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Last time, I posted some of my reaction to Dave Pollard's list of answers to the question: What Can I Do Now? to save the world. Actually, I had more that I wanted to say, but that post was already getting too long. I hope Dave appreciates the fact that I am writing this all on my own site this time, instead of the usual long rambling comments on his site. ;)

My first comment is actually related to yesterday's voluntary consumption tax. One of Dave's to-dos is:

Volunteer: Rather than sending guilt money, go out and spend time helping those suffering or in need. Pick a charity that you really care about -- the soup kitchen, the animal shelter, whatever. Get involved, and talk to the people you're helping. Don't get talked into fundraising activities -- really get out there and do something with your own two hands. You'll learn a lot, you'll feel better, you'll make a difference, and you just might find out something important about yourself.

And he's right of course. I noticed that I actually wrote before that the percentage of consumption tax actually goes up relative to the social and ecological destruction each item I buy can do. While the purpose is more to get me to pay more attention to the true cost of what I buy, in effect, it is acting as guilt money.

So, after dwelling on this a bit, I came up with another layer to the consumption tax scheme, making it that much more complex and subjective. While I still keep track of the monetary amount of consumption tax, part of this can now be paid off not with cash, but through my imaginary hourly wage as a volunteer. Since I don't have a proper job requiring me to go in from 9-5, and can for the most part pick and choose my projects, why not give up some of those that pay me in hard cash, which will be used to pay the consumption tax anyway, and start spending those hours volunteering? For every hour I volunteer, I get an XX yen voluntary consumption tax break. Not only would I be able to financially justify spending less time on "work" and more time doing something that matters, but I would also be contributing less to a broken system which worships unsustainable growth above all else.

The only problem now is finding something to volunteer at. I've never done anything like that in Tokyo, and to tell you the truth, have never even heard of any organizations where I could put in time. Part of it I guess is because I haven't looked, and part of it is because as a foreigner I am not "in the loop". Basically though, I think it's because I am an "in-activist". Do any of you gaijin in Tokyo do any volunteer work other than that organized by your work-place? If so, what? and where did you learn about the opportunity?

Of course, I'm leaving Tokyo in two months, so not much time to work off my consumption debt left here, but if all else fails, I can always donate some of my web-developing time, and server space to some organization with more noble goals than the average e-commerce site. Which is what Dave mentions as well

Share Your Expertise If you have talents, specialized know-how, or technical or scientific skills and knowledge that could be useful in solving birth control, clean energy, disease prevention, conservation, animal cruelty, pollution and waste, local self-sufficiency, non-animal foods, 'more-with-less' product streamlining, self-organization, collaboration, consumer and citizen awareness and activism, animal communication, conflict resolution, mental illness, and other issues contributing to environmental deterioration, create 'open source' spaces where others can access what you know, contact you, and collaborate with you and with others to solve these problems.

Maybe that would lead to some very welcome changes in my for-pay work as well. As Dave points out, and I ranted about a while back, one thing we can do (and I think this is HUGE... second to Use less stuff) is:

Find or Create a Meaningful Job: Each of us has talents, interests, and time. It's amazing how many of us spend all our time doing work that we find uninteresting, and which doesn't effectively use our talents. We become wage slaves, underemployed and bored because we're convinced or afraid that a better job doesn't exist. And we work so hard at it we have no time left to challenge that conviction or fear. That's what the corporatists are counting on. Don't give them the satisfaction. Find the time to figure out what you really would like to do with your life, how you'd really like to make a living. Then research the possibilities, talk to people who are doing it, find out what's possible, learn what's involved in creating your own business (and don't listen to accountants or MBAs). If we were all doing jobs we loved, with people we love, and in charge of our own careers, the corporatists would have no staff, and their environmentally devastating empires would crumble.

I applaud you and Dave for getting specific about things people can do to make a difference.

no one can change the world. that's reality. the sooner we realize that, the better. the world is a gigantic place and moves glacially and none of your soup kitchen work is going to do anything about that.

the world changes because of some technological shift that erases inefficiency in some indirect way. the good happens randomly, sporadically, indirectly, not out of some do-gooders math formula for erasing guilt. we can change the world of one person and that's fine and that's cool.

now, does that mean that we shouldn't recycle or support organic food or consume less? no, but we shouldn't get tied up in looking to maximize formulas for do-goodery. oh, i just logged 35 minutes of anti-consumption. i've saved a wood chip! christ, do it because you want to, because it's fulfilling, because you're doing your part to make the world better but lay off this maximization scheme. you've lost track of the goal.

'find or create a meaningful job'
oh, shit! this guy's amazing. he's so far ahead of any philosophers in the past.

i'm sorry if this was cruel, but this makes me ashamed of being a liberal individual. but, to each his own.

Thanks for the comments Mike, you make some good points, some that I have been struggling with myself ALOT recently.

no one can change the world. that's reality. the sooner we realize that, the better. the world is a gigantic place and moves glacially and none of your soup kitchen work is going to do anything about that.

I totally agree with you. I have almost lost hope that anything can be done to fix things. Not because the world moved glacially however, but rather because the change is happening too fast. I would have agreed with the glacial movement up until about 150 years ago, but that has all changed. Population growth isn't happening at a glacial pace. Species extinction isn't happening at a glacial pace. Deforestation isn't happening at a glacial pace. The glaciers aren't even melting at a glacial pace.

Change is happening fast, too fast, and I don't believe that we can change fast enough to stay ahead of it. I would like to believe however that we can change fast enough to prevent some of the worst possible outcomes. I also believe that even if we fall behind in our change, the earth will be there pushing us to change faster. We can't keep up our glacial pace of change while everything around us is pushing us to change or die.

the world changes because of some technological shift that erases inefficiency in some indirect way. the good happens randomly, sporadically, indirectly, not out of some do-gooders math formula for erasing guilt. we can change the world of one person and that's fine and that's cool.

The good news is that the technology to remedy many of the worlds problems already exists, which has not always been true. We simply need for people to realize this, and better allocate funds to allow these technologies to be put to use. The money spent in Iraq could have wiped out malaria. We know how to greatly increase the agricultural yield of draught-stricken African crop-land through sustainable measures now, but it takes money to educate African farmers. It's money that no one wants to give. We would rather spend billions on a war to "fix" the effects, rather than spend a fraction of that to eradicate extreme poverty. Six cents per US citizen person per year...

That's not soup-kitchen work... it's much easier. What it is though, is being a little more aware of our own impact in the world.

now, does that mean that we shouldn't recycle or support organic food or consume less? no, but we shouldn't get tied up in looking to maximize formulas for do-goodery.

Would you ever suggest to the CEO of a large corporation that we shouldn't get tied up in looking for formulas to maximize efficiency and profit? I met with a recent business school graduate last night who told me the percentage of people going into cunsulting (just as he is). I wont repeat it, because I can't remember the exact number, but it sure was a high number of highly paid profressionals whos job would be to give advice about maximizing efforts. I'm curious as to why you think that what works in all other aspects of our life and society wont work when it comes to "changing the world". Why would do-gooery be any different.

Any clean air you enjoy now, any clean water, and birds, any national park, are all results of people making plans to achieve a goal and carry them out. Do you think that environmental policy just evolved without a plan of action? Do you think that what recycling does occur is simply a "natural" habit or instinct we had from birth? Sorry, these are the results of people making plans and formulas about how to maximize do-goodery. And if people stop making these formulas, do you think corporations will stop making their plans to maximize short-term profits and any cost? I don't, which is why I welcome any plan with goals that are closer to my own.

oh, i just logged 35 minutes of anti-consumption. i've saved a wood chip! christ, do it because you want to, because it's fulfilling, because you're doing your part to make the world better but lay off this maximization scheme. you've lost track of the goal.

Perhaps your goal is different than his. If you goal is simply to feel good and fulfilled, then cosmetic changes and ignorance of the true degree to which we must change can go a long way to achieving that. If your goal is to effect change in a fast-changing world still caught up in glacial-change mentality, then you have to maximize your efforts.

If your goal is to "make the world a better place", there are millions of ways to achieve this... simply picking up an empty can from the street - BINGO! goal achieved. The world is now a "better" place.

Unfortunately, if your goal is to make the world the best place it can be, there is little "feel good" and "fulfillment" involved. There is no "erasing of guilt". Although individually I am happier when I take care of myself and my immediate surroundings, I have more sleepless nights now than when I was ignorant to the effects of my actions. I feel tremendous guilt when I do many of the things I used to do without a second thought. I look at people who appear to have no clue, living their life as if this is how it always was and always will be, and I almost long for that time before I put two and two together.

'find or create a meaningful job' oh, shit! this guy's amazing. he's so far ahead of any philosophers in the past.

I assume you are being sarcastic, saying that this is not a new idea. I agree. So why then do people still waste their life away working to promote the very system that keeps them stuck in that life? Obviously this old idea has not been repeated enough to register in people's heads. How many times have you seen a commercial for some new truck, or shoe, or fast-food chain? Do you think there is a reason they are continuously repeating that same message again and again and again and again, despite the fact that it's still the same message?

I'm sorry if this was cruel, but this makes me ashamed of being a liberal individual. but, to each his own.

It's not cruel, but my first reaction when I read this comment was "I wonder why Mike feels so threatened by these ideas". When I asked the same question of myself before, I found that the reason I was threatened was that if what those people are saying is true, it means that I have to change. If I accept it, I can not really go on living the way I do now. If I don't accept it...well, that wasn't really an option considering the fact that science and common sense support it. It really left me with only two options... either try to change my own habits, or change change my entire moral belief system. After being angry at the message for a few years for putting me into such a predicament, I finally decided it would be easier to change my habits than change my morals.

kevin - i liked your original thoughts, but would have respected you more if you told mike to FO !!

keep it real.

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