the problem with competition
lauded as the engine and leading contributing factor of western ascendency, and a model for idea-harnessing, habitat-engagement and wealth management.
unfortunately, competitive cut and thrust has also been used as an excuse for exploitative and unjust practices, the squandering and mismanaging of both tangible and intellectual resources, and on an on-going basis, serves to lower the threshold of what people and organizations are willing to establish and accept as base benchmarks of human rights and respect for the planet.
what's more, now that the grand race for space and property acquisitions is nearing saturation point, the competitive dynamic itself, old hat and coming-of-age-banal, can only lead to ultimate and disastrous implosions. as necessary and inevitable a technological development as competition was, and notwithstanding the plateau of conveniences and infrastructure it's delivered us unto, as the song goes, it's just a phase we're going thru... and from here on out, there are better ways to get to rome.
we're on the cusp of a new era of commerce models that will look to constructive tactics for mutual betterment, harmonious use of the commons, and equitable treatment of manpower and units of production. such postures of business and interpersonal relations will not only bring enlightened-self-interest and compassionate stewardship to center stage, they will exponentially build benefit into a system that currently creates more social carnage and blood cost than it does substantive progress.
the problem with science
an epistemological dogma that brought with it a host of transitional advantages, but its basic tenets have been lost in its latter day translations and efforts to dominate power complexes, society at large and the life of the individual.
like organized religion, its counterpartner, science has become a denatured version of an original posture of investigation and is now responsible for enough madness, and obstruction of real inquiry, truth and progress as to shame its founding visionaries.
in future we can look forward to a deconstruction of science's central nexus, both philosophically, as flawed and limiting principles and precepts are exposed for truth, and politically, in terms of its beyond-reproach-or-question investiture with government, universities, and the agri-pharma complex, and the sour fruit such marriages of convenience have produced.
in its place, expect the emergence of a post-scientific approach, one which coalesces a more dynamically comprehensive platform of innovative investigations into the harnessing of matter and energy and ideas, incorporating what hitherto has been dismissed as irrational, unscientific, or 'supernatural hocus pocus' in nature.
the problem with property
the problem isn't with property ownership per se, but the impedances in place which prevent the majority from entering this equity stream. still, property ownership has more to do with serving the anxieties of colonialist expansionism, frontiersmanship, and personal and group security issues, than it does serving the interests of human infrastructure, transmission of assets, or prosperity wishes.
the problem with medicine
advances in infectious controls came in spite of the medical system, as the case of Semmelweis ably demonstrates, and as we harvest the just desserts of our misapprehension and misguided engagement of viruses and bacteria on the one hand, and the whole notion of hygiene, immunity and vaccination on the other, we can set to one side any notion that the history of medicine is purely heroic and a clear win-win for the books.
further, our record in disease management and drug intervention is only now coming to be known in its full and dastardly complexion. if one thing is certain, people have overcome illnesses more often in spite of conventional medical treatment than because of it.
the medicalization of pregnancy and childbirth and the disempowerment of women and children; the subordination of the intelligence of the body to white coat conjecture and objectification; the huge cost to society of the physician-endorsed disconnect around food habits and lifestyles, these are just a few of the liabilities of the current model. added to this, as a practical seat of operations, hospitals, diagnostic clinics, and rehabilitation centers are among the most inflationary institutions going, rapidly out-pricing themselves from the reach of either governments or individuals.
look to a future of true integrative medicine and a culture of prevention that brings to the fore all the rapidly-emerging holistic sciences while systemically re-introducing individualized, self-responsible care that sees people taking responsibility for their health under the guidance, not direction, of wellness advocates.
the problem with consumption
as a catalyst for economic growth, need-creation and consumption-chic are ultimately unstable and mostly lead to a host of toxic attitudes and unintentionally humanity-retarding side-effects.
expect a horizon event where manufacturers at last intuit that true innovation and progress, and therefore profitability, come when genuine human interests and delights are served. those who persist in making junk, units of planned obsolescence and/or insisting on the fossil forms of old will learn the hard way. no one ever factors into their economic forecasts seismic events at the level of collective affect that can suddenly shift our spending habits away from bullshit towards value, freedom, and longevity.
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