‽istis sat and pondered…
but what lies beneath?
‽ What if Gus Speth* was perhaps on to something in a shift in
thinking ‘that the top environmental problems were biodiversity loss, ecosystem
collapse and climate change… that with 30 years of good science we could
address these problems.’ To: ‘But I was wrong. The top environmental
problems are selfishness, greed and apathy… and to deal with these
we need spiritual and cultural transformation – and we scientists don’t know
how to do that.’?
‽ What if ‘leave Europe’ is not the answer? What if we consider
that ‘the EU’ and ‘other Europeans’ are possibly just bogeymen (any
contemporary reference to apparent activity by a prominent leave MP during a
House of Commons debate is purely intentional) to distract from the fear of
Conservative and Unionist Party disunity (that went well…) and fear of losing
votes to the right? What if blaming social and economic inequality on
‘incomers’ and a supposed project to establish a multi-national ‘super state’
was possibly easier than meeting the needs of people and communities who felt
left behind by social policy and political priorities?
‽ What if the proposal to extend the period that overseas students
can stay after completing their university courses was not just part of a
possible plan to seem more pre-election liberal (‘nasty party’ avoidance
strategy, level 1) but to make sure that the UK can continue to receive large
tuition fees, recruit and retain (rather than receive large tuition fees, train
but then lose) and ensure that we continue to meet our needs and maintain our
dominance whilst incidentally depriving other places and people of their
medics, engineers, scientists and similar experts who could potentially enable
the world to become a more equal and just place?
…And if, perhaps, possibly,
maybe we named, sought to identify and tackle cause rather than just
symptomology - then what might be the fresh locus of our solutions and time; our
energy, effort and commitments; our policy, practice and spending – and how
different the world might be?
© Pistis
References/further reading…
