The answers are within.

If our species is to escape alive from this mess, it will be philosophers and artists leading the way, not scientist and engineers.

“We’re told, often enough, that as a species we are poised on the edge of the abyss. It’s possible that our puffed-up, prideful intelligence has outstripped our instinct for survival and the road back to safety has already been washed away. In which case there’s nothing much to be done. If there is something to be done, then one thing is for sure: those who created the problem will not be the ones who come up with a solution.” Arundhati Roy

A well known reggae song, expresses similar thoughts in a very concise and powerful way: Only Rasta can liberate the people, over hills and valleys too, Don’t let them fool you, don’t believe for a minute that they are with you.

We are told that only through science and technology we will be able to avert the impending climate disaster, but how is it that those who are in control of scientific development are the same people who created this situation in the first place?

The scientific method has been successful in answering some questions about the physical world, but scientific knowledge can always be updated and/or proved wrong by further discoveries or experiments.

Scientific research is to a very large extent in the hands of corporations and universities, both of which are equally captured by the profit motive, leaving the welfare of mankind as a distant second, third or worse in their list of priorities. Examples of this dynamic are everywhere.

We cannot rely on any establishment institution, we must help ourselves, “don’t let them fool you, don’t believe for a moment that they are with you”.

For tangible results in our own lives, the switch we need to make is from being against something to being for something, from being reactive to being proactive, from consumption to production, taking responsibility for our decisions and developing within ourselves the good qualities we value in others.

To do this successfully we need to be independent, not necessarily off the grid, prepper style independent, but free enough to earn from the system what we need to live, without having to tie ourselves to it and give up our freedoms to it.

Instead of thinking about big systemic changes, we first need to look at ourselves and find there the place to start making changes, our beliefs and our behaviours, our needs and our desires, our aspirations and our fears. This work is difficult to do alone in a vacuum, the chances of success increase in a situation where we are surrounded and supported by like-minded people.

What do we value most, what kind of person do we aspire to be, how do we use our time, what kind of life do we want, these are some of the questions we ask ourselves. Science and technology cannot help in this quest.

Scientists and engineers cannot tell us what to do or teach us how to live, but only what tools to use, anyone who pretends otherwise is either mistaken or in bad faith.