Living as a system, thinking with lego blocks

#2897

Lego blocks are made to fit together easily. Material and social reality are not so convenient . there seems to be an escalation of climate destruction but not much of an escalation in preparedness. Too bad because serious preparations would give us some experience in creating new systems.

Climate is a systems event but almost all proposals for what to actually do are at the sub system level.

And many still miss the implications of the difference between policy and action. “Putting solar panels on all the rooftops in our town” is not an actionable step. It is a policy that would require many actual steps to materialize the panels on all the roofs, and we are in the situation where we have things like “cut CO2 emissions” without engaging the issue of who gets cut and are they compensated. We are a system, but we do not think like a system.

Put another way almost all are thinking still at the level of diagnosis: what is wrong? The fact is we have very little experience in cutting . A little experience in price controls under Nixon and of regulating gas usage through license plate numbers under Carter. Unfortunately, we also have experience in cutting welfare for the poorest. I think you need to question yourself: are you responding the best you can to our  understanding of the real situation, or responding to a fantasy about what is happening and how fast.