Monday, April 24, 2017

Politics needs good understanding and good practice

Theresa May speaks about national unity.

It is true that we are a divided nation.

We are divided not just by Brexit (which comes from a deep, historic division in the Tory party over Europe), but also by inequality of wealth and income.

We are also divided from each other by our beliefs. We are ruled by a clique of blinkered ideologues many of whom deny that continued use of fossil fuel will cause great harm both now and in the future.

It will take more than sweet words from The May to re-unite the country.

It will take a re-balancing of the media, re-balancing the economy, and re-balancing of society.

It means full employment as we all commit to the vital work that needs to be done to achieve a better relationship between humanity and our home planet, and between people and each other.

Unity comes from seeing and understanding that our need for water, food, energy, shelter and harmonious order are common to all humanity, that those needs are not being met, and that by focusing on meeting them, both in the UK and globally, we will all be able to live happier lives.

That is what we need -  a global vision.

It's not hard at all. Just take a second to remember that we have the great good fortune to be living on a beautiful planet that can meet all our human needs for billions of years if we do one thing: understand how planetary systems work.

We do now understand enough to know what to do: we have to work at living within the physical, biological and social boundaries that reality sets us.

To do that means making many changes in the way we do things.

Good changes, that mean less unemployment, less violence, less crime, less inequality, less resentment, less hatred.

We do not have to be a wretched, miserable world filled with resentment and hatred. 

We humans are intelligent, resourceful beings. 

We can do better. 

Doing better involves doing a lot of good work.

I'm going to develop this theme in later blog posts, to show how this vision can be realised in everyday practice.

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