In the global search for answers to ecological & social issues, most people get involved in “popular movements” – huge numbers of people who can protest, lobby and so on – and that’s great. However there’s plenty of that already, and while there’s some crossover in the membership (ie – most supporters of The Venus Project are also supporters of The Zeitgeist Movement), the reality is that even with millions of people behind them, they haven’t done a huge amount more than develop messages, and build local communities … which is all great, but it’s too slow for what we need, and it’s arguably not strong enough to take down the Goliath of the industrial military complex EVEN IF it can occasionally resist it.
Now … on the other hand, the nature of the beast is that under pressure of global population growth, resistance from such groups, and resource constraints … the serpent is already eating its own tail. BUT this too is happening too slowly, so on the one hand yes the empire is collapsing under its own weight, on the other:
- It’s doing a great deal of damage as it goes down;
- The change isn’t happening fast enough;
- The solutions being proposed aren’t enough to deal with the likely ecological state the planet will be in, if there ever comes a time when the beast is actually weak enough to subdue.
So this is why Open Empire is designed to be a LENS to focus the power of the people … others can gather that power, they’re better at it than me, as I’m grumpy and impolite … but what I can do (if I have time and resources to do so) is develop the systems that focus that power like nothing else.
Imagine 8 billion minds, completely free, doing whatever they want …
… but all of them motivated to minimise all ecological & social harm in their actions …
… and all of them motivated to maximise ecological & social benefits from their actions.