Belated Note: The G20 and the Protest Rabble.....

I think ultimately the summit will be more important than the protests, that this is obvious does not mean it should not be said. Despite the police brutality, this was not the face-off between capitalism and its nemesis:

The G20 summit was established to address the world we live in

Paradoxically that’s what the protesters were there to do as well

The G20 is made up of a group of disparate countries bound by one goal, not to let the global financial system go to shit. The protestors are a loose group of people not bound by one common goal, letting the global capitalist system go to shit. Spirited though they are, the protests are rooted in addressing the status quo and that, apart from the general apathy (in the world) is why the cries of revolution ring hollow. At least the leaders of the G20 currently stand for something. The protestors do not – disagreement does not a vision make. We know that free-market capitalism is not perfect – we also know that full-throttle socialism is not perfect. Somebody needs to articulate a vision that goes beyond both of these 20th century ideologies; something fantastical, that sits right outside the human imagination as it currently is – and which encompasses the visions, or more precisely, the aspirations of groups as diverse as the climate change campaigners, the trade unions and the fair trade movement. More importantly, it should be a vision that the people who are so vested in the status quo can either resist or support. Not the current wouldn’t it be nice? That characterises most people’s attitude to causes such as climate change and free trade. And I include myself in this category; floating through life, my outlook is underpinned by vaguely capitalist and socialist ideas, yet, nevertheless, I haven’t really been fired up by any of the visions of society that they offer. One idea that I recently encountered is the concept of a resource-based society, proposed by a prolific designer and engineer, Jacques Fresco. He argues that the resources upon which the world depends can be shared freely.

It’s not an impossible thought, if you are aware, for example, that technically speaking there is no scarcity of diamonds in the world, and that they are artificially made rare by global diamond corporations such as De Beers to artificially inflate the price of diamonds. The biggest problem in the vision of the resource based society is the problem of human motivation and drive, that instinct that makes human beings quest for achievement, at least so the argument goes. But really? The original quest for humanity was survival, and once that is fulfilled we seek to express ourselves in other ways. Have you noticed how you set to creating or destroying something once you have spent a long period of time being bored? Human beings will ultimately set themselves to creating something – the question is will they do it for nothing? It might be impossible for us to give up our attachment to the idea of money and impoverishment and with that the global capitalist system on which we now depend. After all, the fear of poverty is the great engine of capitalism, but surely someone can articulate a vision of the world – a welttheorie - that can incorporate an economic system based on maintaining the earth, and creating prosperous societies?