Hi Ecolady,
Yes, I agree that we need to grow spiritually. The difficulty has been
over the last century that science has become the dominant religion of
the day and frowns upon spirituality as being a lot of mumbo jumbo for
simpletons. Now people are turning the other way, and given the freedom
to believe nothing, or whatever they choose, many are exploring what
beliefs there are out there apart from Chrisitianity, which was state
enforced for so long that it became meaningless to those who did not
turn to it by choice, in it's institutionalisation. I myself am a
Christian (although I find church membership difficult, with the old
pastors who still like to make jokes from the pulpit at the expense of
their wives, who are generally required to smile sweetly from their
seats in return; younger pastors tend to be more wary of offending
women, and on and on), so it isn't meaningless to me, nor has it been
forced upon me, but I understand the general sentiments of people,
particularly people who have been brought up in the Roman Catholic
church, who harbour bitter resentment against all the church stands for,
which I hasten to add, is not necessarily what Jesus stood/stands for.
Again, I say, many people seem to be exploring various avenues to the
spiritual, the unknown, the supernatural, the Creator, the life-force
that surrounds our universe, or whatever terms are relevant to those
various paths, and I think this is a good thing.
By economic "growth", I mean the current system which (I'm afraid
economics is really not my strong point...) insists that for the economy
to be "healthy", to continue to exist, and to ward off inflation and
unemployment, the GNP must continually grow (correct me if I'm wrong in
this anyone). This means that whatever is being produced this year will
need to be increased next year, and the year after, in order to feed the
ever hungry economy. Natural resources will necessarily need to be used
up at a greater rate to achieve that, unless someone out there can make
something from nothing - recycling is good, maybe more could be produced
from recycled materials, but I believe that's still a drop in the ocean,
and at any rate energy resources need to be used, whatever is being
produced, and most of those that are efficient are non-renewable.
So I'm not sure in what way you believe financial growth is possible
without using up natural resources, nor why you deem financial growth to
be desirable. An economy which is based on consumerism, as the present
one is, is really the antithesis of a positive spiritual outcome. It
necessitates the foul advertising industry which invites such disasters
upon society as eating disorders, breast implants, the constant feeling
that if only one had this or that item of clothing, home appliance,
chocolate bar, one might be satisfied, or at least happier, pornographic
fantasies in men, dissatisfaction with any given aspect of one's
situation in life and general appearance.
An alternative would be one where people produced most of what they need
locally, shared expensive items such as power tools and what have you,
stopped going off to work everyday to keep the monstrous bureaucracy
going, but found work to do in the community to grow food, help
neighbours build a chook pen, collect fruit from the neighbourhood fruit
trees which grow in abundance where all the car parks and major roads
used to be, getting together to play music with friends, making a piece
of furniture here, helping a working bee there... It could be so
different. You might have to do without dishwashers, forget the annual
trip to Spain, and so on, but most of the things we do in the current
system for the pursuit of happiness, and to save time are actually
counter-productive. How much time to most people have these days, with
all the labour-saving devices on hand? And for those who have loads of
time because they're unemployed, how fulfilling are their lives?
I'll stop there, because I'm digressing into a variety of lectures.
Lee.
[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
> Lee,
>
> Growth and Profit - Maybe we should define these terms. I think that
> we are
> misunderstanding each other. By profit I do not necessarily mean
> financial
> profit - By growth I do not mean expansion - could apply to personal
> and
> spiritual growth and profit. Profit - one could profit by an
> experience not
> necessarily make money from it by profit.
>
> YES, FINANCIAL growth and profit by corporate mentality is currently
> at the
> expense of nature, but it does not have to be. I agree we need
> change but
> we need to define exactly what that means. What exactly needs to be
> changed
> - In my humble opinion - Values as stated before and spirituality, we
> need
> more! Thanks! Ecolady
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