Why are ‘we’ so unhappy, according to the polling, compared to the rest of the world?
George Monbiot says it’s because we are no longer citizens. Only consumers. On average we have no actionable power of any kind, and this is no longer a society.
The solidarity essential to well-being no longer exists, and pretending that it does, on Memorial Day for example, feels useless and even in some subtle way painful.
On top of which, anything bad that happens to you is solely your fault, and being poor especially.
***
The other one goes like this. You’re out in public somewhere random, and somebody asks pointedly: Can I help you?
But that’s not what they mean. They mean, rather:
What are you doing sniffing around here, pachuco?
It happened to me again yesterday.
This time I said, “I’m looking at the house here”. (It had gone up for sale.)
And when that had no apparent effect, I added with a dismissive smile, “So I guess that would be a No”.
The sour and suspicious old coot went away.
Unhappily.
And I spent the rest of Monday crafting a more perfect answer, for next time.
Did that make me happier?
***
The perfect answer looks like certain forms of salad, and fisherman’s eggs.
Something that we belong to.
And which belongs to us.
The same Monbiot, calling for mass rewilding, while noting that grass-fed beef and pastured-raised free range chickens are a recipe for disaster.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=534E9_7Dmg8
A small farmer disagrees.
They’re both right, and yet neither one has a compelling solution.
The ugly truth is that the planet cannot support eight billion people and skyrocketing in any way that is ‘sustainable’, much less ‘regenerative’.
The bad choices were made long ago. The alleged Progress that those choices engendered is out of control. There isn’t a Way out, as far as I can tell.
(Sorry.)