The Paradox of Abundance

August 30, 2006

It seems that value is directly related to scarcity or uniqueness.  In a world of mass production and overproduction, meaning is diminished.  Break or lose something?  Don't worry; you can just replace it with another.  Scale obliterates diversity.

Acquisitiveness permeates our relationship with nature and each other.  Rather than being viewed as "Father Sky" and "Mother Earth," it is a world of abundant "resources" to be exploited and consumed.  When the horizon is endless, soil becomes dirt.  In an overpopulated world, brothers and sisters are "wasted" in a cultural wasteland.  Annual death by warfare now exceeds what was once the population of the entire world.  In creating and acquiring more, we wind up with less in some ways.

Windward Shore of Tegua, 2005 – Islands Business International

Compare the modern industrial worldview with the attitude of the people in this tragic story.  Confined all his life to an area smaller than the daily commute of millions of motor vehicle drivers, the Pacific Islander displayed amazing generosity toward those whose hegemony will destroy his paradise.  Speaking for his tiny tribe, he simply said, "We love our island."  Does the modern commuter have a similar love for his place on Earth, or does he dismiss the blur outside his shatterproof glass?