Running Out of Options

By Volodymyr Kish

When one reads the news these days, one can’t help but reach the conclusion that our planet is facing existential threats wherever one turns. Pollution, global warming, diminishing natural resources, over-population, rapidly increasing economic disparity and inequity, political instability, deadly religious fanaticism – all are contributing towards making the future of mankind an increasingly iffy proposition.

Thanks to the all-pervasive reach of the Internet and global media, we are all aware of the problems and serious threats they pose, yet, collectively we can’t seem to get our act together to address these issues in any kind of serious or effective way.

A large part of the reason for this is that we are all stuck with a stubborn mindset that revolves around the notion that the current principles and structure around which our social, political and economic systems operate are innately the correct ones, and we just need to fine tune them and everything will be all right. Further, we have gotten used to that fact that changes to those systems have successfully evolved in a slow, measured and incremental manner over the past few centuries, and that one should not rush into making major changes to our lives and the societies within which we live. I am beginning to believe that the time has come when we should seriously challenge these core beliefs.

The current standard for what we deem to be the “western” model for our civilization, is what I will label for the sake of convenience as the FMSDIR (Free Market, Social Democratic, Individual Rights) model, which is what most of the world aspires to, and which is the model that prevails in North America, Europe, and most of what we identify as the “developed” or “free world”. Ever since the spectacular demise of Communism as a serious alternative in recent decades, most everyone seems to accept that FMSDIR is the way to go. And yet, the fall of Communism has not heralded in a new golden era of peace and prosperity. The quality of our lives is not improving; for most of the world, including the so called “developed” world, it is in fact decreasing.

Our lives are becoming increasingly more stressful. Our younger generations, despite being the best educated in the history of mankind, can’t find meaningful jobs. Our economies are becoming more and more unmanageable and unpredictable, and careen between crises. Our environment is becoming more and more toxic. Our politics are becoming increasingly polarized. Although our food production capabilities have increased exponentially, the food that we eat has become more and more artificial and less and less nutritious. Despite the fact that we have made great strides in improving the rights and freedoms of countless formerly oppressed peoples, there is more social unrest and anarchy than ever before. Further, although the number of adherents to the two largest world religions, Christianity and Islam continue to grow, there is no sign that this is leading to greater peace and brotherhood amongst peoples and nations.

The fact is that the changes brought by the exponentially rapid developments in science and technology have far outstripped our abilities to manage the consequences either wisely or responsibly. As a civilization we have both our hands in the cookie jar and are overindulging in excess of every kind that is clearly not sustainable. So far, we have managed to stay one step ahead of disaster, but we are now rapidly running out of options.

There is a serious need to critically re-examine the fundamental principles around which our lives and the societies within which we live are structured. In particular, our political and economic systems (FMSDIR) need a major overhaul. Far too much priority and focus in those systems is currently geared towards preserving capital and business rights instead of human and social rights. This creates damaging disparities in power and wealth distribution and its attendant social polarization, victimization and unrest.

To do this we need to get over the clichd oversimplification propounded by too many politicians and businessmen that you only have two choices – capitalism or communism. This is just self-serving distortion of the fact that all political and economic systems exist with a wide spectrum of choice and possibilities. Where we should be on the spectrum should be driven by what kind of society we want to have and what we consciously determine to be the right balance between social needs and economic needs. That choice should be made by an informed and engaged electorate, and not by what is prevalent today - by those that have unlimited wealth to buy political power, whether it be the super-rich oligarchs in Ukraine, or the big business elites in the U.S.

The FMSDIR model needs a major overhaul to ensure that we have a real future. That process cannot survive more minor tinkering or delay.