WorldShift Response to G20 Cannes Declaration

This is an interesting response to the G20 Cannes Declaration and unlikely to be broadcast in the media. It asserts the world economic and financial issues are not the real problem. The real problem expands to the social, political, economic, financial and cultural system that is dominated by economy. The key issue is dominance of the economy.

I recall speaking about this shift where in economics we were taught that economics was the servant to society. The idea was to reallocate resources efficiently and signals of demand and supply respond to needs. Thus resources are allocated to need. However, without any consideration of nature the foundation of human life, the system is unable to work in harmony with natural systems. This is the reality.

Indeed the profit making system, in my view, is the problem, as economic growth and profit maximisation promote and reward greed. That for me is the core issue. When people operate out of self interest they are typically not operating out of natural impulses and the flow of life e.g. gifts, talents, conscience, moment, inspiration and love. They look for how to make money and they graft onto self images that are not their true identity, stepping away from their nature.

This is indeed out of step with the planet which is an interconnected, flowing system of interrelationships responding to signals based on need not wants where the sum of the parts is the whole. There is no separation. The system adjusts naturally and is highly sustainable as it is responsive to change. Human’s on the other hand are not flexible or indeed able to change quickly in response to nature. We are not even aware of nature and are unable to feel natures changes, as many live in houses or work in offices. We are disconnected from nature. That of course, is the real at a deeper level.

The movement to raise consciousness and the proposed notion ‘we are one’ when understood, will be catalyst for harmony with the natural system. Hence, the economic system doesn’t have a natural fit, or indeed a goodness of fit test. I use the word goodness, as it is another feature of harmony. It is important to grasp this and most definitely the flaws in this system become apparent through financial crisis and the fact that resources are not infinite.

Here is a response from the Worldshift Council in relation to the G20 Declaration. Indeed it is a different voice.

http://worldshiftcouncil.org/2011-g20-declaration/

AN AFTERWORD BY THE WS20 CONVENER

A review of the G20 Cannes Declaration and the parallel WS20 Declaration gives the impression that there are two different worlds. The world of the G20 is one where the problem is economic instability and financial insecurity, and the remedy is to re-stabilize the economy and overcome the financial crisis. The world of the WS20 Declaration is a world where seven billion people share a small and highly exploited planet and face the urgent need to share it cooperatively, peacefully, and sustainably.

In the WS20 world economic and financial issues are not the real problem: they are manifestations and consequences of the real problem. The real problem is the way the social, political, economic, financial, and cultural system of this planet evolved in the last several decades. This is a multidimensional system that has come to be unilaterally dominated by the economy. In the dominant feature of the system the function of money is to make money, and without money fulfilling this function the system collapses: its persistence depends essentially on accumulating wealth for a powerful minority. However, the continued concentration of wealth entails the progressive marginalization of the majority, and the progressive overexploitation of natural resources and degeneration of the environment.

The growth required for the viability of the system has an endemic problem: it generates social and cultural crises, catalyzes political upheavals—and produces economic instability and financial crises. Concentrating on the latter is like trying to cure the symptom while leaving the malady out of account. Yet this is precisely what the leaders of the twenty richest and most powerful countries of the world propose to do.

The G20’s approach is at best a band-aid covering a festering wound. It will not work even in the medium-term; at the most it will postpone the onset of one or another crisis. But if the processes the trigger the crises continue unchecked, the next crisis will be greater and less amenable to temporary fixes.

For this reason the WS20 recommends that the G20 appoint an independent body composed of ethical and insightful individuals to examine the root causes of the problem and recommend effective measure for coping with it. The Independent Advisory Council (IAC) would make its findings available to the G20 at its 2012 Mexico Summit, and the G20 would place the review of the findings on the Summit’s agenda. The Independent Advisory Council’s findings would be made available to the general public, since in the final count in a democracy it is the people who are to lead. Through the IAC the WS20 intends to provide the information the people need to lead wisely and effectively.

In the WS20’s view if real progress is to be made toward building a peaceful, equitable, and sustainable world, there is no alternative to this approach.

(Ervin Laszlo, November 8, 2011)

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Mohandas Gandhi

“Nonviolence is a weapon of the strong”

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