Religion and Collective Aspiration – and World War Free?

 

Dear Degrowthers,

This is a response to Rob Jarvis’ latest under the ‘Gregg’s ideas’ thread in which he mentioned religious influences. 

Gregg’s draft document is now available as an online link:  https://poemsforparliament.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/FoundationalManualforHumanExistence-V2.pdf

I would urge Gregg to share this widely without delay; the appetite for these types of ideas is huge. People are waking up to reality rapidly; they are frantically scrabbling around trying to work out where to go from here. Gregg, let us know how freely you would like this to be shared.  My intuitive assessment is that humanity is now very close to a collective mindset shift that will make suggestions like those offered by Rob, Gregg, Richard, myself, and many others into a viable social tipping point for change.  Any change will be iterative as we experiment and fail, but there is a growing groundswell that is seeking a different direction already. We are a small part in a vast tsunami of changing attitudes and awareness.

It seems to me that Christians have completely failed to grasp the essence of Christ’s teachings. We are approaching another Christmas drenched in coercive consumerism; I imagine God observing us in despair as we waste countless resources in his honour.  The irony of our priorities is almost too ghastly to comprehend.  The presents that we give our children almost equate to a death-wish for them.  This lovely defence of Islam by TatooDave on Instagram reflects my own grim assessment of our Christian community right now.  Judaism has succumbed to endorsing genocide.  I fear that Islam has succumbed to the wealth and power hierarchy.  All three are pro-natalist.  Religion sits together with every other aspiration to do better; it has not really served to rescue us from ourselves.  I would like to say that Buddhism has performed slightly better, but countries like Myanmar seem to operate under a repressive regime.

I would contend that we have collectively failed to achieve every global aspiration so far, for the simple reason that we insist on ignoring I=PAT and ecological overshoot.  This combined collective delusion ensures that we are incapable of achieving any of the following worthy aspirations:

 

• Human Rights – ignores the need to operate within Earth’s capacity to sustain us
• Paris Climate objectives – ignored the need to downsize the global economy and population
• Sustainable Development Goals - ignore the need to downsize the global economy and population
• UK net-zero by 2050 - ignores the need to downsize the global economy and population
• Democracy – is enslaved by growth economics, pronatalism, and the wealth hierarchy
• Religious teachings – have been co-opted by the wealth and power hierarchy and used as a tool to steer the masses in the direction of pronatalism and growth economics.

 

Unlike Richard and Rob, my role in the paradigm-shift is not at the detail level.  I am only here to swing a sledgehammer at the many Overton Windows that prevent discourse about a) Overpopulation, b) Wealth Inequality, c) Alternative socio-economic models, d) Sexual freedoms of expression e) Interspecies ecological justice e) Freedom to be oneself.  Once we talk about these concepts freely, we can open our minds to a wiser way forward.  We have been oppressing ourselves for a very long time.  This is not a gender problem; both genders have been coerced into these constraints.  The powerful and the wealthy have, for the most part, just accepted the status quo and invested heavily to perpetuate this disastrous trajectory.  We have a wealth and power problem; we are enslaved by a few people who do not accept the existential realities.  Everyone suffers under the current regime because it leaves us all exposed to existential risk.  All these Overton Windows are now giving way, so my role in this mindset shift is nearly done. 

We need a global aspiration that desires to return the global community within the carrying-capacity of Earth, as a matter of urgency. 

Love

Barbara