It's a documentary on the paradigm shift that we need to save the world:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Z9WVZddH9w
Block out three hours of your time to watch this.
It talks about peak oil toward the end. Very interesting stuff.
After you watch it leave a comment.
Will:
ReplyDeleteI just watched this. I think the documentary offers a spot-on diagnosis: beginning with a discussion about human developmental psychology and the interdependence of biology and environment, and proceeding to an analysis of our current economic/monetary system and how this structure manifests pathological behavior, inequality, environmental degradation, etc (I thought the first two sections were wonderful).
The only parts where I wasn't on board had to do with prescription. Granted, insofar as a "solution" can be formulated at all, it has to be done so outside the current framework; this much is obvious. I found it odd, however, that in our filmmaker's answer he seems to extol the virtues of efficiency, mechanization, technological advancement, and scientific rationality. Have these characteristics not played a significant role in giving rise to stratification and disenchantment as well? I could be wrong here, but I think the basic problem with the film's solution is that it presupposes that science can somehow be divorced from economics and maintained in a "pure" form in which resources are optimally maximized and standards of living are maintained without the accompanying ennui/disillusionment/poverty (both monetary and cultural-spiritual) that predominate in the western world today.
I think this is false. I really don't think we can take all the good from science and leave the rest - unfortunately, it's a package deal. It's easy to reference our nomadic heritage (as is done in the beginning of the film) in order to site a point in time when egalitarianism was actual without also noting at the same time that these were firmly unscientific cultures (by our standards) ensconced in myth and spirituality; a style of living which is quite literally alien to us. For better or worse, the western psyche has been shaped in certain ways, the interplay of science and industry have had a lot to do with this shaping. Forsaking one for the best parts of the other simply isn't an answer.
-Dan