We must not be bystanders!

We face the biggest crisis in human history. It is not the financial crisis. It is our failure to live within the limits of mother Earth and in harmony with each other that will lead to catastrophe. Don’t be fooled by politicians endowed with excessive self-confidence. We cannot depend on governments to do what needs to be done. They do not focus on the most important issues or grasp the radical solutions that are needed. Nor do they offer the bold, inspiring leadership required for a great transition.

There are 6.7bn of us throughout the world. We have immense power if we use it wisely. We have to campaign and educate politicians and demand that they do what is needed. We will not find the answers by listening to combative politicians or a media that keeps us entertained with hot air, transfixed by consumerism and novelty, yet feeling powerless. We need to inform ourselves about the abundant wise thinking and exciting possibilities for a great transformation. Some of the urgent changes can be brought about by individuals and communities. But the major part of it requires action by governments at every level – from parish to United Nations. We need inclusive and fully representative democracy, not dictatorship by a party or coalition that gets the most seats in Parliament. 

Our role must be to campaign, lobby, demonstrate and insist.

There is a growing consensus about what has to be done. It is not only a matter of transforming the global economy so that its purpose is to bring greater well-being to everyone. We need to end the obsession with growth, privatisation, unlimited globalisation and free trade. We also need to transform the costly and unstable debt money system and unsustainable, unjust and unnecessarily complex taxation. Government must accept the need for prosperity without growth. It must protect citizens from the abuse of power by large corporations. We have to demand these changes. To do so we must be well-informed.

Bruce Nixon is author of A Better World is Possible – what needs to be done and how we can make it happen, available free on his website http://www.brucenixon.com/betterworld.html. It provides full information and ways forward on all these issues.