I tend to like to hang around in small groups. Even in the freegan Whatsapp groups, I don't like it when the group gets too big. Cos I think people will form cliques and there's mild cyber bullying, etc...
I think in small groups, people are gracious... I think everyone would like the world to be nice and peaceful. And if we think about it, hey, if we all had a small community of like minded people, you could live with your friends as neighbours in a small town in a country, assuming there's food and shelter and medical, etc etc...
And if everyone is nice and responsible and is community minded and co-operates with each other, I think it would be a wonderful world to live in.
Then we won't have all the problems with climate change or over farming, deforestation, over fishing, etc etc. Essentially, humans are just plundering the land mindlessly.
I agree that this should not or cannot continue, but I'm a realist. I don't bother too much about saving the Earth initiatives, cos I think to govern thousands/millions of people, a system is needed to incentive people to naturally work towards a common goal. The current system is the capitalistic economic system and people work for money and GDP. With this, people work and play this "game" and strive towards a "common" global goal.
If this doesn't change, all the save the Earth initiatives won't work.
Why? Back to the above point.
If we manage 50 people or 100 people, it's easy to be community minded.
But there will eventually be a "genius" who will want to tap into the united power of everyone and plunder the land and eventually, they become billionaires. This is what is happening in the world.
Most people just want to live simple lives with their families and be connected with their community, as long as they have security for the future, most people are already happy.
But there are always those few who will want to get more, people like Elon Musk, Donald Trump, etc.
Now, I'm not saying this is bad. It's part of the game and they are playing it well. That's all.
Essentially, this is very similar to my previous post. Where the system breaks.
If you ask most normal people. Would they be happy in a system where everyone shares the common resources and not over consume and plunder the land, most people would say yes, they will be happy with such a system, as long as everyone abides by the that set of rules. If everyone agrees to only catch X number of fish and they all abide by it then everyone will be pretty happy.
But as the number of people grow, there will be some folks who will be very happy to out game the system. They will catch more fish or take more resources. Cos it's so hard to prevent people from over consuming, cos it's pretty much an honor system.
But once the system breaks, then it becomes every man for himself. More people would want to plunder the land for their own gain. Cos if someone's gonna do it, then it might as well be me right?
So the thing is... I think humans aren't naturally selfish as long as their own security has already been fulfilled. But the current system "game" directs people to this selfish mode to care only for themselves.
Think that you aren't part of this selfish system?
If you are working in a large organization, or consume coffee capsules, or tabao food in plastic/styrofoam containers, travel, take a car to work, etc...
You are naturally part of this selfish system, but most of us are not at the top of the food chain.
Essentially, for our own leisure or entertainment or convenience, we have plundered the land.
By consuming modern day consumables, humans are already unnecessarily plundering the Earth.
The TV, I watch, the laptop I'm typing on, the handphone I'm using, etc... All takes a lot of resources to dig, refine and produce.
It's the same idea as... the best thing to do is to only catch X fish every day if everyone catches only X fish, then there would be enough fish forever. But someone ha started catching MORE fish than his allocated quota, so everyone just consumes more instead in a fear to lose out.
Do we all need handphones? Well we did fine without them previously, but now it becomes additional productivity and entertainment. What would you feel if you were the only person without the handphone?
If everyone catches more fish and you don't catch more fish what do you feel?
Why should I not own the handphone? Since everyone already has it? Why shouldn't I catch more fish? Everyone is doing it anyway.
Why should I consume less when everyone is consuming anyway.
All of what we consume is manufactured using fuel, we pay for products as a portion of the production cost. IF the cost of burning fuel also included the damage to the environment, the price of most of our products would not be what it is now.
What we pay now is just a part of the production cost of extracting the fuel, refining it, transporting it, burning it, etc etc... all the way to the production of our handphones. Even if some companies have to buy carbon credits, the damage of digging the land and release of harmful chemicals into the atmosphere will continue to nag at us for generations to come.
No, I highly doubt any of us are "paying" the TRUE price of consuming fossil fuel in terms of dollars.
The true cost would include the cost to return the Earth to a similarly less polluted state as though as it was before we consumed fossil fuels.
Which means that all of us are consuming things which have an effect on the environment.
And if we were to pay for the damage to the environment, the cost of all our daily consumables would be significantly higher than what it is currently.
Even solar panels require resources to produce before they can become solar panels.
Anyway... I don't have the answers or any better solution. Well... if man were to get their act together and work with each other I'm sure they may come to a good solution, but that's not going to happen soon. Unless the game fundamentally changes, there's not going to be any significant change.
So for me, I'll just be part of this system and live a normal life like anyone else.
So I don't really think that man is inherently selfish, but rather, the system set by man has made people selfish as part of the game. And the sad part is that those "geniuses" who are billionaires are the people who are setting the game for everyone. And since they are at the top rankings of this game, do you think they will want to change the rules of the game anytime soon?
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