Comments on: Thinking Tank debate: business as usual? http://www.blog.rsa-us.org/2009/08/thinking-tank-debate-business-as-usual/ American Coffee House: A virtual meeting place Thu, 19 Jan 2012 18:35:17 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Phil Allsopp http://www.blog.rsa-us.org/2009/08/thinking-tank-debate-business-as-usual/comment-page-1/#comment-139 Phil Allsopp Thu, 27 Aug 2009 20:32:35 +0000 http://www.blog.rsa-us.org/?p=418#comment-139 Carherine: I'm pretty tied up today so won't be able to participate. I'm speaking tonight to the League of Conservation Voters in Phoenix and will be touching on some of the issues that I'm sure the "Business as Usual?" debate will spark. Sorry I won't be able to participate in this important discussion today. Carherine:

I’m pretty tied up today so won’t be able to participate. I’m speaking tonight to the League of Conservation Voters in Phoenix and will be touching on some of the issues that I’m sure the “Business as Usual?” debate will spark. Sorry I won’t be able to participate in this important discussion today.

]]> By: Catherine Shovlin http://www.blog.rsa-us.org/2009/08/thinking-tank-debate-business-as-usual/comment-page-1/#comment-138 Catherine Shovlin Thu, 27 Aug 2009 20:21:36 +0000 http://www.blog.rsa-us.org/?p=418#comment-138 Thanks for your detailed comment Phil - and I hope you got the chance to express some of this in the debate today. Indeed the weight of the debate was in this camp - that things need to change, a more human approach, more listening, more ethics, more sustainability ... I will be analysing and writing a report over the next few days. Thanks for your detailed comment Phil – and I hope you got the chance to express some of this in the debate today.
Indeed the weight of the debate was in this camp – that things need to change, a more human approach, more listening, more ethics, more sustainability … I will be analysing and writing a report over the next few days.

]]> By: Phil Allsopp http://www.blog.rsa-us.org/2009/08/thinking-tank-debate-business-as-usual/comment-page-1/#comment-131 Phil Allsopp Tue, 18 Aug 2009 19:50:49 +0000 http://www.blog.rsa-us.org/?p=418#comment-131 Complex question that leads in all sorts of directions. Some of the "answers" are about leadership style and content while others are to do with larger and more systemic problems of civic leadership. If we think that business as usual will be the watchword for when (and if) the economy recovers, then I believe we might as well resign ourselves to a bleak future in which all hope of a decent way of life for us and our children - and theirs - evaporate before our eyes while we hope for that brand new oil well to be discovered. Our children (those in the teens and early twenties) are already asking us (those of us in our fifties and early 60s) what on earth we were thinking when we bought hook line and sinker the great "American" dream of prosperity. This dream that has turned into an economic nightmare was - and I guess is - based on the idea that people are merely consumers, acquiring ever greater quantities of stuff they don't need from within their rapidly-bloating suburban McMansions. These monsters situated in hundreds of acres of bland, featureless sprawl sport three car garages for that 40 mile commute to work and back for Mom and Dad who both have to work to service the ever-increasing debt loads they carry. And the kids - well they have their own cybercaves and rarely if ever have to see their parents or interact with them there so much space to go around. And we wonder why family life has become so dysfunctional. We have already eviscerated many of our cities and have lost communities and a sense of place in pursuit of short term development and "suburbanization" goals - ably aided and abetted of course by the developer community. By turning over the design and construction of the places we call home, community and neighborhoods to developers and shoddy builders who are neither qualified to design anything nor care a wit about the consequences of their actions so long as they make a lot of money, we have allowed wastelands to grow in and around so many of our cities cores. The consequences of this? No one wants to live or be there and yet the very blight that is so unappealing comes directly from the way we have crafted zoning, highways and building regulations in support of the automobile to the exclusion of all else - including people. Business as usual? We've got to be kidding ourselves! We have to step up to the plate and actually DO something to change the course this country has been on for years. We are way behind the 8 ball relative to other developed countries so for me, a "business as usual" attitude will have the same effect of putting a bullet into the brain of this nation. Its time to get actively engaged in local and regional initiatives that are designed to improve our way of life, create a more sane balance among earning a living, culture, education and family. This means taking leadership for something rather than waiting in hope that someone else will fix it all so we can go back to life as we knew it. Peak oil is already here so for the life of me, I can't see how anyone can think that "business as usual" can be a serious goal or way of living. Complex question that leads in all sorts of directions. Some of the “answers” are about leadership style and content while others are to do with larger and more systemic problems of civic leadership.

If we think that business as usual will be the watchword for when (and if) the economy recovers, then I believe we might as well resign ourselves to a bleak future in which all hope of a decent way of life for us and our children – and theirs – evaporate before our eyes while we hope for that brand new oil well to be discovered.

Our children (those in the teens and early twenties) are already asking us (those of us in our fifties and early 60s) what on earth we were thinking when we bought hook line and sinker the great “American” dream of prosperity. This dream that has turned into an economic nightmare was – and I guess is – based on the idea that people are merely consumers, acquiring ever greater quantities of stuff they don’t need from within their rapidly-bloating suburban McMansions. These monsters situated in hundreds of acres of bland, featureless sprawl sport three car garages for that 40 mile commute to work and back for Mom and Dad who both have to work to service the ever-increasing debt loads they carry. And the kids – well they have their own cybercaves and rarely if ever have to see their parents or interact with them there so much space to go around. And we wonder why family life has become so dysfunctional.

We have already eviscerated many of our cities and have lost communities and a sense of place in pursuit of short term development and “suburbanization” goals – ably aided and abetted of course by the developer community. By turning over the design and construction of the places we call home, community and neighborhoods to developers and shoddy builders who are neither qualified to design anything nor care a wit about the consequences of their actions so long as they make a lot of money, we have allowed wastelands to grow in and around so many of our cities cores. The consequences of this? No one wants to live or be there and yet the very blight that is so unappealing comes directly from the way we have crafted zoning, highways and building regulations in support of the automobile to the exclusion of all else – including people.

Business as usual? We’ve got to be kidding ourselves! We have to step up to the plate and actually DO something to change the course this country has been on for years. We are way behind the 8 ball relative to other developed countries so for me, a “business as usual” attitude will have the same effect of putting a bullet into the brain of this nation.

Its time to get actively engaged in local and regional initiatives that are designed to improve our way of life, create a more sane balance among earning a living, culture, education and family. This means taking leadership for something rather than waiting in hope that someone else will fix it all so we can go back to life as we knew it.

Peak oil is already here so for the life of me, I can’t see how anyone can think that “business as usual” can be a serious goal or way of living.

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