If we wish to eliminate excess, lets first discuss needs
In order to create an ideal habitat for any species, a zoologist will study the physical and psychological needs of the animal in question, to ensure they are creating a world that will keep the animal healthy both physically and emotionally. We are talking about nothing short of zoo keeping, when we talk about designing our own habitat to give humans the best chance at happy and healthy lives. This is true in our own yards, in our neighborhoods, in our towns, and on up the scale to the global effects we have as a species.
Lack will significantly shorten lifespan.
Stimulation,
challenges
Other humans,
social belonging
Lack is intolerable. For life to be sustained we must have almost constant access to these in order to survive for any significant amount of time. Lower levels must be complete for upper levels of the pyramid to be fulfilled.
Clean air, clean food, clean water, shelter, safety from natural elements, and sleep
Clean food, water and air - These are more complex than most people realize, and can’t be taken for granted, so lets say something about those. All three of these require the health and activity of all levels and varieties of life on Earth because it is all interconnected. This, again, is the soil food web. Everything works together, or nothing works right.
Shelter & Safety - Without geographically appropriate shelter and defenses, humans (particularly modern humans from developed nations) are highly vulnerable to natural elements. So, reasonable needs of humans are - Literal shelter and safety from the elements and other natural dangers. Like, a roof over one’s head and four walls. This may seem so basic a thing, but the current culture around homelessness is one of the major problems facing humanity.
The practical reality of modern life should include some basics for comfort within the shelter/safety sector. Durable goods (tools, kitchen implements etc), furniture, electricity, heat, plumbing, clothing and shoes. Cleaning and personal hygiene supplies are required to keep ourselves healthy.
When a number of humans claim all the land and demand a price from the rest, for living on it and using its resources to meet even the most basic of needs, we are lost and off course. As this is being written, man has begun trading water as a commodity on the NYSE. We already trade food. Who owns the life we are living, when we must buy it at every step?
Others/social belonging - Humans are a social animal. They thrive in cohabitation, collaboration, and cooperation with other humans. It has been demonstrated that the psychological development of humans depends on connection with other humans from day one. We are relatively unique in our underdevelopment at birth and only orcas and elephants stay “children” (sexually immature and dependent) as long as humans. Certainly, alone in natural surroundings without other humans increases physical risks significantly for us. So, it is clear we need each other.
Stimulation, challenges, achievements, self-fulfillment - This is essentially the act of getting to know one’s self. Getting to know the full capabilities of one’s own mind and body. While this is of course very important, our culture has gotten far off track in how we fulfill each level of the pyramid, leaving this level lacking, where it could be the easiest to achieve.
Prior to the theoretical "simplicity" of our modern life, a human’s day was spent together with their group fulfilling base level needs, and in the process, the top tier of needs sorted itself out. Today we fracture that human group down to nuclear families and individuals (leaving the middle of the pyramid weakened) and most people are forced to spend a majority of their time in a system that demands that they give most of their time and resources over for the fulfillment of level one, and still many people are suffering from want in this section. Our culture is a recipe for generation upon generation of broken and incomplete humans.
Worse yet - We have robbed many of our fellow humans of these basic needs by commodifying them, rather than ensuring they are minimums that each of our citizens has. The system currently in the USA and many developed nations, is designed to use resources which should be commonly owned by all occupants of the land, to enrich only a few on the labor of many, while at the same time not even providing the bare minimum required for survival.
By isolating and commodifying basic needs in a capitalist society with no protections against the greed of unchecked humanity, we have made them completely inaccessible for a large number of humans. Or worse yet, a dangled carrot keeps people working toward goals they are never meant to achieve.
What we learned from 2020. The year that pulled the veil back on our culture.
People seem more focused on their rights than their responsibilities. When every other species on Earth is serving it's purpose to the entire ecosystem, we are making demands. This is childish.
We have become a society in which far too many parents are, or feel, unable to maintain their children’s mental and physical health, when they are responsible for them all day every day. The culture our society has created, forces parents in most families to be away from their children for several hours a day, without being in close coordination with the person who does have them.
We have created a culture of such rabid, rugged individualism that we see a large section of our society ready to take up arms with those who want to take just one step closer to a socially supportive society, designed to support all citizens alike; rather than a zero sum competitive game.
Our current government system is designed to profit only the wealthy, while keeping the rest engaged in work or conflict. It is working exactly as designed. It literally robs most of its citizens of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, all while promising it. And yet so many are willing to fight to defend the oppressors.
Not all people want it this way. There are some who are willing to sacrifice everything, for others. There are many who want life to be less stressful and genuinely happy, for all people.
We most definitely need to step away from the screens, and into our actual surroundings and interact, a whole lot more than we do.
We are entering an age where we will have more people, than jobs to employ and feed them. We will have to make tough decisions at that point, and our current behavior is worrisome. Will we allow our fellow man to starve and die, homeless, outside of cities designed to chase away or make uncomfortable, the homeless? Will we support a basic income, so that all may eat and be sheltered at a minimum? Is that too against our American independence? Are we too worried about those that will spend that money in ways we do not approve of?
The principles and ethics of Permaculture, contain within them solutions to all of these problems
There are a few things we need to reexamine, while remembering slow and small is the only possible way to intentionally create lasting changes in human culture...
Capitalist economics - Lets explore alternatives. Humans are wildly creative, and there is no limit to the number of sustainable ideas we could come up with.
Nuclear family/work away culture - Let's look back at the advantages of inclusive-village culture. Let's examine what portion of our lives is lived away from the natural resources we actually have access to on a daily basis. Live and focus locally, wherever that is. Absolutely travel to see other places and learn about other cultures, but bring your daily life down to your village and create a resilient life with the others within it.
The concept of waste - There is no such thing as throwing "away."
A food production system that increasingly destroys the life of the soil, creating further dependence on less nutritive and harder to grow food. As well as making items that must be grown hundreds or thousands of miles away, staples in our diets.
If you're ready to start conversations about how to achieve these things, we are here to help.