•
Rating: The planet we live on, as large as it is, falls within a FINITE system of resources, and it is therefore incompatible with the model of INFINITE economic growth that the world's great powers have gradually imposed until it became a commonly accepted norm by the majority of the world's population from the years of the economic boom onwards.
If, absurdly, we had the opportunity to purchase more and more walnut burl or plastic desks, the day will come (and it is getting closer) when the availability of wood or oil on the planet will be exhausted, and our economic resources, even if unlimited, will not serve to satisfy our desires.
Today nature is presenting us with the price to pay for having gone against its laws for so long, but we do not seem to care; we continue to fall into error, to passively live this consumer mindset, to revel between media distractions and superfluous comforts, settling for this fake well-being in defiance of global issues.
For those who have finally understood this but have not yet been able to escape the traps that this consumer system sets for us daily, this essay by Maurizio Pallante is highly recommended, lucid and realistic in its exposition.
The "Movement for Happy Degrowth" aims to connect the experiences of individuals and groups who have simply decided to live better by consuming less; to encourage interpersonal relationships based on mutual benefit and reciprocity rather than individualism and competition; to promote the spread of technologies that reduce the ecological footprint, energy waste, and waste production.
And to this end, it is necessary to develop an alternative cultural paradigm to the value system founded on the obsession with unlimited economic growth that instead characterizes the field of industrial production.
From the current conception of a "doing aimed at doing more and more", work must return to being a "doing well" aimed at improving our lives and consequently making the world more beautiful and hospitable for all living beings.
Perhaps the time has come to dismantle the myth of growth, for which the well-being of a nation is measured by GDP, and to give new and different inputs to productive and economic activities, to develop another knowledge and know-how, to experiment with different ways of relating to the world, to others and to oneself.
"Good morning," said the little prince.
"Good morning," said the merchant.
He was a merchant of perfected pills that quenched thirst. You swallowed one a week and felt no need to drink anymore.
"Why do you sell this stuff?" said the little prince.
"It's a big time saver," said the merchant. "Experts have done the calculations. You save fifty-three minutes a week."
"And what do you do with these fifty-three minutes?" asked the prince.
"You can do whatever you like with them..." reiterated the merchant.
"I," said the little prince, "if I had fifty-three minutes to spend, would walk slowly towards a fountain..."
Loading comments slowly
