Peak Oil is You
Donate Bitcoins ;-) or Paypal :-)
Page added on July 9, 2013
Charter of the Deep Future: Enough, For Everyone, Forever
Below is a short excerpt from Samuel Alexander’s new book, Entropia: Life Beyond Industrial Civilisation. This book is a creative work of fiction – a ‘utopia of sufficiency’ – which envisions a simple living community that became isolated on a small island after the collapse of industrial civilisation. Looking back from the future, the book provides a written documentary of the economy, culture, and politics of the community. In the following excerpt, taken from Chapter Five, we read about the ‘Charter of the Deep Future.’
* * *
During the Great Disruption our community faced some very hard questions about how we were to live. In particular, we had to make democratic decisions about how we were going to structure our economy, how we were going to govern social relations, and what values were to shape and define these efforts. It was decided that we should work toward creating a constitutional document that would state, in the clearest terms possible, the kind of society we wanted to live in. This document was not intended to end our political debates, but to provide a starting point, a framework within which we could debate and move forward. It is reproduced in its entirety below, as it serves as the best summary of our social, economic and political vision.
____________________________________
Charter of the Deep Future
Enough, For Everyone, Forever
We affirm that providing ‘enough, for everyone, forever’ is the defining objective of our economy, which we seek to achieve by working together in free association.
We affirm that everyone is free to create as an aesthetic project the meaning of their own lives, while acknowledging that this freedom legitimately extends only so far as others can have the same freedom. Freedom thus implies restraint.
We affirm that our inclusive democracy does not discriminate on such grounds as race, ethnicity, gender, age, sexuality, politics, or faith.
We affirm that generations into the deep future are entitled to the same freedoms as present generations.
We affirm that respecting the deep future requires maintaining a healthy environment.
We affirm that technology can help to protect our environment only if it is governed by an ethics of sufficiency, not an ethics of growth. Efficiency without sufficiency is lost.
We affirm that maintaining a healthy environment requires creating a stationary state economy that operates within environmental and energy limits.
We affirm that a stationary state means stabilising consumption and population, transitioning to renewable sources of energy, and adapting to reduced energy supply.
We affirm that strict limits on material accumulation are required if a stationary state is to maintain a just distribution of resources and avoid corrosive inequalities.
We affirm that property rights are justifiable only to the extent they serve the common good, including the overriding interests of humanitarian and ecological justice.
We affirm that a stationary state economy depends on a culture that embraces lifestyles of material sufficiency and rejects lifestyles of material affluence.
We affirm that material sufficiency in a free society provides the conditions for an infinite variety of meaningful, happy, and fulfilling lives.
_________________________
To read more about Entropia or get yourself a copy, click here.
6 Comments on "Charter of the Deep Future: Enough, For Everyone, Forever"
BillT on Wed, 10th Jul 2013 1:13 am
“… which envisions a simple living community that became isolated on a small island …”
Been done. Easter Island.
‘Resilience’ is a word that is no longer applicable to Western humans, and perhaps, to most of the rest. We have not been able to unwire the genes that would allow our short term planning ‘habit’ to extend to years or a life time instead of tomorrow. Maybe if we had a few generations and used the same ‘buy now’ Madison Advertising/brainwashing we get today, it would happen. Maybe.
GregT on Wed, 10th Jul 2013 1:41 am
The affirmations above sound very much like those of the coastal native indians of BC. They would probably still be living with, and taking care of, the land, if we hadn’t of come along and killed most of them and put the rest into institutions. Very sad really, this part of the world used to be incredibly beautiful, and full of life. Now it is only a former ghost of itself, even within my lifetime the differences are immense.
Us white people really did a great job of destroying everything in sight.
Ricardo on Wed, 10th Jul 2013 1:53 am
Leftists tend to hate anything that has an image of being strong,
good and successful. They hate America, they hate Western
civilization, they hate white males, they hate rationality. The
reasons that leftists give for hating the West, etc. clearly do not
correspond with their real motives. They SAY they hate the West
because it is warlike, imperialistic, sexist, ethnocentric and so
forth, but where these same faults appear in socialist countries or in
primitive cultures, the leftist finds excuses for them, or at best he
GRUDGINGLY admits that they exist; whereas he ENTHUSIASTICALLY points
out (and often greatly exaggerates) these faults where they appear in
Western civilization. Thus it is clear that these faults are not the
leftist’s real motive for hating America and the West. He hates
America and the West because they are strong and successful.
Ricardo on Wed, 10th Jul 2013 1:54 am
Quote from the Unabomber’s Manifesto
GregT on Wed, 10th Jul 2013 3:49 am
If you are referring to me as a leftist you obviously don’t know anything about me. I am actually very much a part of western civilization, quite successful and very comfortable. I do not find hatred to be a useful emotion. Just pointing out the facts.
Stephen on Wed, 10th Jul 2013 5:40 am
I agree with all of the above.
I would also add the following:
* We affirm that a quality of life for all people rich or poor must take a much higher priority than corporate profits, economic growth, preserving mass scale marketing of products, or all debts being paid
* We affirm that preservation of essential elements of property needed for ones survival including food, land needed for local agriculture, and personal items cannot be taken to repay debts, if repossession would lead to community famine or cause a serious hardship to the community.
* We affirm that some items will be priced, rationed, or taxed based on their scarcity or toxicity to humans, animals, and/or the environment. This shall include any resource that is toxic, or is non-renewable and it is past its peak of production worldwide.