To:    Comment at the Guardian
Re:    The City of London's money is made from plundering our planet
Date: Sunday 5 November 06

In response to the Guardian article, "Is greed always good" by David Teather and some of the comments attached to it.

Link to article and thread at The Guardian.
 

1st Post

 
I hate to spoil the party (although, of course, I won't be allowed to - I'll just be ignored), but ultimately, all this money, wealth and self-satisfaction is being made from the PLUNDERING of our planet.

Look through all the glitter, power, status, respect, envy and admiration, and what you will find is the ROOT CAUSE of the "Sustainability Problem" (including global warming): a socio-economic order deeply rooted in and dependent upon mankind's (OUR) animal nature.

Another drink, David? Cheers!

2nd Post
 
I understand your sense of ambivalence, liberalcynic : we all have a finger (or two, or three, or more) in the pie, i.e. depend on our share of the booty that is being made from the plundering of our (children's) planet.
 
I liked your post too, boysie, about "leading a life of blameless selfishness", supportive and loyal to family and friends, but practicing ruthless self-interest in the workplace, because you describe very clearly the way things actually are.
 
What I can add is an explanation as to why things are like this: we live (struggle for survival and advantage) in a socio-economic environment (which has effectively replaced the natural environment) deeply rooted in and dependent upon our animal nature, and which free-market capitalism has developed (naturally enough) to take full (and thus such effective) advantage of.
 
Self-interest has to be paramount, I agree, but unless we recognise the difference between the short-sighted, dumb self-interest of our animal nature (on which our economy is based and dependent) and the more enlightened self-interest of our human nature, we will not succeed in preserving the planet for our children and grandchildren. It is not enough to care about them when they are little (as evolution programmed us to do), we need to care about them when they our age and older, too.
 
3rd Post
 
Allow me to offer a anthropological explanation of city bonuses (and many other insanities of modern society). It is not easy stepping right outside the box, I know (of a society we are totally immersed in, familiar with and dependent upon), but when you do - even if it's just for a moment, as I have managed to do, before being sucked back in again - many things become a lot clearer.
 
We are "prime apes" (if you will excuse the pun), in fact, Earth's "Greatest Ape", whose behaviour evolved over millions of years to serve its survival, "in family groups", in the natural environment. It has had no time, however, to adapt to the much larger social units of civilisation, so it is no wonder - although narrow self-interest prevents our leaders from seeing or admitting it - that we have got ourselves into such a terrible mess. Just take an honest look at the state we are in, at the history that got us here, and where we are heading!
 
The other thing you can recognise from outside the box is that the natural environment (which included other, rival, groups of humans) has effectively been replaced by an artificial "socio-economic environment", which - naturally enough, in view of our origins - is deeply rooted in our animal nature, which free-market capitalism has developed and been honed to take full (and thus such effective) advantage of.
 
It is in this artificial "socio-economic environment" that we now struggle for survival and advantage, which explains why we persist in giving priority to economics (the household of man in the socio-economic environment) instead of to ecology (the household of the planet in the natural environment), when it is obvious (were we not blinded by familiarity and dependency) that medium and long-term human survival demands the opposite.
 
Those making huge amounts of money for themselves (whether in the City or elsewhere) are being very "successful" at exploiting the socio-economic environment, making use of their prodigious, but unenlightened, animal intelligence. This is what the socio-economic order which has arisen requires and encourages us to do, and what we, as "prime apes", are behaviourally programmed and socially conditioned for.
 
The question is, are we JUST animals? In which case our situation is hopeless.  Or is there more to us? Is there a "divinely inspired" part of us, that can recognise and get us out of this situation, by creating an alternative socio-economic order (environment), rooted, not in our animal nature, but in our more "enlightened", human nature?