I came to a career late in life.
It was not until my mid-thirties, when my son William was born that I knuckled under and chose a career with meaning over money, with ethical intention over personal gain, that of a college lecturer in Communication and Media Studies.
At least I thought, somewhere within the curriculum, I could offer my students some means of self-defense against the brain-numbing onslaught of consumer capitalism.It took me four years of post-graduate training to gain the qualification I needed – that of ‘Cert.Ed.F.E.’ (Certificate in Education for Further Education). It took me seven years of working at a second-rate college to gain entry as a lecturer into what was then the best F.E. college in the country – at least according to government inspection results that year where the college gained 12 out of the 16 grade 1’s given nationally, and the principal got a medal.
Six months in, with a full career until retirement as much a certainty as it can be these days, I came under attack from the Child Support Agency, because my son’s mother had ‘moved away’, taking my child with her. A War of Attrition ensued in which they failed to respond to any of the information I sent them regarding my actual salary and expenditure details in what was at that time a seasonal and part-time job. It lasted eighteen months and resulted in an ‘attachment to earnings’ that left me with a total income of £11 a week before even my travel to work costs which were in excess of £25.
I borrowed money to get to work to not get paid for a while in the hope I could resolve the situation. In brief the C.S.A. converted my hard-won, late but promising career into less than slavery. The process made me ill – for a year after this I had all the symptoms of I.B.S. Within six months I had spent my few savings. Because I live in a part of the country (Cornwall) where graduate employment is particularly hard to find, I was still out of work. All I had from the CSA was a letter informing me that they had made a mistake with my calculation. By that time I was forced to leave my chosen employment.
This situation was never resolved by the Parliamentary Ombudsman who concluded that the legislation was at fault rather than the C.S.A. assessment. But I had also come to some decisions on the back of experiencing such poorly thought-out laws and their maladministration. As a result I could no longer believe that where I live, the United Kingdom, is the democracy it claims to be. It is too busy pushing through crap legislation to act in the best interests of its citizens. Short term tactical reactions, often driven by media demonisation and the need to create income for the treasury, take precedence over any meaningful route to a future.
Given the above experience and a whole range of other conditions in our culture about which I feel extremely uneasy – I am no longer able to support ‘the system’ with my energy. Now I went through all this stuff in my 'punk' early 20’s and thought my rebellion was over – but I seem to have little choice here. In my mid 40’s I became a rebel again. I decided to write and publish what I see as 'the truth’ and dedicate my energy to living lightly and promoting positive change for a sustainable future.
I decided I would no longer ‘feed the machine’ with my work or energy. I would live wild and free as much as possible. And so ‘simonthescribe’ was born, the radical green scribe and whistleblower on a culture that is taking us all to the brink of destruction. A huge unquestioned leviathan of a system presently trundling us all towards species extinction – and all of our economic energies take part in this gross stupidity. Somehow I would find the silver lining in this gathering storm cloud. I would be green, but also have fun in the process.
This decision to opt-out is not just about ‘leaving as small a carbon footprint as possible’, although I don’t drive a car, use a fridge or have a washing machine and limit my fuel energy use as much as I can. In fact I am almost invisible in carbon terms. This decision involved actively opposing the forces of speed and greed that drive our culture, and also looking for and creating new answers to the questions of how we manage our lives on earth and care for ourselves and each other. This is a journey that only some of us will ever make. It is also a journey that some of the tribes on our planet have already made, only to be laid waste by the smallpox infected blankets of a dominator culture.
It is not enough to just oppose and subvert the economic systems that are already stealing the future from our children. We must also invent and explore new and old ways, other systems, that can work for us all. I must write at this point that I do not support terrorism at any level, and that includes the terrorism of our own economic system to start illegal wars and invade countries because they have the resources we want. It also includes the terrorism of a fiscally driven ‘free-trade’ system that exploits the weak and reduces the lives of many other peoples around the globe to less than slavery and abject poverty in the quest to ‘make a profit’.
It’s my belief that the system is so blind, so entrenched in its course that it is already too late for us to take meaningful action to ‘save the earth’. The earth will save itself and that may or may not include us. Global changes in our environment, happening now, are inevitable because there are already too many people with their lives (and retirements) invested in planetary ruin. Even by just having having a bank account or pension we already invest in arms, drugs, slavery, prostitution, the destruction of indiginous species, environments and peoples – and all of the other things that money does – we are already investors by default in planetary degradation just by being here. It is almost unavoidable. Will enough people react and take action in time to make a difference? Will you?
The best we can do at present is to minimise the damage we have done, and will do, through taking responsible action at an individual level as well as networking at local, regional, national and global levels. The continued destruction of our planetary ecosystems is inevitable in the mean time – it is the inheritance of the so called ‘Industrial Revolution’ with its values based on spending our capital assets – the earth’s finite resources - as the basis of our economy. Spending our assets as income is a house built on sand if ever there was one – and some countries, such as China, are only just getting in on the act of planet wrecking capitalism. As long as GDP is the measure of a country's worth - the earth won't really get a look in. In the words of Thomas Berry:
- the glory of the human has become the devastation of the earth
- the devastation of the earth appears to be our destiny
We all know this already and employ a number of defense mechanisms to deny it, using the easy options of:
- ignoring it is happening by accepting the irrational claims of ‘celebrity capitalism’ and rewarding ourselves with the easy distractions of consumerism. Feeding our children with unhealthy but indulgent foods and experiences to assuage our guilt that they no longer have much of a future
- turning to religious dogma and accepting beliefs that avoid asking difficult questions by passing on the responsibility for our actions to a God who has already died for our sins
- accepting that it is already too late / too difficult to change anything and grabbing as much as we can for ourselves while we can
- developing our survivalist traits and getting weapons, learning rabbit recipes and burying cans of baked beans and coffee across the countryside for later
Some people at least can see what’s going on and realise that pretty much anyone under 45 years old is unlikely to get a pension and will have to work for a dying system until they drop – if they can find or keep the work. Our present economy has a very limited shelf life, our governments have no investment in looking further ahead than the next election. In developing green (wash) ‘anti-industrialist’ legislation they will be biting the very hand that feeds them, which seems unlikely at best.
The burning question ‘How then, can we invest in a sustainable future?’ is being asked by very few people as yet. And that is sustainability as described in the Bruntland Report of 1992 "Development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs". Sustainable actions that ‘responsible’ people are taking include downsizing or downshifting their carbon footprints, building environmentally sound living spaces and finding ways to live more self-reliantly or 'tribally', and in tune with nature – and away from cities.
But these are, and will remain, a minority. 83% of us in the UK still inhabit cities. Positive actions may include working co-operatively with others rather than endorsing the competition that drives our status-based money economy. It also includes persuading others that they can simplify their lives and get by on less, and that they should give up their supermarkets and cars so they won’t feel guilty when Bangladeshis drown en-masse. And what are the chances of that? Sometimes it feels futile.
But within all this we still live on a planet that is totally awesome. There is much enjoyment to be derived from interaction with ‘the wild’. In many places nature still thrives and retains the upper hand. There is still time and great reward to be found in closeness with the orders of nature. The stresses we are experiencing as a result of ‘messing on our own doorstep’ are here for a reason - that is - to help us evolve as a species. I hope we will survive it.
And this is what drives simon the scribe. Donations and contributions gratefully accepted!
Site design and maintainance by simonthescribe at aplus1.co.uk
