605 What does the natural world have to say about that? 52 00:02:54,706 --> 00:02:57,274 What does an 'earth economy' have to say? 53 00:02:57,380 --> 00:02:59,380 The Earth is a finite closed system. 54 00:02:59,480 --> 00:03:03,431 Preservation, not consumption, should be the ethos. 55 00:03:03,571 --> 00:03:06,093 If you lived on an island with a small group of people 56 00:03:06,233 --> 00:03:10,093 and you had a finite amount of resources with a natural generation of growth 57 00:03:10,233 --> 00:03:13,362 a very simplified society, would you decide to make an economic system 58 00:03:13,502 --> 00:03:16,071 that tried to use that up as fast as possible? 59 00:03:16,211 --> 00:03:19,070 No, and I'm afraid the Earth is an isolated island 60 00:03:19,210 --> 00:03:23,827 in a vast cosmic sea, and is a lot smaller than we think. 61 00:03:23,967 --> 00:03:28,009 2) Obsolescence: The market system is driven explicitly by obsolescence. 62 00:03:28,149 --> 00:03:30,522 Two [types]: Intrinsic Obsolescence 63 00:03:30,662 --> 00:03:33,401 being the use of cost-efficiency 64 00:03:33,541 --> 00:03:36,631 meaning that every good produced has to be inferior 65 00:03:36,771 --> 00:03:39,920 the moment it's made because the corporate institutions must save money 66 00:03:40,060 --> 00:03:43,073 at the very beginning of production to remain competitive 67 00:03:43,213 --> 00:03:45,501 against everyone else competing 68 00:03:45,641 --> 00:03:47,958 [and] Planned Obsolescence, which is much more insidious 69 00:03:48,098 --> 00:03:50,486 a form of fraud (even though it's completely codified 70 00:03:50,626 --> 00:03:53,895 and formalized as a marketing tactic) basically designs goods 71 00:03:54,035 --> 00:03:57,280 to break down under the assumption of repeat purchases. 72 00:03:57,420 --> 00:03:59,614 It's truly amazing that this exists at all. 73 00:03:59,754 --> 00:04:03,017 What does Nature have to say about this? Building upon what we just stated: 74 00:04:03,157 --> 00:04:06,639 It's environmentally irresponsible to design goods to fail 75 00:04:06,779 --> 00:04:09,088 or allow them to fail unnecessarily. 76 00:04:09,228 --> 00:04:13,242 That is basically offensive. We need optimum design 77 00:04:13,382 --> 00:04:16,041 to have things last, survive. 78 00:04:16,181 --> 00:04:18,623 3) Property 79 00:04:18,763 --> 00:04:21,328 The ownership metaphysic is a core premise 80 00:04:21,468 --> 00:04:24,568 allowing controlled restriction of resources and goods. 81 00:04:24,708 --> 00:04:26,997 I say metaphysic because property isn't real. 82 00:04:27,137 --> 00:04:29,480 There's not such thing as ownership in the broad scheme 83 00:04:29,620 --> 00:04:32,199 not either intellectual or physical goods. 84 00:04:32,339 --> 00:04:34,395 It's all transient. 85 00:04:34,535 --> 00:04:37,018 The idea of everyone owning one of everything for example. 86 00:04:37,158 --> 00:04:39,917 Does that make a lot of sense when we think about our natural economy? 87 00:04:40,057 --> 00:04:42,405 What about the use of goods? What about access? 88 00:04:42,545 --> 00:04:46,580 The natural environment demands access. Universal property is inefficient. 89 00:04:46,720 --> 00:04:48,992 Strategic access is more environmentally responsible 90 00:04:49,132 --> 00:04:51,570 as a model and more socially efficient. 91 00:04:51,710 --> 00:04:55,639 If you have a car that you drive maybe 40% of the time 92 00:04:55,779 --> 00:04:59,060 why not let the other 60% be used by somebody else? 93 00:04:59,200 --> 00:05:03,609 You create a system of access and use. That's environmentally responsible. 94 00:05:03,749 --> 00:05:06,968 4) Growth, building on consumption once again 95 00:05:07,108 --> 00:05:11,634 The market economy requires near constant growth to maintain employment. 96 00:05:11,774 --> 00:05:14,852 This ties in a little bit with the growth of population as well. 97 00:05:14,992 --> 00:05:17,001 You always hear about this in the government: 98 00:05:17,141 --> 00:05:20,290 "We have growth. We need more growth, GDP. We're lacking growth." 99 00:05:20,430 --> 00:05:22,529 It's basically just absurd! 100 00:05:22,669 --> 00:05:26,927 We need a 'steady state' economy. The Earth is a finite system. 101 00:05:27,067 --> 00:05:30,741 Earth demands a 'balanced load' economy respecting dynamic equilibrium 102 00:05:30,881 --> 00:05:35,040 where things come together in balance, not the necessity to exhaust 103 00:05:35,180 --> 00:05:37,223 just to maintain labor. 104 00:05:37,363 --> 00:05:41,065 5) Competition: This inches into our new sociological developments 105 00:05:41,205 --> 00:05:44,626 that aren't talked about enough. [A] Market Economy [is] based upon 106 00:05:44,766 --> 00:05:47,337 personal and corporate competition in the open market: 107 00:05:47,477 --> 00:05:49,889 selling your labor, competing for market share. 108 00:05:50,029 --> 00:05:52,248 That's a completely metaphysical notion 109 00:05:52,388 --> 00:05:55,425 based on an early tribalistic form of scarcity, this notion 110 00:05:55,565 --> 00:05:58,490 that we can't possibly get along or can't be enough to go around 111 00:05:58,630 --> 00:06:01,380 so we have to fight for everything and everyone is out for themselves. 112 00:06:01,520 --> 00:06:04,343 What we've come to find is that human collaboration 113 00:06:04,483 --> 00:06:09,030 actually is at the core of all invention. It's called 'usufruct'. 114 00:06:09,170 --> 00:06:12,560 Psychological studies now show long term distortion with the competitive view. 115 00:06:12,700 --> 00:06:15,620 The great amount of distortion, corruption, crime 116 00:06:15,760 --> 00:06:18,036 all you hear in the headlines: white-collar, blue-collar 117 00:06:18,176 --> 00:06:20,798 all comes from this primitive notion of a competitive environment 118 00:06:20,938 --> 00:06:22,866 and nothing is held as sacred. 119 00:06:23,006 --> 00:06:25,153 6) Labor for Income 120 00:06:25,293 --> 00:06:29,028 Human survival is contingent upon one's ability to obtain employment 121 00:06:29,168 --> 00:06:31,609 and enable sales. That's your right to life. 122 00:06:31,749 --> 00:06:33,749 If you can't get labor, you might as well die 123 00:06:33,849 --> 00:06:37,379 because you don't serve a economically efficient role. 124 00:06:37,499 --> 00:06:41,270 What does this mean to our development in science and technology? 125 00:06:41,410 --> 00:06:43,624 Mechanization is incredible! 126 00:06:43,764 --> 00:06:46,254 The advent of automation is making human employment 127 00:06:46,394 --> 00:06:50,264 more scarce at a minimum and possibly obsolete entirely. 128 00:06:50,404 --> 00:06:53,804 Mechanization is also more productive and efficient than human labor 129 00:06:53,944 --> 00:06:58,094 which means it's socially irresponsible for us not to mechanize 130 00:06:58,234 --> 00:07:02,172 and enjoy the fruits of the abundance, ease and safety it can create. 131 00:07:02,312 --> 00:07:06,270 7) Scarcity and Imbalance: Contrary to what most think 132 00:07:06,410 --> 00:07:09,802 money and the movement of money that generates consumption economy 133 00:07:09,942 --> 00:07:12,712 is explicitly based on imbalance and inefficiency. 134 00:07:12,852 --> 00:07:15,796 It's really an inefficiency economy, an anti-economy. 135 00:07:15,936 --> 00:07:18,107 The poverty you see and the imbalance 136 00:07:18,247 --> 00:07:22,422 is not just some by-product or result of some greed, institution, etc. 137 00:07:22,562 --> 00:07:25,597 that is inherent to the system. The system wouldn't work 138 00:07:25,737 --> 00:07:30,299 if it was efficient and there was a balance in any element of human survival. 139 00:07:30,439 --> 00:07:33,534 Why would we want that? Abundance, equality! 140 00:07:33,674 --> 00:07:36,505 New sociological studies have found that equality is much more positive 141 00:07:36,645 --> 00:07:38,684 to public health. If you compare the US 142 00:07:38,824 --> 00:07:42,113 (a highly stratified society with deep imbalance) to Norway and Sweden 143 00:07:42,253 --> 00:07:45,963 that have much less levels of stratification, the public health 144 00:07:46,103 --> 00:07:49,934 in those less stratified societies blow us out of the water. 145 00:07:50,074 --> 00:07:52,402 Why not work to create an abundance through all these mechanisms 146 00:07:52,542 --> 00:07:55,849 of efficiency that technology now enables to meet human needs 147 00:07:55,989 --> 00:08:00,030 reduce crime, all sorts of other obvious sociological phenomena. 148 00:08:00,170 --> 00:08:02,247 'Spectrum of Social Disorder' and there it is! 149 00:08:02,387 --> 00:08:05,841 You have a macro-socioeconomic system, a macroeconomic element 150 00:08:05,981 --> 00:08:09,861 that is basically funneling out this distortion from childhood 151 00:08:10,001 --> 00:08:13,885 all the way through every level of sociological exhibition. 152 00:08:14,025 --> 00:08:16,311 Everything you see is coming 153 00:08:16,451 --> 00:08:19,520 from this very sick distortion premise of 'economy.' 154 00:08:19,660 --> 00:08:25,116 My interest, ultimately [is] the relationship of macroeconomics to sociology. 155 00:08:25,256 --> 00:08:29,135 Part Two (change!) 'Values Wars: Societal Potential, Collapse and Transition' 156 00:08:29,275 --> 00:08:31,899 Over here are a series of social problems 157 00:08:32,139 --> 00:08:34,152 that you would see in the newspapers: 158 00:08:34,252 --> 00:08:37,959 poverty, unemployment, destabilization, debt collapse, pollution, waste 159 00:08:38,059 --> 00:08:41,226 all of which are completely, technically obsolete. 160 00:08:41,366 --> 00:08:43,692 None of them have to exist at all. 161 00:08:43,832 --> 00:08:46,149 At a minimum they could be reduced to a very core degree 162 00:08:46,289 --> 00:08:47,931 though a little more subjective. 163 00:08:48,071 --> 00:08:52,201 Removing the environmental and sociological inefficiency inherent to the 'market' 164 00:08:52,341 --> 00:08:55,302 and simply applying modern scientific understandings resolves 165 00:08:55,442 --> 00:08:57,890 or greatly reduces all of these issues. 166 00:08:58,030 --> 00:09:03,045 That is our potential. Since we don't maximize that potential unfortunately 167 00:09:03,185 --> 00:09:05,683 (because of this framework we're in) we are faced 168 00:09:05,823 --> 00:09:09,073 with a unique form of collapse that many are not talking about enough. 169 00:09:09,213 --> 00:09:11,285 There's three nails in the coffin as far as I'm concerned. 170 00:09:11,385 --> 00:09:13,772 Unemployment: Based on the way things are going 171 00:09:13,952 --> 00:09:16,688 you won't see % employment levels that you've ever seen in the past 172 00:09:16,800 --> 00:09:18,805 for the human population. It's over. 173 00:09:18,913 --> 00:09:21,956 Energy costs: only going to rise, we live within a hydrocarbon economy. 174 00:09:22,096 --> 00:09:24,537 There's absolutely no investment or true intention of the government 175 00:09:24,677 --> 00:09:27,215 or corporate institutions to move forward with any type of renewables 176 00:09:27,355 --> 00:09:30,029 that'd replace the current massive infrastructure we have created 177 00:09:30,169 --> 00:09:32,904 and far too much more money will be made as the system fails 178 00:09:33,004 --> 00:09:34,881 because of the scarcity of this thing. 179 00:09:34,981 --> 00:09:37,388 Debt Failure: Am I the only one laughing 180 00:09:37,528 --> 00:09:39,682 at the fact that there's this fictional notion of 'debt' 181 00:09:39,822 --> 00:09:42,503 that's like dominoes knocking down countries one by one? 182 00:09:42,643 --> 00:09:45,566 Transition: Here is the value war. 183 00:09:45,706 --> 00:09:47,808 When I speak with people about these issues 184 00:09:47,948 --> 00:09:50,393 they tend to understand it but they have these value associations 185 00:09:50,533 --> 00:09:52,976 that hold on to old artifacts of the prior system. 186 00:09:53,116 --> 00:09:55,686 It's a value war. How do we get from one to the other? 187 00:09:55,826 --> 00:09:59,420 What can we do to inspire change and create social reform? 188 00:09:59,560 --> 00:10:02,214 And that is the big question: What will you do? What kind of form? 189 00:10:02,354 --> 00:10:05,410 What kind of social awareness? What kind of role do you think you can play? 190 00:10:05,550 --> 00:10:07,726 Will you maximize your own self-interest? Or will you realize 191 00:10:07,866 --> 00:10:11,304 that your self-interest is only as good as the integrity of society as a whole 192 00:10:11,444 --> 00:10:15,952 where self-interest must become social interest in order for us to survive? 193 00:10:16,092 --> 00:10:19,093 That is the new equation and that is the big question. 194 00:10:19,233 --> 00:10:21,279 Thank you very much.