[p2p-research] In the future...the cost of education will be zero...Mashable

[Ryan Lanham]

On Thu, Jul 30, 2009 at 11:33 AM, Michel Bauwens <michelsub2004 at gmail.com>wrote:

> Hi Ryan,
>
> I can agree with your conclusion ...
>
> but there's an issue of perception here ... some things are real but work
> like the boiling frog phenomenom ... when it starts boiling, like climate
> change, it wil be too late ...
>
> you can't blame humans for following their neural wiring .. but for those
> of us who know, we have to find ways to wake humanity from their slumber ...
> since this proves very difficult, the default option is to start preparing
> ...
>
> if good solutions are available, the majority will find them faster once
> they are motivated to change as well,
>
> Michel
>
>

I agree the issue is one of education.  But education is a funny thing.  It
must be clear and received...not muddy and imposed.  Further, as with
obesity, smoking and numerous other human traits, we have a propensity to
accept self-destruction.  Jared Diamond would say we have repeatedly also
selected systematic destruction.  I wonder how this can change without
violating our own demands to not impose will on each other.

Is global warming akin to murder (hurting others rights), or is it akin to
obesity (mostly self destruction)?  And then there are questions of national
sovereignty.  Can the world impose on China to not develop?  Will China
care?  Climate change poses a set of new challenges we've never faced before
not only in the magnitude of the issue, but in the possible modes of
solutions.

The only answer seems to be through some form of
legitimate governance...representatives who will do the right thing.  It
seems implausible to me that the necessary participants will act in time to
matter.  It is far easier to be blissfully self destructive as justified by
a localism where the greater good seems to be oriented toward local
advantage at the expense of global safety.  A global ethos is essential for
a workable solution to climate change...unless one takes on a sort of mutual
assured destruction perspective.

Else, why change if you are poor?  The game rests with India and China...and
eventually, Africa.  And I see very little motivation for them to behave
appropriately.  Even the US and much of Western Europe are failing to behave
appropriately.  Dicey stuff.

Most of the issues of power come back to how much collective will we are OK
imposing on the individual.  Old issues, but never easy ones.

Ryan



>
> On Thu, Jul 30, 2009 at 9:32 PM, Ryan Lanham <rlanham1963 at gmail.com>wrote:
>
>>  On Wed, Jul 29, 2009 at 11:15 PM, Michel Bauwens <
>> michelsub2004 at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>> Hi Ryan,
>>>
>>> Every one is the realist and utopian to somebody else ...
>>>
>>> So, while you consistently decry the utopians, I'm sure plenty of people
>>> would find this phrase the summum of utopianism, i.e.
>>>
>>> <I certainly have, at times, shared this view.  But I doubt it is true at
>>> present.  My guess is that, in the main, people do not cling to bad
>>> systems...they rationalize the good they do and wait for proof of
>>> alternatives to show they are not contributing fair value.  In the end,
>>> people mostly acquiece to obsolescence.  It's hard, but it happens.>
>>>
>>> Clearly, my wish is that you'd be right ... but ...
>>>
>>> My experience is pretty much the opposite ... i.e. people will cling to
>>> bad systems, until they really can't anymore ... Otherwise, why would we
>>> accept global warming, world hunger, medications costing 5 cents in Cuba
>>> costing $120 to uninsured poor people in the U.S. etc...
>>>
>>> Change is hard ... not easy,
>>>
>>> Michel
>>>
>>>
>>
>> Michel,
>>
>> I agree change is very hard...the hardest thing.  But I also think people
>> do not do evil intentionally for the msot part.  They work to survive and
>> continue on in their own microcosmic agenda of what they see as a greater
>> local good.  The key, I think is to measure and measure hard...and
>> comprehensively.  No one would not prefer to be poor in the US to being in
>> Cuba...and there is reason to doubt that global warming will happen at a
>> pace that really matters.  You and I may know better, but should a person
>> destroy their own livelihood to act on something that MIGHT happen?  Only a
>> fool would do so.
>>
>> In the end, things change when people have compelling evidence that things
>> will be worse for them and theirs if they do not change.  All the more
>> reason why idealism without experiment and measurement is simply narcissism.
>>
>>
>> Ryan
>>
>
>
>
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