A society of sloth

[ribozyme]

dieoff.org/page168.htm

Article is about how the United States isn’t a democracy and wasn’t intended to be a democracy. He also argues that American society isn’t based on oppression, but avarice as a means to keep it sustainable. However, the vice of avarice has depleted the world’s resources.

The consequences of avarice:

The average rich-nation citizen used 7.4 kilowatts (kW) of energy in 1990—a continuous flow of energy equivalent to that powering 74 100-watt lightbulbs. The average citizen of a poor nation, by contrast, used only 1 kW. There were 1.2 billion people in the rich nations, so their total environmental impact, as measured by energy use, was 1.2 billion x 7.4 kW, or 8.9 terawatts (TW)—8.9 trillion watts. Some 4.1 billion people lived in poor nations in 1990, hence their total impact (at 1 kW a head) was 4.1 TW.

The relatively small population of rich people therefore accounts for roughly two-thirds of global environmental destruction, as measured by energy use. From this perspective, the most important population problem is overpopulation in the industrialized nations.

The United States poses the most serious threat of all to human life support systems. It has a gigantic population, the third largest on Earth, more than a quarter of a billion people. Americans are superconsumers, and use inefficient technologies to feed their appetites. Each, on average, uses 11 kW of energy, twice as much as the average Japanese, more than three times as much as the average Spaniard, and over 100 times as much as an average Bangladeshi. Clearly, achieving an average family size of 1.5 children in the United States (which would still be larger than the 1.3 child average in Spain) would benefit the world much more than a similar success in Bangladesh.

dieoff.org/page43.htm

Wow… it seems I am very fortunate to see humanity in such a tenuous position.

Now the proposed solution:

What can be done to mitigate the coming nightmare? I propose that we retire “avarice” as our central organizing principle and replace it with a less deadly Deadly Sin: “sloth”. I believe the “Society of Sloth” would be a splendid 21st century replacement for the Society of Avarice.

Step one would be to establish a global government of some sort with the authority to protect the global commons – our life-support system – as well as protecting universal human rights. This government would also oversee the “clean” manufacturing of “repairable” and “reusable” energy-efficient appliances and transportation systems. It would also insure the sustainable production of staples like wheat, rice, oats, and fish.

Does this new global government sound repressive or restrictive? Not at all. A great deal of freedom is possible – in fact, far more than we have now.

eMERGY CERTIFICATES
Step two would be to replace the organizing principle of “avarice” with the principle of “sloth”; break out of the money-market-advertising-consumption death trap. The Society of Sloth would not be based on money because that would be inherently unsustainable. Instead, it would be based on “eMergy Certificates”. [37]

Global government would determine the “needs” of the public, set industrial production accordingly, and calculate the amount of eMergy used to meet these needs. Government would then distribute purchasing power in the form of eMergy certificates, the amount issued to each person being equivalent to his pro rata share of the eMergy cost of the consumer goods and services.

eMergy certificates bear the identification of the person to whom issued and are non-negotiable. They resemble a bank check in that they bear no face denomination, this being entered at the time of spending. They are surrendered upon the purchase of goods or services at any center of distribution and are permanently canceled, becoming entries in a uniform accounting system. Being non-negotiable they cannot be lost, stolen, gambled, or given away because they are invalid in the hands of any person other than the one to whom issued.

Lost eMergy certificates would be easily replaced. Certificates can not be saved because they become void at the termination of the two-year period for which they are issued. They can only be spent.

Insecurity of old age is abolished and both saving and insurance become unnecessary and impossible. eMergy Certificates would put absolute limits on consumption and provide people with a guaranteed stream of “needs” for life.

With modern technology, probably less than 5% of the population could produce all the goods we really “need”. A certain number of “producers” could be drafted and trained by society to produce for two years. The rest can stay home and sleep, sing, dance, paint, read, write, pray, play, do minor repairs, work in the garden, and practice birth control.

Sloth doesn’t seem to be a bad vice after all.

 

[Kaninchen]

I think that people should read Frederick Pohl’s old Sci-Fi classic ‘The Midas Plague’.

 

[BamaRider]

Does this mean they’re gonna shut down all the Chinese buffets?

 

[Ridgerunner]

This plan is remarkably similar to the old Soviet system. To give it its due, one has to admit that it did, indeed, encourage and achieve sloth on the part of the populace.

It must be admitted, however, that the Soviets were not able to achieve universal sloth without stooping to some exertion to get it done. It did take quite a bit of work, early on, to starve, enslave, torture and kill tens of millions. People do not readily give up on the idea that they should benefit from their own labors, it turned out. But ultimately the “practical workers” (that was their term) of the Cheka/NKVD/MVD/KGB were able to settle back to well-earned sloth most of the time, as the populace eventually learned sloth. “As long as they pretend to pay us, we’ll pretend to work” was the near-universal sentiment of the populace. Nearly perfect sloth had been achieved.

Some reactionaries, particularly religious people, called it evil, but the Soviets found that such people perished in the meat grinder just as readily as those who were motivated by simple avarice. As Lenin said “one cannot make an omelet without breaking eggs”.