tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5889026769761133073.post5582394060502368186..comments2023-12-22T08:42:36.132+00:00Comments on Gaian Economics: Brother, Can You Spare a Paradigm?Mollyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12845612174674783187noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5889026769761133073.post-23166233930572963602010-08-26T18:35:24.899+01:002010-08-26T18:35:24.899+01:00Hi Molly,
How about this a paradigm shift? Chuck ...Hi Molly,<br /><br />How about this a paradigm shift? Chuck economics out of the window!!!<br /><br />Replace it with ecology and ethology.<br /><br />Just to hint at why, imagine being tasked with undertaking the study of a community of chimpanzees where, say, a new regular supply of food was made available to them but the restriction on the researcher was they could only use the tools available from economic theory to explain the consequences. I conjecture they would be struggling.<br /><br />Or a similiar task that probably is more amenable to describing in economic terms but still probably not straight-forward - the invasion of baboons into parts of urban South Africa.<br /><br />I think the bottom line of my thinking is that economics is really a branch of psychology and will address much foolish behaviour by humans, like an individual acquiring more gold in a life-time than he could possibly use or spend 'sensibly' but does little to give us any insight into how to deal with the imminent collapse of the world's major ecosytems - the oceans, rivers and forests.<br /><br />We have ample evidence that 'economic man' is crazy, many of the most 'successful' being effectively psychopaths and it is mankind's collective behaviour that is bringing on eco-doom, but surely it must be self-evident that 'tweeking' or 'nudging' the psychopathic traits has no chance of bringing about the required drastic changes in how we conduct ourselves.<br /><br />Or, to make a blunt assertion, we can't tax and subsidise ourselves into a level of economic activity that is consistent with a healthy planet.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5889026769761133073.post-54209944866800436722010-08-26T17:54:07.122+01:002010-08-26T17:54:07.122+01:00I appreciate the sentiment, but it seems to me you...I appreciate the sentiment, but it seems to me you haven't come close to proving your main point, which is your claim that rationality is the exclusive property of the existing order.<br /><br />The existing order says things like "the automobile is the best (most rational and efficient) form of transportation." Is the response to that absurd claim to dump reason overboard, or turn reason on the irrationality and inefficiency of things like automobiles?<br /><br />Perhaps the existing order wins people's minds not because of the rottenness of reason, but because of sheer power and ideology and institutional dominance.<br /><br />Personally, wonderful and important as feelings certainly are, I am extremely nervous about suggesting that a politics of emotions is the way out of our crisis.Michael Dawsonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09353560855423670828noreply@blogger.com