After all, we face a large number of extremely pressing short term problems - from Peak Oil, climate change and overpopulation to the death of the oceans and "the diminishing marginal return on social complexity". Won't it be easier to deal with the Big Kahuna once we have addressed some of the little guys?
Here's the question this approach raises for me. Is the "problem" posed by the 5,000 year history of interest really a long term problem any more? It looks to me like it's on our doorstep. The digestion of our planetary meal is almost complete, and it feels like the postprandial burp is on its way.
The difficulty I see in attacking even short term problems is that the reason all of them exist is because of the underlying issue of interest-driven growth. As a result, addressing them requires us to somehow short-circuit our entire cultural narrative around money, interest and growth. It goes without saying that a vast majority of people see no problem at all with money, interest and growth. They see no way of existing without them, and will feel deeply, fundamentally threatened by suggestions that they have been species-scale mistakes that need to be rectified. It seems more and more obvious to me that the issue of interest, even more than our evolved neuro-psychology or our sense of separation from nature, is close to the root of our predicament.
Whenever we try to address the short-term problems, we run smack into a wall of unreasoning resistance founded on our attachment to interest-driven growth. Environmental remediation costs jobs. Aging and shrinking populations threaten national economic growth. Responsible agricultural practices are too expensive. Even the lifespan of consumer goods has been reduced though the policy of planned obsolescence in order to maximize economic opportunity. Stopping mountain-top removal, the burning of fossil fuels, overfishing, or the dumping of toxic waste all run into the barrier of having to meet next month's interest payment. The reason I'm suddenly so utterly pessimistic again after four years of diligent work repairing my psyche is that this truly does look like it makes the problem insoluble.
We must work urgently on short-term, regional, local and personal solutions. Different people choose different problems to champion depending on which ones resonate with their experience and values. With that work there is always room for a miracle, and without it there is none. But I'm a firm believer in understanding the real problem. Unless we have that understanding we will not be able to come up with solutions that don't simply make the problem bigger.
Sorry to reply to my own OP. I know it's bad manners, but I'm thinking out loud here and this seemed better than editing the OP.
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