Monkey Theory
From Sustain
Our modern version of liberty encourages us to regard ourselves as sovereign individuals with insuperable rights. Our starting point is complete freedom to do as we please; we then accept any proposed encroachment only by exception. For such an ideal to work, every individual would need to be armed with impressive intellect, a developed set of shared ethics, and perfect information regarding our impact upon others' freedom.
We are each far removed from this archetype.
Before attacking the economic and ecological follies that flow from this insane premise of political existence, it is first worth dwelling upon how distant we are from the epitome of skill and virtue necessary for a sustainable model of liberal democracy.
As Darwin identified, we are but fallible monkeys. The failings of our society are rooted in wilful ignorance of the inherent weaknesses in each and every one of us.
The triumph of untouchable liberty in our laissez faire market economies, freedom to unthinkingly fight for our share, may literally be the ultimate act of political negligence. It is incredible to imagine that this bedrock of the political and economic orthodoxy could ever act as a sufficient base on which to build the model society.
The concept pervades despite the clear lack of genuine political equality. We accept the illusion of our sovereign independence as it chimes in tune with our congenital delusional tendencies, wired-in to enable animals to cope with life. We have also been conditioned to believe liberal democracy is the only viable alternative to tyranny, encouraged by those who retain real power perpetuating this lie.
We need to transplant the fallacy that any workable form of governance can be predicated on the unchecked liberty of 7bn+ individuals: we are beasts of limited capacity, with biological weaknesses and biases that need to be compensated for, and controlled through the skilful design of a new system of governance.
You don't let the monkeys run the zoo. The best that we monkeys can do is be governed by the combined wisdom of all our monkey forebears.
Our monkey failings have been most ruthlessly and disastrously manipulated by our modern consumerist machine. To this I turn to in the next chapter here
