Complete Society

Ideas and strategies for a sustainable world

What does natural capitalism have to do with politics?

(We’re currently reading Natural Capitalism in one of my Presidio classes)

Natural Capitalism makes a great, rational case for what’s possible. With example after example, it shows that sustainable society can exist if the world system is designed and encouraged to thrive based on some fundamental principles.

As I read each chapter, I keep coming back to the idea that we can’t achieve what’s possible without the government providing the right ground for it to grow.   And that ground needs to rest on systems thinking founded in reason, fact, and science.

Chap. 10 – Agriculture – showed how critical a scientific approach is to growing sustainability
Chap. 11 – Water – could be summed up with the inescapable logic of the bathtub analogy
Chap. 12 – Climate – declared this theme as a section title “In God we Trust; All others bring Data”

So, essentially, we can’t hope to achieve the next Industrial Revolution without a government that makes intelligent, rational decisions for the overall, long term good of the system.

As I’ve said elsewhere, this then becomes a major criterion for choosing who leads the government.  Has a candidate for President shown himself to be a pragmatic, reasonable man who carefully examines the science/facts of a decision and can handle complex, nuanced issues?

The fact that we haven’t had such a leader for 8 years may go a long way in explaining why much of what Natural Capitalism said was possible hasn’t been achieved.

September 24, 2008 Posted by | Politics and Governance, Uncategorized | | 1 Comment

43 Day Blog shift

43 Days.

That’s how much time we have to make sure the US makes one of the most important decisions ever for the future of not just our country, but also for the world.  My passion is in helping humanity achieve the complete society and right here, right now, there’s nothing that’ll make a bigger difference than who we elect for the next President.

Some may say this is exaggeration or melodrama.  That the President by himself doesn’t determine whether the whole world is living sustainably.  But in fact, the leader of the country responsible for the most climate change and wielding the most influence around the world has more power to determine our future than any other human being on the planet.

Financial crisis notwithstanding, the US economy and its endless consumption mentality determines much of the world’s economic activity and thus conducts or drives most of the world’s global warming activity.

So, while this is a blog about a sustainable green future, for the next 43 days, I’ll be focusing on the immediate present reality: the imperative to put Obama in the White House.

I haven’t dug into the candidates respective energy or climate change plans and I likely won’t for two reasons. The first, most obvious, reason is that these plans likely won’t survive past the first 100 days of either candidate’s Presidency.  The second is that its not plans that matter – its the mental approach.

Does the candidate approach decisions with rational, logic/science based facts and choose what’s best for the country?  This has been fundamentally missing for the last 8 years.  I trust Obama to bring that back in to the White House and trust McCain not one bit in this regard.

So, for the next 6 weeks, this’ll be the topic.  I’ll return to the primary focus for the Complete Society after November 4th.

September 22, 2008 Posted by | Uncategorized | 1 Comment

Complete Politics – Beneath the noise, look at character

While anyone who knows me knows I’m a liberal voter and a strong supporter of Obama, I’ve mostly tried to resist mixing politics in to the Complete Society blog.  But with the importance of this presidential election and the pivotal role government plays in our hopes for a sustainable future, it seems that separating out politics means I’m not discussing the whole picture that I tell everyone to look at.

So, from now on, you’ll see politics, govt policy and related topics discussed here, but, as with all my posts, I’m going to try a different take, going either bigger picture or deeper dive into the meanings and implications behind the rhetoric and issue positions.

Let’s start with character.  Step past all the surface stuff: race, gender, upbringing, age, religion.  Then step past even the issues: stated positions, experience in specific topics such as foreign policy, years at different levels of government, etc.

Then the first question that goes to the heart of whether this candidate will move our country towards a complete society is: “Will this candidate act for the greater good of our nation and the world?”

To quote Michael Douglas from “The American President”, “It’s entirely about character”.

Wherever they are on whatever issue your care so passionately about, it comes down to whether they authentically put humanity ahead of themselves.  This, fundamentally, is what we need in a President and is a given for anyone working for a sustainable future.

That’s why I came to dislike Hillary Clinton.  Before the primaries, I was neutral on her.  Respected her valiant attempt to fix healthcare in the early 90’s.  Hadn’t tracked her record as a Senator.   But the 2008 primaries showed she would say anything and take whatever position she needed in order to get elected, whether or not it would be good for the country.  The gas tax holiday idiocy was probably the most visible example of this.

This is also at the core of why I hate G W Bush.  I don’t use the word “hate” lightly since there’s almost nobody in the world I hate.  In 2000, I mostly disliked him because he stood for almost everything I was against in govt and I cringed in pain every time I heard him speak.  But over the last 8 years, he made decision after decision that was about him, his religious faith, and his interests instead of what would clearly be the greater good.

Think about this core idea when looking at the current candidates.  My opinions on Obama vs McCain will fill up some upcoming posts.

September 10, 2008 Posted by | Politics and Governance, Uncategorized | , , | 1 Comment

   

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