Classics in Sustainable Development

Have you ever thought about the power of your words? Words, both spoken and written hold immense power. Storytelling and stories are a powerful culmination of words that can shift an individual or a societies thoughts and moods. This can either be to promote and further strength and ideal or can be a form of a nonviolent resistance or opposition for whats currently happening. How this relates to SD is that the story of climate change can be this opposition to fossil fuel based production and consumption. This relates to the works presented as they all form this nonviolent word based resistance to current powers that be. The parable of the sower is a collection of words arranged by Octavia Butler that is based on the actual parable of the sower from the Bible. In Butlers story our words and actions created change and were god. In the Bible God spoke and with words created the Earth and mankind story. Stories like these are powerful because they have no central or main figure or author. These stories are positioned to be more successful as they are not linked to a central source that could be the point of failure. The parable of the sower features the next outcome of a powerful decentralized story, and that is a strong community. When stories are like this people feel as if they can take them as their own. Often times humans are excluded, especially in modern society. These stories are a safe haven for those neglected and left out by often having open doors for any and all to join the community and take part in the story, to treat it as your own or to even add to it with your own ideas and beliefs. Parable of the sower portrays a dystopian distraught future earth where pestilence, famine, and plagues seem to be common ground. Though being a fiction novel, it paints clear and real images of today's society as climate change, acts of violence, and depleting wealth in a greater number of people are all visible and happening. With so much negativity on the horizon there is still hope for change. This paper will reflect these events to works such as Walden, Parable of the sower, small is beautiful and ceremony. What these share is goal or theme that allows oneself to prepare for a future and whatever issues present themselves. It provides a route to change and shows the power we all have as an individual and the power of a story.
The parable of the sower was formed out of feelings of non inclusion to science fiction novels. Butler felt that she wasn’t included in this story so decided to write a new one, one that she and others like her could feel connected to and apart of. What is so powerful about Butlers actions here relates to others works as well. One being Satoshi Nakamoto and the creation of bitcoin. Like Butler, Nakamoto felt excluded from the generation of wealth and saw immense pain when the last recession happened. Having no power or voice in this story he, she, or they, created a new currency. One that is decentralized and thus created where all can be participants in the story and the creation of the wealth. This to me, speaks wonders of the mindsets of these individuals, instead of feeling disappointed, sad, or mad at not being included they took their minds and created a new reality, a good life for themselves. This same mindset and these principles can be applied to our current situation in society in regards to climate change. We must create a new narrative, a new story to combat the old one. The old story is based on fossil fuels being our greatest tool and production and consumption must show continual growth. The new one is one based on equity, the planet, and sustainable profits and investments. Silko too, like Butler and Nakamoto saw the immense power of telling stories. Especially decentralized ones or ones with no author. This aligns with a common theme I’ve traced among the authors I’ve mentioned. Each saw the power of a story. Thoreau himself could be thought of as clearing a new path or creating a new narrative that opposed traditional thoughts and life. Though his work was mostly for his own change and not a standard to be copied or followed. For Lauren in the parable of the sower it was the opposite, it was a new standard for others to pick up and believe. A hope or faith others could add and shape to their own. This ties into to Schumacher essentially wanting the same but on a more realistically level and for smaller communities and villages. In the end they all point back to the same goal, having a world where we can each pursue our good life in harmony with others and our planet.

In Parable of The Sower chapter 7 hyperinflation seems to fully play out. $1,000 can only feed Lauren for 2 weeks, insinuating our dollars have continued on the trend down and are seemingly worth a lot less, or food truly is that expensive, either way we are faced with a situation to where growing your own food is a truly important skill to have, and having assets that don’t depreciate like fiat currencies. This is a gloomy but yet spot on look at the current state of our US dollar and the direction our economy is seemingly going. The US dollar and other fiat currency’s are pegged to a political agenda and us as users of this currency are at the mercy of our governments to keep the value seemingly pegged at fixed rate. Bitcoin provides a way out of dependency on the US dollar and potentially a route to end the corruption present in banks and the outcomes that effect so many individuals around the world. But when pursuing this, it's imperative that we purse a plan or strategy that isn't a one size fits all and fully weighs the pros and cons for all individuals regardless of class or wealth. This is where we need to incorporate ideas and thoughts from Schumacher's village based development which features small communities or villages that thrives or dies together. Whats important to note and what makes development hard is the vast differences, needs, and wants of each. This seems to ultimately be the case for Lauren and her community in Parable of the sower. This story showed us that by ourselves and as individuals we may be lacking in areas that are crucial to survival and our success but as a community or network we are stronger and can overcome more diverse struggles and issues. This releases well to sustainable development as there are many facets of the field each being better equipped than others to tackle certain issues and problems. Thoreau though seemingly alone was with nature and had a smaller community but had one nonetheless. What he accomplished at walden would debatably been impossible without Emerson's help and Alex and others insight or the lessons he learned through them. Directly through encounters and indirectly through their own choices and actions for their good life. This ties into bitcoin and the blockchain technology too as the network becomes stronger, more difficult to manipulate and more decentralized as more participants join the community. This is essentially a new story of digital money that is open to the world to join. Following a similar thought process of Schumacher its easy to see why community or village based development is so important. Like villages, the bitcoin community is comprised of different people with different backgrounds all seemingly wanting bitcoin to play a different role. Wether that be a Store of Value or digital currency. This ties into sustainable development as well as different “villages” in Sustainability all want to pursue different actions to achieve the goal. Some are only focused on renewables while others solely on social inequalities.
Having the power over the creation of our wealth could truly allow us to reshape the current capitalist destructive economy. If we can restart the global economy on a truly decentralized and fundamentally sound currency we could create an economy that is more inclusive and less destructive on the surrounding ecosystems. Though Im not an economist and I am not completely sure how it plays out or the potential complications of my theory. While I'm leery of becoming dependent or reliant on a technology to save us, I do think technologies can be a tool, one that we can wield and craft a better future or our good life as Thoreau did. To me, bitcoin is a tool that can be used to create inclusion for so many “third world” bank-less citizens. Bitcoin enables us to “become our own bank” and while this may not be that big of a deal for us in the United States where our options are endless and easy to get, it is not the case for ¾ of the humans on this planet. Giving humans around the world the capability to transact, send and receive money from anywhere in the world without an intermediary could open up endless possibilities for so many people. The sky is the limit for what could be achieved by society if we are all working together and included in the story.

Sustainable Development is a new story for development. It is a new path that is a “form of resistance to extractive development”. It is a story where everyone has a right to a safe, clean, and healthy environment. It is one of many facets of the new age of disruptions that is taking place before our eyes. In the not so distant future we will look back and think how barbaric it was to give all our power to government bodies, to destroy our own environment for the sake of greed. In the end, my goal for Sustainable development is to create a more inclusive world for everyone. One where you are given the same equal chance to create your good life from birth regardless of where or who you were born to. We as Individuals have power, we all hold the capacity to change ourselves and our circumstances, whether these changes are good or bad are ultimately up to us and what we do with our story called life.