No one, not even the hardest core Greenie, disputes that the advances made by technology and industrialisation, like sanitation, vaccination and clean water, have not been beneficial for society. And no one would argue that a return to a time prior to these advances would be preferable, however, the argument is that our rampantly materialistic society is causing a huge proliferation of emotional distress and mental illness. This fact is illustrated by WHO studies showing the rise in mental illness; depression being projected to be the second leading illness by 2020 and already the leading cause of disabilty. However, these figures are not proportional across the world, there is an obvious over-representation in the English-speaking Western World where consumerism is more prolific.

I think it is time we stopped touting the old party-line of ‘individual rights’ which has actually come to protect the rights of corporations at the expense of the rights of the individuals in our midst. If you own a Chevrolet, you shouldn’t be made to feel inferior for not owning a Lexus. To say that ‘Keeping up with the Joneses’ is a part of human nature is absurd. It is a part of the purposefully planned and unrelieved policy of economic growth supported in Western democracies which is entirely unsustainable for the environment, the economy itself and for the people.

I’m not sure what you mean when you say that “slow emotions become extinct” and “a thinking mind cannot feel”. One of the things I’ve talked about in previous posts is that what we commonly call “logic” or “rationality” is really an emotional process. In other words, emotions provide the feedback on which we base our so-called “rational” decisions.

You seem to be advocating a return to a largely agricultural style of living, while completing discounting the advances in life quality that have been made possible by science.

I agree that industrialization has had many negative environmental consequences. However, I feel that I’m lucky to live in a country where we take certain benefits of industrialization (like sanitation, vaccination and clean water) for granted. I wouldn’t be eager to live in a country where thousands of people routinely die because they lack these things. Industrialization has both positive and negative effects.

In a fast society slow emotions become extinct. A thinking mind cannot feel. Scientific/industrial/financial thinking destroys the planet. Emotion is what we experience during gaps in our thinking. If there are no gaps there is no emotion. Today people are thinking all the time and are mistaking thought (words/language) for emotion.

When society switches-over from physical work (agriculture) to mental work (scientific/industrial/financial/fast visuals/ fast words) the speed of thinking keeps on accelerating and the gaps between thinking go on decreasing.
There comes a time when there are almost no gaps. People become incapable of experiencing tolerating gaps.

Emotion ends. Man becomes machine. A society that speeds up mentally experiences every mental slowing-down as Depression/Anxiety. A (travelling) society that speeds up physically experiences every physical slowing-down as Depression/Anxiety. A society that entertains itself daily experiences every non-entertaining moment as Depression /Anxiety. Fast visuals/words make slow emotions extinct. Scientific /industrial/finanical thinking destroys emotional circuits…