Same As It Ever Was

This appeared in the November 18, 2021 edition of The Fish Wrap.

The challenge lately is deciding which global crisis to focus on most urgently - pandemic, global economic crisis, polarized political instability, supply chain breakdowns? They all come down to system fragility and people are looking for someone to bolster the systems and save us all. But do we really want to plug the holes in the old systems or would it be better to start building a new world?

We seem to be looking for top down solutions, solutions that come from above instead of from us. But I don’t know if we’ll be able to mandate our way out of these messes. We increasingly rely on the government and a few giant corporations for our most vital needs like health, food, the supply chain and economic stability. When did we start trusting the government to take care of us? When did we decide that Amazon has our best interests at heart?

We’ve been hearing about The Great Reset which is apparently a plan by the World Economic Forum to fix everything. Their agenda suggests that a globalized world is best managed by a largely un-elected, self-appointed coalition of corporations and governments. They win our support by talking about issues that scare us like the economic crisis and pandemic, while making themselves more wealthy and consolidating their power. We must be wary that the structures built to protect us don’t become prisons. 

Readers of this column know that we put our energy into building solutions from the bottom up. The power has always been with the individual. A multinational corporation is nothing without its workers and consumers. Eating real food prevents or improves outcomes for every health problem. Building trusted connections in your community assures your protection when times get hard. Be the change you want to see in the world!