My Sister lost her husband a few days ago and he was only 66. He died due to a number of different things a previous stroke and complication through his type 2 diabetes. He had been a heavy smoker, obese and was addicted to Coke Cola. I know our lives are in our own hands but I do feel modern consumer capitalism has a real bearing on society especially in the UK were obesity is a major health problem 67% men, 60% women.
I remember my childhood and teenages years when smoking of tobacco was prevalent. My stepfather was chain smoker 80 per day. Cigarettes in the 50’s & 60’s was relatively cheap. Many of my friends smoked and on many occasions I had to tell people I didn’t like cigarettes, when they use to say, ‘why don’t you try one’. The constant advertisements on the TV and sporting events. especially motor racing. I’ve never smoked having been an elite soldier were personal fitness was important which I’ve continued to maintain I’m now 70 still in good health.
Modern western secular( non connection with religious or spiritual matters ) lifestyles are driven by consumerism which is underpinned by capitalism( economic system of private ownership and their operation for profit).
There are many failures of the pernicious nature of capitalism but the main failure is accrual of wealth just for itself. Capitalism is inequitable and harmful not only for us but to the planet. It creates dissatisfaction by its very nature it is constantly looking for growth in financial profit and is always striving for more. Capitalism is underpinned by exploitation of natural and human resources. It is an economic system which is doomed to fail. Why? Because it will drive humanity into degradation and dispair! Hence constant human conflict and the climate crisis.
But it also corrupts our values by creating greed through our hedonistic materialistic lifestyles. Craving for bigger house or bigger car a bigger boat. Capitalism wouldn’t function if didn’t create dissatisfaction. This way of living causes so many psychotic illnesses both mentally and physically. It casts us adrift of what’s really important in our lives, Good health and peace of mind. Why? I ask myself do we have so many humans suffering depression which manifests itself in so many different ways? Usually through addictive behaviours. Which in many cases can destroy us.
So what alternate model can we consider, certainly not command economies with authoritrian rulers who lie and cheat its populace of money and resources. We have go back to basics in are approach to harmonious living.
We have to in a way turn the clock back to much less complex societies of the past which were underpinned by a spiritual nature of being. Indigenous native peoples who still exit throughout the world.
Now you might be thinking how will we be able to create this type of being in such a complex high energy driven financial society? Well I’m probably thinking about the not too distant future when this current paradigm completely breaksdown.
I’m not sure if life on the planet will be able to survive the new hothouse earth maybe it will maybe it won’t?
Through my sailing and soldiering experiences it is good to have a safety stratergy for survival?
I did write a blog post a while ago about ecolological disaster and survival at sea. But this was specifically about survival at sea, but this would be applicable to living off the sea and the off land.
Indigenous societies of the world have learnt to live in all types of environments, jungles, arctic and deserts environments. In all types of temperatures living in close harmony with nature but with a deep spirituality of their surroundings.
Lets look at the Australian aboriginal who to most western europeans live a very unusual existance indeed to our capitalistic dominated societies.
Spiritual mythology of Dreaming or Dream Time or the myth of creation:
Australian peoples have lived on the Australian continent for thousands of years well before europeans discovered the island. Indigenous people and have a deep spiritual connection with the land and the coastal seas.
Aboriginal belief, all life human, animal, bird and fish is part of one vast unchanging network of relationships which can be traced to the great spirit ancestors of the Dreamtime.
Dreamtime is part of the sacred world in the understanding of the world ,of it’s creation,and it’s great stories.The Dreamtime is the beginning of knowledge,from which came the law of existence. For survival these laws must be observed.
“Our Land Our Life” ‘We don’t own the land ,the land owns us’ ‘The land is my mother,my mother is the land’
Land is the starting point to where it all began. It is like picking up a piece of dirt and saying ‘This is where I startedand this is where I will go’
‘The land is our food,our culture,our spirit and identity”
‘We don’t have boundaries like fences,as farmers do. We have spiritual connections’
All indigenous peoples of the world who lived semi nomadic existence have over the millenia learnt to live closely with nature. Understand the flora and funa, animals and edible food and how and what are the best methods for hunting their local wildlife.
Unfortunately in our highly complex industailised societies we have lost that contact completely, the majority of us wouldn’t know where how how to forage or hunt for game. In that process we’ve lost complete connection to the land and other than ‘formilised’ religion we have no spiritual connection with the land. No elders to give us advice or role models to show us how to live our lives, both with ourselves and with nature in general. To be able to name diferent plants trees, animals and natural wild food sources.
Europeans colonists of the Australia, New Zealand, North America and Africa always look down on the indiginous people as primative savages. But retrospect who in fact was the savage?
In conclusion I feel modern western society has created a real problem for itself, misaligned itself completely and become milignant and sick. I have felt for while now how misaligned we are and in a way corna virus and climate change is forcing us by force of nature to change, even if we deny it or not. The power of nature and the universe is the ultimate truth.
This final video epitomises the problem when US goverment went into native indian reservation of the Hopi people to extract uranium and coal on tribal sacred land against their permission and wishes.