David Orr said
“The plain fact is that the planet does not need more successful people. But it does desperately need more peacemakers, healers, restorers, storytellers, and lovers of every kind. It needs people who live well in their places. It needs people of moral courage willing to join the fight to make the world habitable and humane. And these qualities have little to do with success as we have defined it.”

It is an obvious thing to say but our version of successful needs a lot of scrutiny. It seems we are all caught up in the idea of successful people. Success means little about who the person is, and more about the person’s status, house size, or earnings. As Marx predicted in the machine age, and now in the digital age, that people would be less people and more commodity.

Hopefully (but we will miss it) the people of the future will look back at this age and consider our age as cruel and barbaric. But this might be overly optimistic. Humans need a hierarchy. What better way to create a hierarchy than to fight over dwindling resources that only a few will have.

The above statement feels almost naive. There is no status in peacemakers, healers, or people living well. There is no easy way to achieve these ideals. It is easier to think of getting a good job, getting into a top university,  or trying to be acquire wealth. To “live well in their places” is a noble statement: but difficult to do if there is no work or housing in the place. To be peaceful is challenging in a violent age.

What would happen if we all just stopped? Stopped to regroup and consolidate. Not to be a slave to technology. Not to have to adapt to rampant globalisation. Not to have to keep running. For some to stay on the spot, or be pushed backwards. Its not possible to stop. Unthinkable.
Perhaps one day something will have to stop us.
Successful People

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Disclaimer:This weblog is the view of the writer and for general information only.
This article is designed to provoke argument and critique