I cringe every time I read variations of the phrase "the world's economy suffered a severe crisis this past decade" --- I cringe because the real crisis lies deeper than GDP figures. Literally! The crisis begins with our complete avoidance of the critical issue of sustainability. No amount of democratic distribution of labor and decision making will suffice until we recognize that earth itself is threatened by humanity's attitude toward it, that "yield and profit" cloud our vision. Until land is respected not as private property but rather like the sun, the soil and water are the very fundamental basis for life. No aggregate of power should be allowed to "possess" it; but rather this species must disperse and care for it bio-regionally. All concentrations endanger sustainability and that includes how closely we are tucked into dense housing associations combined with the devotion of too much contiguous land to a single crop! I insist that aggregation of "wealth" (the surplus value of labor or yield beyond a community's seasonal need) leads to concentrations of "preservative" toxins and residual pollutants in the soil, air and the water. Development, like democratic freedom, is its own enemy but worse still the undermining of all life on earth. Therefore, we must seek to spread out in every sense. It is time for a serious agrarian revolution!
Congresses, "Workers' Self-Directed Enterprises", labor unions, even community gardens... these might seem benevolent enough but by themselves they are not enough to extend sustainability for all life. There are no partitions in the air but the evanescent walls we hide within. Again, when devising a way to exist together as a functioning unit we must include all existing life in our habitat. To do less than that is to fail to co-exist. You must not ask simply which one of you represents earth at your table, but rather that all must be stewards of earth.
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