Sunday Open Thread — September 16, 2007

What I’m thinking about, and planning on writing (and podcasting) about soon:

Why We Have No Time For Making the World Better: Three of my recent articles, taken together, have an important message, I think. Joyless Responsibility made the point that, for many of us, life had become unnatural — burdensome, tedious, thankless, exhausting — because we have taken on responsibility (either voluntarily, only to discover it was not what we thought it was, or, more often, voluntarily, because we were the only one who could or would take on responsibility for people who needed us or duties no one else could or would shoulder) that is joyless. Need Less made the point that our industrial economy depends on us needing and wanting more and more, to the point much of the work we do has, as its primary purpose, allowing us to continue buying what we have come to need, to the point we are addicted to consumption and debt. And I have said that it is our (and all creatures’) nature to do what we must, and then to do what’s easy, and then to do what’s fun. Those with joyless responsibility (an increasing number of us) must spend most of their lives doing what is neither easy nor fun. Those addicted to their needs (and despite my best efforts I am still among this large group) spend most of their waking hours doing what we must to afford those needs, and then we’re so exhausted we do what’s easy and, occasionally, what’s fun. Neither group has time left to do what is needed to make this world a better place. So while many of us are now informed about the need for change, and some of us have started to let ourselves change, very few of us are ready to be activists, to dedicate ourselves to actions that will make a difference. And until we can somehow free up time from joyless responsibility and paying for our needs, that situation is not likely to improve. This will be a very personal post, but it will be more upbeat than it may sound.

Becoming a Model: Lately I’ve been getting more communications from younger readers asking what they should be doing to make the world a better place. My reply has been to encourage them to become models that others can follow. Increasingly, I think we need models of natural, sustainable enterprise, and I’m encouraging them to start their own community-based, responsible business, so that others can see that there are better models to follow than the Microsoft/Google “guilty philanthropist” model, without self-sacrifice.

Vignettes: Coming up soon, vignette #6.

Blog-Hosted Conversations: Delayed a couple of weeks due to technical problems with Skype and with Pamela, the software I was using to record the conversations. So starting this week, this blog will feature 30-minute conversations, initially on the subject of “What is your model of a better way to live, and what capacities do we need to develop or re-learn to live that way?”

Open Thread Question:

How can we encourage truly independent filmmakers to produce, at low cost, well-written, professional films that can bypass the theatres andreplace the dreck that Hollywood now puts out?