I believe the market-capitalist system I live within is fundamentally flawed and is leading to planetary destruction and a great deal of human, plant and animal misery.1 I wonder if there is a better way. I want to imagine it can be replaced with something, it just isn’t clear what that something might be or whether replacement is even possible, given that a great deal of wealth and power has been accumulated through it. I have come across a number of texts that point to a different way. I don’t know if this different is viable or even interconnectable across the texts, but I would like to explore it and see what comes of it.

The texts I have found informative and inspiring to date are:

  • Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, Robert Pirsig
  • Buddhist Economics, E. F. Schumacher
  • Braiding Sweetgrass, Robin Wall Kimmerer
  • Moby Dick, Herman Melville (?)

I will add more texts as I go.

My next step, when I am finished with current reading, will be to re-read these texts… where this inquiry goes from there will be determined by what I find/rediscover in the Texts.

  1. I am aware that many people claim that overall, the world is a less violent and easier place to make ones way in. That the overall condition of humanity has improved markedly during the unfolding of this market-capitalist system. I am aware that I lack, at present, sufficient knowledge and understanding of how this might or might not be true and that I will need to investigate more to determine whether this premise is true or false. Intuitively I believe it is true, but evidence for or against it must be gathered and weighed. ↩︎