There’s a Whole Lot of Crazy to go Around

I was giving myself another double dose of punishment today at the gym.  Keeping this body healthy sometimes feels like a full-time job because time passes slowly when I’m wrestling with some free weights.  My self-flagellation is compounded by the inane rhetoric I am subjected to.  One guy’s hot air is used up glorifying the free market.  Another guy is inciting fear in his conversation victim about the work of the devil.

As a “socio-economic sustainability activist,” I tend to focus my attention on disabusing people of the first guy’s beliefs since I’m convinced that disillusionment is usually the first step to a transformation in worldview.  Free Market religion is much more widespread and less contested, in my estimation, so it needs a counter narrative in the media and person-to-person discourse. 

As I was washing away the sweat, I started thinking about these two conversations, and I wondered if these two seemingly disparate belief systems were actually related.  The religious person believes the world is a place that needs a controlling and judging force.  Humans need religion to control their wild forces because without religion, chaos and evil will dominate life, which will lead to suffering.  Since this force is external to humanity, it is believed to be trustworthy.  Compare this to the idea that the free market is free of any one individual’s control.  Free market believers contrast their belief with—the only alternative—dictatorship.  Of course, it is childish to assume that a dictatorship is the only alternative, but I’m not making this up!  Free market believers have been indoctrinated into the power of the invisible hand, which will fairly regulate life and minimize suffering.  Notice how the invisible hand is viewed as an external force, one which is more trustworthy because of this “independence.”

The irony is that the bibles, qurans, bhagavad gitas, and other holy books have been written and passed down by humans.  Children aren’t gifted these texts by heavenly deities on their 3^rd birthdays.  (Probably not even Santa bothers to leave these books under freshly slaughtered trees moved indoors and dressed with skirts and other regalia.)  Many children don’t even read these books because they are spoon-fed just enough to keep them in fear.  Likewise, children are not given the freedom to explore different socio-economic designs.  They are not even given technical simulations to measure and evaluate how different designs lead to different outcomes, and which they prefer.  Rather, they are taught that “this is the way things are” and that they need to adapt.  They are also told “this is the best system there is.”  Most of them have minimal exposure to economics, sociology, psychology, and resource sustainability, which makes them ill-equipped to assess the validity and worth of our current socio-economic design.  Children of these two seemingly separate beliefs grow up and become proponents of those beliefs.  They have identified with them.  Those beliefs are part of their cultural heritage, and while that is true, they have not learned the skills to de-identify with that cultural heritage so that they can take in a larger view of life, which is necessary for raising sustainability-minded global citizens.

While the leaders of religions decide which snippets of text are important to promulgate, and exhort their followers to abide by, leaders of large companies decide which products will be produced no matter the damage to the environment and the people that assemble them.  Executive editors decide which topics and opinions are newsworthy, with a faith that they will be wise enough to represent people’s interests and needs for information.  But, it’s okay, because it was the “invisible hand” that made these decisions, just like the god that works in mysterious ways by letting kids be born into starvation or abuse.  We can all rest easy because it’s out of our hands.  We are not responsible.  The billions of people suffering is just a natural result of god’s the invisible hand’s work.  Björk said it best, “It’s in our hands, it always was…look no further.”

From the Concrete Jungle to the Asphalt Plains

I just returned to Orange County from a trip to the Eureka redwoods.  I forgot that I was on the freeway traveling near 80 up there because these ancient giants paint the scene.  Freeways in southern California are starkly divided from regular life.  You feel glad to be in the safety of your car and not “out there.”  After stopping for an evening in the gourmet-littered streets of San Francisco and a boring ride on Interstate 5, I find myself back on the seemingly deserted streets of Irvine.  (The streets bloat with cars at the evening and morning commute hours when the residents dare to leave their self-absorbing homes.)  After filling up my car’s belly with regular unleaded, I decided to walk to the closest post office to send a letter.  It didn’t look too far on my smartphone map; just a couple of blocks!  Google reminded me that those two blocks actually spanned 1.2 miles.  1.2 miles?  Never wanting to be outdone, Orange County design makes the sizable Redwood dimensions seem quaint.  It takes me 30 seconds to just cross the intersection. I decide to take the quieter street to avoid vehicular fumes.  The sidewalk is forgotten on this street.  To make the best of this situation, I play “tightrope” on the curb.  I’m assured I’m not drunk since I can successfully balance my clumsy self half a foot above the street.  Eventually, one of the usually out-of-sight lawn maintenance workers obstructs my catwalk, so I jump off.  I saw several of these landscaping manicurists on my walk.  One was even blowing leaves out of the bushes, as if it was an offense for a bush to be a little unkempt.  The dedication to keeping everything under control is something Irvine excels at, including its people.  I only passed three other walkers on my round-trip 2.4-mile stroll.  You almost feel weird being a foot-based commuter here.  This town was made for wheels, and we really admire you if you have fancy ones.

My quick displacement from the irrepressible jungle of San Francisco to the asphalt plains of Irvine made the contrast all the more vivid.  In my 4-block walk, I noticed how the businesses (no homes were intermingled in this zone) keep each other at arm’s lengths.  Perhaps they are protecting their trade secrets, or their secret trades.  It doesn’t matter where the money comes from, just as long as you have it!  The streets are so clean of debris that few birds bother to visit to find a random treat.

A friend of mine here loves the planning of the city.  No ugly electrical wires, big open spaces, discrete zones for businesses and residences.  Like the cupboard of someone with OCD, every thing has its proper place.  Orange County has everything you could need:  malls, chain stores, chain restaurants, churches, cineplexes, a grand arts center with family-approved productions, and plenty of medical offices.  There is a small rough-around-the-edges Artists Village in Santa Ana with a distinctly more progressive urban streak to it, but as long as it is contained in that community, the rest of OC doesn’t have to worry.  Irvine, and Orange County generally, make people feel safe, secure, and comfortable.  There is a lot of predictability here, which is why Occupiers were so upsetting to some people.  That kind of thing is only supposed to happen elsewhere.  Even though Orange County has a wonderful range of ethnic, linguistic, and culinary diversity, it doesn’t have the conspicuous expressive range that is typical of more diverse communities. 

It’s the damn streets!  While well designed for cars, with their insulating effect on everyone’s psyches, they are not conducive to social mixing.  It’s rare to “happen upon” an interesting spot here.  On your way to work, school, grocery shopping, or a friend’s house, you just see more of the same. I still get slightly confused driving in Irvine sometimes because the visual referents we normally rely on are all so similar as to make them unhelpful. On a hike in nature, or in a city, it’s almost impossible to just see more of the same.  The surprising giant clovers creeping out around the trail’s turn or the gilded embellishments on a SF home grab your attention. They are distinctive.  In these spaces, you are forced to walk, and at that slower pace, you bump into all kinds of unexpected life. 

Orange County must be overrun with communists since they have surrendered themselves to top-down central planning!  Oh that’s right, those are just inciteful buzzwords to scare the thinker away.  Any planning project, whether broad or narrow in scope, will create an effect that is in large part determined by what the intentions of the project are.  What are the values that the planning is serving and promoting?  Some communities are planned to foster mixing.  Some communities assiduously plan to provide every home with water, others don’t.  Some communities plan to maintain social stability by using rent control. Orange County doesn’t.  Orange County bends over backwards to attract businesses, and makes a less heroic effort to provide low-income housing for workers that those businesses don’t pay enough.  The funny thing is that all organizations, large, small, private, governmental, and non-profit all do planning.  Even the ever-experimental Google plans its playtime for employees.  Planning, like technology, isn’t inherently dangerous.  It’s the motivation behind it that matters. 

What might a society that used planning to make our lives better, socially and physically, look like?

         click

Zday 2011 Orange County Long Beach

With about 20 people in attendance at the comfortable and tranquil Avia Hotel in Long Beach, we had plenty of delicious snacks and great discussion.  Thanks go to Mico for securing the venue for us.  I was so pleased that the group felt welcome to participate and share their perspectives.

Originally, I had extracted 25 minutes (in 1 to 3 minute segments) of video from ZMF to use as discussion points.  There are so many research findings shared in the film, but while watching, one doesn't have the time to explore them in more depth.  This was the occasion for that exploration.  In fact, we only made it through 13 minutes of film in nearly three hours!

We took a few moments at the end of the evening to share what we would all do if we weren't forced into wage slavery, and it was great to hear how each person would share his/her individual talents to contribute to society. 

With a nascent movement like this, it is not difficult to find yourself feeling alone in wanting to create the change that is called for in a resource-based economy.  To discuss these topics in more detail with people who already feel compelled to create that change makes for a friendly environment of peers.

Thanks to all those who attended and helped make this event a great one!