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ever since the age of discovery -- when european powers became intrinsically dependent on resources from across the globe to provide revenue to build their empires as well as sustain their populations -- our world has been tip-toeing toward a global system of resource management. our problem is that the age of discovery was itself driven by greed, and this gave birth to a greedy system. you might say greed was the original unilateral approach, and we've stuck with it through various manifestations and incarnations: from racism to jingoism and everything in between. but all the while the livelihood of all nations has been stitched ever closer, and today we have a strong, global commercial structure wherein the shortcomings of some are supported by the abundance of others.
this is a natural order that arose from greed (selling goods to meet a demand), but greed can only take us so far. it was never the best way to go about things, but given the scale of this system (which has grown to encompass the entire globe) it's becoming glaringly obvious to anyone with a history book and news source that this same greedy, unilateral paradigm has all along been yielding diminishing returns. . . and now threatens to topple the system entirely. we fumbled into this remarkable gift, and imo we'd better get as many ideas about what to do with it as possible.
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“Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle.”
rip matt  |