Values in balance
From Arcthon
The recent breakdown of the global financial system represents the inevitable clash of a long misguided culture with the natural environment in which it exists. This conflict reflects a deep imbalance in the inherent worldview of Western civilization: That the world consists of separate, isolated objects with properties we can abstract, refine, and manipulate, without any inherent value in themselves nor any relation to us.
This view is derived from a philosophy developed over several centuries; that Man is separate from, and superior to, Nature, that physical things are instruments for our deliberate utilization, and that the world is essentially mechanistic and can be completely described, understood, and adapted to our designs.
- The imbalance of our financial systems allows value to be excessively accumulated upwards such that wealth is extremely concentrated.
- Several generations of people have grown up believing that materialism and greed is a normal human trait.
- Abstraction, objectification derived from a scientific worldview allows a psychological distance between actual and perceived value.
- The current volatility of economic growth indicates that we have reached the carrying capacity of the Earth's ecosystem.
- Materialism and egoism ultimately brings unhappiness.
We must therefore reevaluate our modern value systems and balance them with the values and worldviews of our ancestors, that evolved from and harmonized with nature.
