Where Do We Go Next?

I'm Suffering Information Overload - Misinformation, Disinformation and conspiracy theories, how do I know what's true?

Anyone who, like me, is interested in understanding our mad world must surely have noticed that there’s a huge amount of information out there to be trawled through: Websites, newspapers, magazines and, of course, books.

Never before have a felt such a need for trustworthy information and never before have I felt a such distrust in what many of our leaders are saying.

It’s said that information overload can negatively impact on our mental health, leading to stress and anxiety and don’t I know that’s true!

Nowhere is a tsunami of information more obvious than if you search for books on ‘climate change.’ A Google search produces page upon page on the screen and bookshop shelves are loaded with them.

So, where do I start?

I’ve found that many are written by ‘experts’ – often scientists or economists - whose language can be off-putting so I usually put those aside. Then there are those authors whose views are poles away from mine so I give them scant attention. It’s said that we tend to believe that which fits in with our already-held beliefs so I know I should pay attention to right-wing, divisive, climate change deniers but I excuse myself from reading their outpourings and turn my attention to those writers who give me hope.

After many years thinking about these things I believe that if we are to find a way forward to a better world, indeed if our children and grandchildren are to have a future, change must come from two directions:

(1) A change in the world’s dominant economic system of free-market capitalism which depends on material growth. (Problems: That’s not sustainable on a physically finite planet but those with wealth who are benefiting from it work hard to keep us on the same path)

(2) A change in the way we understand what the ‘good life’ is about. That is, we need to move away from ever striving towards excessive material consumption and competition (Problem: Huge swathes of our media invest heavily into continually reinforcing the ideas which encourage us to go out and buy, buy, buy - How we should look, how our homes should look, etc etc )

I’ve come to see that a crucial step in my search for understanding of how change will come about is to get some grasp of how these two interact.

So, my questions now are:

(1) ‘If enough of us decide that for a good life we need to consume less, embrace reuse and recycling and concentrate our time and attention on community, family, friends and co-operation rather competition and acquiring ever more stuff, how would that impact on our economic system?’

(2) ‘What would an alternative economic system look like’?

(3) ‘How do we get to there from here?

Now I’m off to search through the mountains of info out there to see if anyone has come up with some answers ....

If you’d like to know more about ...

How System Change has come about in the past: https://shorturl.at/Z5HWr

How we are persuaded to buy, buy, buy: https://shorturl.at/zjRQx

Alternative economic models:

https://doughnuteconomics.org/about-doughnut-economics

AND

Circular Economy, The Ellen MacArthur Foundation:

https://shorturl.at/GrMss

** Misinformation is false or inaccurate information published without malicious intent, while disinformation is designed to mislead.