Born Shouting

I think it’s a great book (Saul Bellow’s novel with the same name as this post) and I love the carpe diem sentiment. However, is such a attitude to life - to live in the present moment ignoring the past and the future really one that is sustainable at any level - environmental, social or economic?

Personally, I think not, but it’s essential to Seize the Day when the opportunity arises.

…The spiritual compensation is what I look for. Bringing people into the here-and-now. The real universe. That’s the present moment. The past is no good to us. The future is full of anxiety. Only the present is real - the here-and-now. Seize the day.

Dr Tamkin in ‘Seize the Day (Penguin Modern Classics)‘ by Saul Below.

(I’ve realised that all the quotes I’ve taken from ‘Seize the Day’ are the words of Dr Tamkin - a charlatan and fraud … what does that say about me?)

One of the very many lessons we must relearn in order to reforge Western society into a more sustainable form us to cherish the old - to see ageing as growth rather than decline. Victor Papanek puts it rather well…

Throughout most of human history materials, being organic have aged gracefully. Thatched roofs, wooden furniture, copper kettles, leather aprons, ceramic bowls, for example, would acquire small nicks, scratches, and dents, gently discolour, and acquire a thin patina as part of the natural process of oxidation. Ultimately, many would disintegrate into their organic components. Today we are taught that ageing (of products or individuals) is wrong. We wear, use, enjoy things as long as they look as if they had just been bought. But once the plastic bucket deforms (however slightly), the fake walnut tabletop melts under a cigarette, the anodising on a tumbler slips, we get rid of the offending object.

Design for the Real World: Human Ecology and Social Change, Victor Papanek

Mass on-line collaboration as a form of sustainable development…

Mass collaboration can empower a growing cohort of connected individuals and organisations to create extraordinary wealth and reach unprecedented heights in learning and scientific discovery. If we are wise, we will harness this capability to create opportunities for everyone and to carefully steward the planet’s natural resources.

Wikinomics ~ How mass collaboration changes everything, Tapscott & Williams

…quite a thought and a reason for hope.