Comments about Margrit Kennedy’s proposals
»Reading blogs about the financial crisis feels like watching one of
those reality car chase programmes in which you wait, guiltily, for the
felon – or in this case, the global financial system – to crash. It’s
hard not to be mesmerised by reports that even the failed $700 billion
plan did not addreß the true scale of the global problem. One insider
blogger – Illargi, at Automatic Earth – reckons that “the global shadow
banking system, the source of perhaps $800 trillion in outstanding
derivatives is shaking on its foundations, and will inevitably tumble.”
Part of me hopes the crash is real because a meltdown would deflate an
economy which will otherwise eat the biosphere alive. But a crash would
also cause enormous hardship, including to one’s own nearest and
dearest.
Besides, rooting for collapse puts you on the same side
as the loony-tune end-days crowd – and that’s not a club I want to join.
It’s all verycomplicated. A healthier response, I’m sure, is to get out
of the house and look for positive things to do. As often mentioned
here, there’s an awful lot of regenerative activity out there – only
most of it is below the radar. A lot of people are busy designing and
deploying complementary currencies, for example.
If this week’s
news is not persuasive enough, the need for complementary currencies is
well-explained by the Open Money Manifesto. (And whilst you’re at it, do
re-read Margrit Kennedy’s paper at Doors of Perception 8. That one
lecture – in Delhi in Spring 2005 – was when I, for one, first realised
that the mainstream money money system was going to run off the rails in
the major way that’s happening now). For my part, I plan to become an
active user of complementary currencies starting on 7 October: I’m
giving a talk that day at the University of Brighton – and I’m hoping to
be paid in Lewes Pounds.«
John Thackara, DOORS OF PERCEPTION REPORT, October 2008