James Quilligan

Instead of going to bed at night dreaming of mining the minerals on Mars or finding some new pool of water on an asteroid, we need to ask ourselves some burning questions about our vision of life on Earth.

The previous articles in this series considered how objective and subjective principles have been applied in economic thinking. We noted that the left hemisphere of the human brain is categorical and sequential in its objective construction of reality, building the edifice of knowledge up from fragments, piece by piece, to the larger system. By contrast, the right brain experiences the world as timeless Being, a great flowing network of subjective interconnection and unity, processing reality from the Whole to the Part.

This series of articles looks at the meaning of value in economics. We are pondering the idea of a thing, a common object. Our guidepost is Aristotle’s division of basic kinds of things into C (commodities as a means to household satisfaction) and M (things as a means to making money). In terms of the human actions involving things, we have identified C-M-C’ (interconnection, cooperation, use value) with the right hemisphere and subjective side of the brain, and M-C-M’ (separation, competition, exchange value) with the left hemisphere and human objectivity.

Mada izraz ‘bezbednost čovečanstva’ može imati različita tumačenja, dva
značenja preovladjuju. Neposredno po završetku Hladnog rata, autori nekoliko
značajnih studija – uključujući Izveštaj Generalnog sekretara Ujedinjenih nacija
za 1992.godinu pod nazivom «Dnevni red za mir» (Agenda for Peace); Izveštaj o
procesima razvoja u svetu koji je 1994. godine izdao Program Ujedinjenih nacija
za razvoj (World Development Report, 1994, UNDP), i Izveštaj «Bezbednost u
svetu sada» iz 2003.godine, koji je objavila Komisija Ujedinjenih nacija za
bezbednost (Human Security Now, 2003, UN Commission on Human Security)
– su se založili za uspostavljanje stabilnog mira kao alternativu konceptu
bezbednosti zasnovanom na vojnoj moći.

Although the term ‘human security’ has various meanings, two have predominated. Following the Cold War, several major studies—including the UN Secretary-General’s 1992 report, Agenda for Peace; the 1994 World Development Report of the UN Development Program; and the 2003 report, Human Security Now, by the UN Commission on Human Security—proposed peaceful alternatives to military security.

Garrett Hardin is often cited for his 1968 essay, “The Tragedy of the Commons.” In this classic critique of common property management, Hardin gives the example of herders grazing their cattle on a shared parcel of land. He observes that these individual herdsmen, acting out of self-interest, will put more and more cattle in the pasture.

During the past several decades, humanity has emerged as a perilous force of nature. Through its technological, economic and political choices and activities, modern civilization has produced destructive economies of scale, powered by exponential growth and fossil fuels. Our consumption of vital resources is already exceeding the carrying capacity of the planet.

The global economic crash is very big news. But what the media headlines and reports do not mention is how deeply this crisis is rooted in our history. During the past several centuries, businesses and government have become enmeshed in a single system. State capitalism now exists in virtually every sovereign nation.

Our current international economic system is a great advance over the bipolar politics and economic nationalism that existed prior to the Second World War. Rapid global economic integration has led to more connections among markets, people and ideas than ever before. Yet our multilateral rules and institutions have not adjusted.