"monkey trap"

["Jay Hanson" <j@qmail.com>]

----- Original Message -----
From: Marasigan . Vicente <vic@pusit.admu.edu.ph>

>mindset as flawed.)  By 2030, our young people will be in executive
>positions and they can begin rebuilding the global economy on more
>intellectual and moral foundations.

The problem is that this is a "one-shot affair".  We are blowing this
one and there won't be another:

"It has been often said that, if the human species fails to make a go
of it here on Earth, some other species will take over the running. In
the sense of developing intelligence this is not correct. We have, or
soon will have, exhausted the necessary physical prerequisites so far
as this planet is concerned. With coal gone, oil gone, high-grade
metallic ore gone, no species however competent can make the long
climb from primitive conditions to high-level technology. This is a
one-shot affair. If we fail, this planetary system fails so far as
intelligence is concerned. The same will be true of other planetary
systems. On each of them there will be one chance, and one chance
only." -- cosmologist Fred Hoyle

Our fundamental problem is that we are stuck in a "monkey trap":

"As long as we remain trapped by the ideology of competitive growth,
there is no solution. We are reminded of the South Indian monkey trap,
in which a hollowed-out coconut is fastened to a stake by a chain and
filled with rice. There is a hole in the coconut just large enough for
the monkey to put his extended hand through but not large enough to
withdraw his fist full of rice. The monkey is trapped only by his
inability to reorder his values, to recognize that freedom is worth
more than a handful of rice." -- Herman Daly

I propose a new organizing principle in my latest newsletter. If you
want a copy, sign up at www.dieoff.com

Jay