2012 - FOR OUR CHILDREN
Charlie says: We at SOS intend that the changes will be well under way and a new world beginning by 2012.
We cannot pretend to know what the world will be like after capitalism has been brought down to size but some of our ideas are below. More ideas will come from the discussions, feedback and forums that are happening. So if you want to help mould a new world, join in.
Our intention is absolutely not to create chaos and anarchy. Our belief is that three massive end of days scenarios are approaching:
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climate catastrophe;
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wars over diminishing resources;
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the inevitable eventual crash of a financial world that is clearly a fraudulent fantasy.
These three unfolding separately, or in concert with each other, are going to cause a far worse and far less controllable collapse into Armageddon if not faced up to and tackled now. (Beyond those problems we are also confronted by massive population issues and, in the West, the time bomb of a pension crisis as there is not enough money, particularly after the recent stock market crash, to support pensioners.)
We plan for a crash landing instead of a crash. Our revolution need not be a violent one and our systems and our leaders will still mostly be in place. The leaders will have to assume special powers, and their present short-termism will have to be put aside.
An end to the Cyst of London
The “socially useless” world of financial services will be swept away, never to return. When you buy an egg for your breakfast there will be you and the egg man, not a string of useless bloated individuals in red braces between the two of you. Money will be earned, and spent and will be worth something.
An end to debt
All debt will be written off, personal, business and government. A line will be drawn and we will all start again. All countries will declare themselves bankrupt on the same day. What's going to happen? Is China going to repossess France and evict the French to Belgium? We're all broke, there's no prospect of the money we've borrowed being paid back, so let's face the fact and make a fresh start.
We will start again, having learned a harsh lesson. Banks will be high street co-operative banks or credit unions simply there to lend affordable amounts, at very low interest rates, to individuals. There will be no lending to businesses who must expand on the basis of profits earned. There will be no lending to local and national governments who will provide services on the basis of rates and taxes levied.
Life will become real again. The world will also be consuming at a fifth of the rate it is now. You will buy a new car every ten or twenty years instead of every two. Each car will have five passengers in it instead of one, not least because fuel will cost five times more.
Life will be less luxurious and self-indulgent, but it will be okay. Indeed it will in many ways be a great deal better than it is now. For one thing, with the removal of debt, every man woman and child will no longer be born with a rucksack full of bricks on their backs.
Above all we will be able to look our children and grandchildren in the eye. Instead of them seeing a self-centred, bloated, thoughtless generation of wasters they will see a brave and visionary people who made sacrifices and took a stand when their world was in peril.
And Tao Tzu, a sage from 700 BC, wrote:
Better to keep your
Country small
Your people few
Your devices simple
And even those for
Infrequent use.
Let people measure life
By the meaning of death
And not go out of their way
To visit far off places
With nowhere to travel
And little care for the display of great ships
And shining weapons become
Mere relics of the past.
Let people recover
The simple life
Reckoning by knotted cords
Delighting in the basic meal
Pleased with humble attire
Happy in their homes
Taking pleasure in their
Rustic ways.
So content are they
That nearby towns
So close, the sound
Of dogs and roosters
Forms one chorus –
Folks grown grey with age
May pass away never having
Strayed beyond the village.
