Posted on: May 29, 2009 @ 13:50
To Save the Planet, Give up Capitalism
Now that warmer weather is back, what better way to spend a few hours than sitting outside with a good book! I did just that last weekend and I’d like to share with you a few ideas from a book written by columnist and environmentalist Hervé Kempf, entitled “Pour sauver la planète, sortez du capitalisme” (To Save the Planet, Give up Capitalism).
The book’s framework is as follows: capitalist production has destroyed the planet and solidarity networks between peoples and individuals. The survival of capitalism is based on the elite’s corruption and lies. To Kempf, the question that must prevail over all others is as follows: In what type of society do we want to live? His answer is what’s interesting:
“[Translation] We want to live in a society that follows other rules than capitalism: a society based on the common good rather than profit, cooperation rather than competition, ecology rather than economy. A society that makes preventing the destruction of the biosphere the purpose of human policy over the next half century; a society that states material consumption must decline if we are to achieve this goal; a society that concludes the only way to achieve this is through social justice.”
The fundamental question he raises is directly related to how we see getting out of the financial and economic crisis that we are facing. And it is a question that each and every one of us has to take the time to answer.
I will leave you with a quote from the book that says a lot:
“[Translation]Today, individualism imprisons us, while solidarity frees us.”
