Fight Bad Systems, Not People Stuck in Them

Systems create evil actions by preventing skepticism.

Political and Meteorological Instabilities on Butterfly Wings

We are all stuck in the System molasses of the past and present, dreaming of the future, but unable to imagine what our future self will want.

“It’s been difficult to see humans as anything other than selfish, greedy, environmentally destructive parasites. There’s strong evidence wealth equality increases environmental conservation, but it seems like we’ll never have either one. I don’t want to eat the rich, I don’t even care to be rich, I just want care for the environment and people.” — Corinne Nita

I spent a lot of years thinking the same things about people. When you have a lot of time driving and working alone and failing at stuff where nobody can see it and burn you down for it, you can allow yourself to realize how much human behavior is habitual and conditioned, especially your own.

Comedian Dave Maleckar wrote, “People do shit. They have reasons for doing shit; in that order.”

Blaming people for their failings as though they intended to be destructive or mean is one of the ‘features’ that have emerged in competition-based society. We elect bullies because we have systems that favor bullies, but then we blame the bullies for being bullies. We live organically, but blame ourselves as though we should be perfect machines. Responsibility has become a way to blame, rather than a way to evaluate our response ability.

Corinne is right: It is VERY difficult to see people as anything other than the ‘sinners’, ‘deplorables’, ‘consumers’ etc who ‘choose’ to follow what turns out to be the easiest path through their woods. It is especially difficult to see people as creative, generous and friendly when our language and media focus on problems and mistakes, increasing perception of complexity, fear and strife when cooperation and incremental successes could just as easily be promoted.

We should always look at people as part of their whole environment, and the environment we create for ourselves and others is the prime factor driving behaviors. Rarely do people intentionally build a closed community that is sustainable. Only cooperative and open interactions thrive over generations. Self-ish, protective and fearful communities always either burn from…