Introduction

I saw today this interesting video about how much a burger would cost if all the hidden costs would be taken into account.

$200 looks like a lot, but according with common sense and the movie «Home» (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jqxENMKaeCU)  I think it’s still far away of the real cost (cost for human health, cost for animal species, cost of Amazonian territories or similar Earth lungs used to artificially grow cattle, etc)

The speaker, Raj Patel,  http://rajpatel.org/ and his revolutionary book caused people to call him a Messiah which is  dumb because of that thoughts, but people really need to believe in something. I copy a comment of somebody to the video as I totally agree with what he says. I don’t think he’s a Messiah at all, anybody that would investigate in how markets work could reach the same conclusions, just see the movie that I mentioned before and it is quite obvious that the economy has a terrible failure in the way it sets prices maybe just because It only takes into account the GDP and not other better goal (but more difficult to evaluate until now) criteria such as happiness or sustainability or beauty. I think also that with the Internet revolution those criteria are easier to measure and he need a commitment to change to that new capitalism-like system where prices are better set considering all hidden costs with a transparency effort.

I copy that comment I talked about:

The Idea

«The last thing the world needs right now is a saviour. As Raj Patel himself said, the idea is rather dangerous considering the multiple crises the world finds itself in at the present time. If you consider where we are right now, somebody merely presenting themselves as a saviour would be ridiculed at best and be subject to antagonism and threats at worse. And those who were more inclined to believe such things may be more likely to argue with the more sceptical amongst us over literal interpretations of The Book of Revelations on comments pages on the internet than to think about new ways of solving the problems we face. And what if we really were all unquestioning believers? What happens then? We all immediately abdicate responsibility for any of the damage, destruction, poverty and chaos we’ve created in the world because the saviour has come to bail us out and fix it for us. And if the last eighteen months has taught us anything, it should be that bailouts and quick fixes don’t fix anything – it merely patches up the problem but it doesn’t make it go away. But regardless, the saviour has fixed the world! But there’s still a small problem; the fact that humanity is not fixed. It wouldn’t be long before we were back where we started. The world is the way it is because people are broken, not the world. We created this mess and no saviour is going to come along and wave his magic wand and instantly make us all think and act differently. About how we see ourselves and the planet we live on. No saviour will make us give up our dangerous and destructive addictions and drop our fixation on maintaining an unsustainable and ever increasing GDP built on paper IOUs that will never be paid, simply by proclaiming their existence. This is something we need to understand, to process, to take responsibility for and to act upon for ourselves. And it begins with personal responsibility. We need to reassess what’s really important and they ways in which we really understand each other. So who cares if Raj Patel is a saviour? He has some good ideas – why not take a look at those instead. How can anybody really have a problem with the idea of every human being having access to food, a means of making a living, education and access to health care? Anybody who has these and believes it’s acceptable to deny these to other human beings, thereby perpetuating this denial of basic human rights over generations, should be the first to address their own problems and fears with this basic universal equality. It is something lacking in them. Perhaps they are really afraid of themselves. Can his ideas really be worse than the cancer of capitalism and the corrupt financial markets that happily lets one billion people on our planet starve – whilst many of the others require a Weight Watchers subscription and think the bottom billion will be saved by singing pop stars and sitting in bath tubs of baked beans, however well intentioned these people may be? The laws of thermodynamics say that something will have to give – in the economy, in the environment and where energy reserves are concerned – all three are reaching the inevitable, unsustainable tipping point. We would be far bigger to accept these and make affirmative and voluntary material and psychological changes now, whilst we can, rather than have these changes forced upon us, kicking and screaming and blaming everyone but ourselves for creating the problem in the first place. All the good in us, the thing that makes us love, give, laugh, care, cry, fear, protect, cherish – everything, it exists in each and every one of us. It’s really all there is and there’s really nothing to be scared of. We’re creatures of habit to the point of ridiculous but we’re also kind and generous and adaptable and whatever happens we’ll find a way through. Rock on Raj»

 

The Conclusion

The idea is quite clear, let’s stop looking for others to save us, We (as a community) are our own saviors. 

On the other hand, let’s think big, many civilizations have risen and fallen, the world has suffered many cataclysms and destruction. What We’re seeing now with the environment is nothing different. 

I’ve read many times that the civilization that doesn’t know its history is obliged to repeat it. Now We now the output of any unsustainable system ergo it’s our choice, probably We are players playing a game, and at least I, I am a winner. 

Let’s be winners my friends.

Peace