“To Mr. David Suzuki
My name is Cliff Faber.
Current monetary problems can be addressed easily, but NOT by our political system. Our current political system is not set up to deal with TRUE solutions or open to moving in that direction. In fact, TRUE solutions go against EVERYTHING that our current political system stands for in its entirety. So the hungry faces of the millions of citizens looking hopefully toward the government to provide solutions to making the world a better place is never going to happen.
I feel that we need to give people REAL alternatives, so that they, the people, can make better “knowledgeable” choices and not just rely on what the government says.
Social problems result from scarcity. When a few nations control most of the world’s resources, there are going to be international disputes no matter how many laws or treaties are signed. If we wish to end war, crime, hunger, poverty, territorial disputes, and nationalism, we must work toward a future in which all resources are accepted as the common heritage of all people.
Our problems cannot be solved in a society based on money, waste, and human exploitation. Today, money is used to regulate the economy for the benefit of the few who control the financial wealth of nations. Unless the underlying causes of planned obsolescence, environmental neglect, and outrageous military expenditures are addressed, we are bound to fail. Treaties, blockades, boycotts, and the like used in the past have not worked.
Many believe that ethical standards and international laws will assure a sustainable global society. Even if the most ethical people in the world were elected to political office, without sufficient resources, we would still have the same problems. What is needed is the intelligent management of Earth’s resources for the benefit of all and protection of the environment.
Earth has plentiful resources. Rationing resources through monetary control is dysfunctional and counterproductive to survival. Today, we have highly advanced technologies but our social and economic development has not kept up. We could easily create a world of abundance without servitude and debt through the creation of a global, resource-based civilization.
Please enjoy this DVD.
Thanks,
Cliff Faber”
David Suzuki’s response (typed out underneath):
“Dear Mr. Faber:
I am returning your material. I only read the first chapter but I disagree so much with it that I do not feel it worth my time. We are at a critical point and science and technology have to be part of the solution, but I do not believe we have the knowledge to create the future your project and I disagree with your dismissal of accumulated knowledge and insights over thousands of years. In many ways, we have become savages that are often thought to be what people once were.
David Suzuki”
peterjoseph
''People often ask me still why we do not "collaborate" so to speak with other activists/ environmental organizations. This is because all of the protocols / traditional approaches of the current activist community, on all levels, are based on an establishment worldview that has and will continue to fail. Mr. Suzuki's response is a case in point of an individual who holds a tremendous amount of weight and hence established view of social change... and hence any thing that challenges that view is like challenging a religion. Most activist groups act like corporations at this stage.
Now, with regard to David's exact points it is an immature and irresponsible refutation which makes no sense whatsoever. First of all, the first "chapter" of the orientation guide which I assume he was referring to since the first chapter of the movie is only about the fractional reserve system, only lays out the patterns of the economic system and says nothing about what a resource-based economy is. So from that point alone he obviously has taken zero time to understand anything.
As far as his statement about a "dismissal of knowledge"...Where did he even get that? what does that even mean? if anything, it's the absolute opposite.
So, I am saddened to see such blind dismissal, especially from people who claim to want real change. No -- they do not want real change. They want the change that they assume is correct and since most of the highly revered activists have successfully acquired a great deal of income support for their work, it is a natural propensity for them to think that the monetary system is okay since they are being supported by it by their so-called activist initiatives. This is the paradox. The bottom line is that the change needed will not come from the pre-existing activist establishments. They are detached from any reference to the wholistic system. This goes for the entire spectrum as I see it. Greenpeace -- Michael Moore -- Annie Leonard and all the other heavily revered social and environmental activists of our time continue to refuse to look at the system from the broadest perspective and see the fatal flaw... either that or they just don't understand it. But frankly believe most blinker it out due to their monetary success.
The activism community on this planet is dead. They are locked into the box and do not see beyond it. They are angry puppies neatly kept in their state run kennel. Even more, all activism over the past five decades has failed time after time. nothing has changed in any substantial way. The civil rights movement while helping over all was replaced by an economic form of violence/ segregation. voting rights for women and minorities was overcome by the propaganda machine of the state and the patterns/values of voting have not changed at all. the environmental community pretends it has progress when it is a fact that every life-support system is (still) in decline on this planet and getting worse.
So, I challenge any activist group to tell me where their true progress is both from a broad social and environmental standpoint- long term. They use the legal system and the legal system is open for perpetual change based on the whims of any new politician. It doesn't matter how many ships Greenpeace boards -- it doesn't matter how many slave labor camps are shut down -- it doesn't matter how many antiwar protests emerge on the streets of Washington-- it is simply a matter of time before new methods of abuse and exploitation and advantage crop up... just like roaches coming out from under a refrigerator because the spoiled food/socioeconomic system is still there.''
Conventional Economics is a form of brain damage.
— Zeitgeist Movement (@tzmglobal) August 17, 2012
- David Suzuki