Finally, Umair has a solution — sort of!
To do that, we will have to create whole new systems of thought — reinvent stale, dead, foolish disciplines like economics, slightly less dead ones, like psychology. We will have to reimagine the kind of organizations that we make — will “corporations” and “banks” as we know them be capable of replenishing and nourishing a depleted, ravaged world — or do we have to reinvent those, first? We will have to alter the nature of “work” — so far, it basically means “how good you are at exploiting something or someone” — but it must come to mean “how good you are at nourishing and renewing something or someone.” And then we will have to change our social norms and values — and the attitudes they reflect — so that we prize and celebrate and reward the act of nourishment, not just more ruthless, violent predation.
On one hand, I have to agree with him 100% on this paragraph. On the other hand, I’m not seeing how we move from HERE to THERE. Do we just need more wishful thinking?
In this article and other Umair articles, Umair is leaving western democracy — the one with political parties bickering and noisy election campaigns — more or less intact. It seems he believes we can reinvent ourselves everywhere else, but democracy as we know stays put.
Let me make my position clear. Western democracy is the disease that needs to be cured. It affects everything else we do. For example, how many of us have been guilty of thinking: “I’m much smarter than all those people who disagree with me”? I shall put my hand up first. But where did I get that silly attitude from? May I suggest that when we watch our politicians compete against each other to prove how smart they are to earn our vote, that behaviour is also seeping into our psyche.
We need a whole new democracy PERIOD! We need a kinder democracy. We need a wiser democracy! We need a humbler democracy! We are not going to get that with western democracy: even the social democratic kind in Scandinavia.
I’ve been preaching my Tiered Democratic Governance for 23 years. In November 2018, I was just about to put this project back on the shelf. But a fellow from a G+ political group suggested that I write a piece of fiction on how people are going to build this new system. And that book is almost ready! It is a free read: here is a link to its website.
There is still some editing — and the ebook is not ready. You are welcome to take a pre-launch look.
This story will tell you what what it takes to starting building this new system.
And here’s the kicker: The characters in this book get to work. They don’t read articles on the internet about the upcoming dystopia and try to wish it away.
