Thursday, 19 April 2012

{PBJFlorida} Fwd: Charles Eisenstein

Begin forwarded message:

From: Charles Eisenstein <charles.eisenstein@gmail.com>
Date: April 19, 2012 6:13:32 PM EDT
To: Jim@communityCreatives.org
Subject: Charles Eisenstein

Charles Eisenstein

Charles Eisenstein

A Coal Pile in the Ballroom

Posted: 18 Apr 2012 07:53 PM PDT

Here is my review of the U.N. conference on happiness and economics, convened by the government of Bhutan, that I attended on April 2.  Here is an excerpt:

Economic growth turns social reciprocity and gift relationships (two components of GNH) into paid services. It converts pristine ecosystems into sources of timber or minerals. It converts silence into noise, starry skies into urban lights, kitchen gardens into supermarket purchases, mom's cooking into fast food takeout. It replaces the village storyteller with the TV cartoon, mothering with day care, outdoor play with video games. A society that still has these former things intact, and meets its needs without much money, is called, by economists, an "undeveloped market." The process of liquidating social and natural capital is called "development." Clearly, our conception of sustainable development is begging for scrutiny.
Posted by at

0 comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)