Industrial Society Destroys Mind and Environment

[Richard]

We could always abandon our cities and go live an agrarian lifestyle in the countryside as many people in Cambodia did in the 1970s. I don't think too many people died as a result, did they?

[screener]

a bit extreme isn't it, too equate agrarianism with pol pots madness? driven consumer culture does equate, on the other hand, to many of the ills being listed in this thread.

[Richard]

Sushil wants to destroy anything and everything associated with industrialised society. This implies a return to an agrarian society (pre-industrial revolution). I think you would have to force this on people, can't really see a whole nation volunteering to change their lifestyle that radically.

[screener]

I suppose it is possible that the destruction of industrial society could occur through the development of a post consumerism/post industrial society, agrarianism would be a part of that. I expect that as this briliant future unfolds and the destruction of the natural environment stops people all over the world will finally jump on the band wagon.

[Richard]

One of the main mistakes Sushil is making though is equating all of industrial society with nothing other than consumerism. If you got rid of industrial society, it wouldn't just be the consumer society that would have to go. Anything manufactured would also have to go, ergo just about all modern infrastructure would also have to go. Transport infrastructure, energy generation and transmission, communications, water and sewerage, national institutions (inc. hospitals and other social institutions), plus many more. All of these rely on an industrial society to keep them going, and they are pretty much the backbone of most modern societies.

I also don't think that people will be "jumping on the band wagon" to return to an agrarian society. I don't know about anyone else but toiling away in a field growing my own crops for 16 hours a day doesn't really appeal to me.

[screener]

I have to agree with you that the lost of industrial society would be pretty much a kick in the head. And unfortunately I don't have the secret to developing a post industrial one. Well I do, but I don't feel like putting it out there .... yet.... .

The problem right now is that we are using too much resource value, our footprints are too large. I'ld really like to maintain what we can, as a farmer I understand how life might be different if I didn't have a tractors and fuel to run them. But as we leave sneaker tracks all over the planet large enough to fit the giants, and as we run out of cheap fuel the band wagon might be the only one moving.