The Monkey Trap ... and the problem with civilisation

It's been almost 2 years since my last post, so this is almost like reawakening the dead.

But what better way to come back to life, than with the amazing story of the Monkey Trap.

The story of the Monkey Trap is an illuminating allegory that describes the current state of our civilisation very accurately. And illustrates how we humans have become stuck.

"The hunter sets the trap by putting a banana in a bottle which is secured to the ground. The monkey grabs hold of the banana, but because his hand is bigger with the banana, he can't get his hand out. He is trapped! But he won't let go of the banana, because he doesn't ralise how much in danger he is. The hunter raises his gun and sets his sights...."

Human beings are in the same trap. (But we don't realise it). We love the delights of our consumerist toys. The shiny things like mobile phones and computers. And all this progress is surely a sign that things will always be moving onward and upward.

But if we think about it deeply, we know that our civilisation is crumbling under the huge weight of the rapaciousness of our planetary exploitation, but we are in thrall to it, unable to break free from our desire for the "precious things".

The first stage of our enlightenment is to realise that we are all in this monkey trap. Our current civilisation has failed to realise the enormous predicament that it is in. The vast majority of people imagine that "business as usual" remains an option for the future, and that climate change, unsustainable borrowing, peak oil and gas, and the continued exploitation of our natural resources are merely problems that can be solved with more of the same.

The next stage is to let go of the banana!

Do you think we can do it?

Valentines Day Love-In

14th February 2009 - Exeter - UK

"simpliCITY CirKus" is a street theatre group poking fun at consumerism, and celebrating Voluntary Simplicity.



This Valentines Day we had a Hugathon in Exeter's main shopping area.

Seven of us in the troupe set up a "hug zone", wore wigs and rouge, gave "hug tokens" to unsuspecting shoppers, and invited them to a valentines day hug. We reckon that we gave about 500 hugs over the lunchtime.

We had a good time. I think this was partly down to the fact that we were part of this change process towards a culture that is comfortable with the idea of trusting strangers and hugging them. And partly because this was a challenge to consumerism deep in the heart of the shopping area of Exeter.

The CirKus is planning others events. (Watch this space)




For more information, and some pictures of just a few of the 500 hugs click here ....

http://www.ihaveenough.org.uk

As Simple as a Pencil

This is a story that, I think, encapsulates the contrast between Simplicity and Complexity.

“During the space race, the USA spent $11 million dollars developing
a Space Pen that would work in zero gravity conditions.
Russia, on the other hand, used a ... pencil."

Simplicity rules.

Now I've heard that the story isn't quite true, but the essence is based on fact; a Space Pen was developed by Fisher, and it was used in space by NASA.

This has similarities with another story, not perhaps so well known ...

It’s night time and a man is crawling around on
his hands and knees, looking for his car keys
underneath a lamp post. A woman comes along
and starts to help him. After they’ve been searching
together for a while the woman asks the man:
“Are you sure this is where you dropped them?”
The man replies: “No, I think I dropped them
somewhere else.”
“Then why are we looking here?” she enquires.
“Because this is where the light is.”
(from Turbulence 3)

As human being we always look for solutions where the status quo lies (where the light is). If we live in a technological age, then the solutions are always technological. We sometimes lack the vision to look on the fringes for the seemingly less obvious solutions (like the Pencil).

That's where Voluntary Simplicity has its strength. It's not immediately seen as a solution. But when you discover it . . . it becomes so natural and obvious. (like the Pencil).

The Hidden Switch:

In each of us there is a switch. Most of us are unaware of it, or we've hidden it away in our subconscious mind. But its consequences are devastating, and it is very difficult to switch it off.

It is called the desire switch. It's easy to see it working now, in every High Street, when you see the madness that is called the January Sales.

At this time of the year the roads leading into Exeter are chocker. And I am informed that "retail footfall" (it's a marketing term) in Exeter is 4% greater than last year. And I thought that we are supposed to be in the middle of a recession.

It's easy to know when the desire switch is on? It's hypnotic power persuades us that we need to have more of something. We see it in Imelda Marcos - reputed to be the owner of 3000 pairs of shoes. I see it in myself when I collect more music (Almost 1200 CDs now).

What's difficult is knowing how to switch it off. The desire switch is part of our pre-historic wiring which causes us to store up food for the hard times. Nowadays though, hard times are few and far between, but the residual wiring is still inside us, pulsing away, constantly nagging us. And technology doesn't help either. There's always some new gadget that we really must have, because the Jones's next door have got one. And we are bombarded with about 3,500 sales pitches every day (that figure comes from the independent World Advertising Research Centre in Oxford). How can we resist such an onslaught?

For resist we must. For two reasons:
1: We are running out of resources. It's not just the problem of Peak Oil, but all resources (except for Bauxite) will reach their peak within the next 100 to 150 years.

2: And most immediately, climate change. We have to reduce our CO2 emissions very rapidly. Since material consumption makes up about 40% of all our emissions, this is a major part of our lives which cannot be brushed under the carpet.

We all, including myself, need a lot of help to turn off our desire switch, and this blog will be giving some tips for this later ... but if you want to start now, please read an excellent book by John Naish ... "ENOUGH - Breaking free from the world of more".