Thom Hartmann is a genius! I don't say that lightly because geniuses seem to be in short supply these days. According to Hartman, all of Western society's; and by extension through globalization, the world's problems-- can be attributed to faulty and irrational thinking.
Since researching immigration, sexism, racism, homophobia, neo-liberal policies, environmental degradation and the prison industrial complex I have come to the conclusion that most--if not all--of these issues stem from the same fundamental problem. Hartmann eloquently gives a name to this root cause: "cultural dysfunction" and names the basis for this dysfunction as being the unbridled and illusory notion that economies should exponentially grow without barriers, restrictions or limitations. Hartman explains this notion is illusory and dangerous because there are not enough natural resources to sustain this type of growth.
Rather than looking at all things natural as being sacred and inherently valuable in its own right, Western civilization strives, through its fervent worship of growth economics, to turn everything into commodities. Utilizing patriarchy-- and what Hartmann terms; unnatural tools of hierarchies, Western civilization attempts to divvy out material goods to the most deserving populace.
I highly recommend watching the entire interview. It is a half an hour long but well worth the time invested.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=poMPeSx_WnY&feature=PlayList&p=40421D748A1E3E02&playnext_from=PL&playnext=1&index=12
2 comments:
If he is right, then the world has a serious problem. The developing economies that are the world's new powerhouses - China, India, Brazil, etc. - have bought into the same mentality. China is disappointed if they don't at least achieve a growth rate of about 7%, and they would like to grow even faster. If they are able to continue at this rate, we will see some serious resource depletion.
Hi Paul!
Great to hear from you again.
You pointed out the inherent problem with super-capitalism. It follows the ideology of an indiscriminate cancer cell by consuming every thing in its path.
Now, America and other Western nations are in direct competition with China and India for the remaining raw materials on the planet.
As Hartmann pointed out, there are not enough raw materials on Earth to satisfy the needs of all those countries.
We are already seeing the effects of this rush to procure resources through the contemporary practice of blowing mountain tops off in West Virginia to extract coal and--of course-the recent rise of off shore drilling. which has proved to be disastrous.
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