Three Assumptions that Prevent Us from Creating the World that we Want
Someone else is responsible
Every human being, including you, will defend those connections on which they rely for their sustenance. We do not change the world by demanding change from others. We change the world by creating new connections for ourselves. From Principles of Practical Holism:
1 - We are all Interconnected . . . one thing is related to another and everything is related to everything else.
2 - The only power in human systems resides in the choice of individuals to maintain a relationship (bridge) and everybody gets to make their own choices.
3 - We are engaged in a single pattern of relationships in which there is no good or evil . . . only choices and consequences.
4 - A complex set of interactions is more resilient in the face of environmental change than a simpler set of interactions.
An exerpt from EF Schumacher's Good Works, about the Scott Bader Company
Resources are Scarce
The things that life needs to thrive are not scarce. Life thrives on itself when it can establish diverse, complex, stable and productive interactions. We make life scarce when we dedicate each space to a single purpose. From Complexity Spirals:
An increase in the number of species/organizations (diversity) -> increases the number of ways that each species/organization can interact (complexity) -> increases the likelihood that interactions will take place (stability) -> increases the actual number of interactions that do take place (productivity) -> increases the opportunity for additional types of interaction (new niches) and if those niches are filled that is an increase in diversity - completing the cycle. It also works in reverse if we reduce any of those numbers.
Charles Eisenstein on Scarcity
The market can solve all our problems
Each of us has the capacity to produce any number of goods and services at any given time. Some of what we produce can flow out through the market if it is relatively scarce to someone else who has the money to pay for it. If we rely solely on a market system, the rest of our potential production is lost. That is what creates scarcity in the system.
From Community Sufficiency Technologies:
There are two ways you can invest your time and money. You can invest in trying to make a profit, in which case, your investment is subject to all the market forces and the corresponding risks. And/or, you could invest in the capacity to provide for yourself, in which case, for those things, you don't care what happens in the market.