#1596 Building a positive future by first envisioning it and then designing it
Best of the Left - Leftist Perspectives on Progressive Politics, News, Culture, Economics and Democracy
Jay Tomlinson
4.6 • 3.4K Ratings
🗓️ 6 December 2023
⏱️ 65 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Air Date 12/5/2023
It's important to focus on positive visions and not only get stuck in doom cycles of complaining about what's going wrong. So, we're looking at a variety of positive visions including rethinking human nature, reimagining our relationship with consumerism, considering how design can work with nature instead of against it, and understanding why cooperation is better than individualistic competition from an evolutionary point of view.
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SHOW NOTES
Ch. 1: What We Get Wrong About Human Nature - Andrewism - Air Date 1-11-23
What does it mean to be human? Join me as I explore the many interpretations of human nature across various philosophies and delve into the true breadth of human possibilities.
North Americans are sick, stressed, and alienated, a state of affairs accentuated in recent years by Covid. Gabor Maté argues that capitalism engenders illness, while the medical system blindly ignores the lives of its patients.
Ch. 3: Imagining a Solarpunk Education - Human Restoration Project - Air Date 5-11-23
Do we have the willingness to challenge the predominant social, economic, & political structures & systems that need to be challenged? To change the very nature of humanity's relationship to the planet? What role does education play in all of this?
Time and again, guests on this season of Rethinking Humanitarianism have called for systemic changes to the humanitarian system and global governance – from alternatives to the UN to revolutionized global climate financing.
Ch. 5: Elon Musk Has Become the Very Thing He Hates Most - The New Abnormal - Air Date 11-20-23
A conversation with award-winning author Nnedi Okorafor about her transformational Africanfuturism and the importance of inclusive visions of science fiction.
In this Our Changing Climate climate change video essay, I look at ways in which we can build a Solarpunk future right now. Solarpunk envisions a world in which nature and humanity are seamlessly intertwined
Ch. 7: The Race to Cooperation - Your Undivided Attention - Air Date 2-2-23
David Sloan Wilson's work shows that humans can and have chosen values like cooperation, altruism and group success – versus individual competition and selfishness
MEMBERS-ONLY BONUS CLIP(S)
Ch. 8: The Race to Cooperation - Your Undivided Attention - Air Date 2-2-23
VOICEMAILS
Ch. 9: Geoengineering concerns - Bud from Idaho
FINAL COMMENTS
Ch. 10: Final comments clarifying some details about using Solar Radiation Management as a geoengineering strategy
MUSIC (Blue Dot Sessions)
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | We're doing a membership drive for the holidays so you can grab a membership for yourself or gift one to someone else for 20% off the regular price and lock that in for as long as you keep your membership. |
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| 0:14.2 | support the production of the show for everyone. So act now all the details are |
| 0:19.4 | at best of the left.com slash support which you can find linked in the show notes. |
| 0:24.3 | Welcome to this episode of the award winning Best of the Left |
| 0:30.6 | podcast in which we will look to some positive visions for the future to get away |
| 0:35.2 | from the doom cycle of complaining about what's going wrong all the time. |
| 0:39.4 | Some positive visions include rethinking human nature, reimagining our relationship with consumerism, reconsidering |
| 0:46.6 | how design can work with nature instead of against it, and understanding how cooperation |
| 0:52.1 | is actually better than individualistic competition |
| 0:55.6 | from an evolutionary point of view. |
| 0:58.3 | Sources today include Andrewism, against the grain, the human restoration project, the new humanitarian, the new abnormal, |
| 1:08.4 | and our changing climate, with an additional members only clip from your undivided attention. |
| 1:14.0 | Who are you? |
| 1:20.0 | Who am I? |
| 1:22.0 | What is the essence of humankind? What does it mean to be human? Human nature |
| 1:28.8 | refers to the fundamental traits of humanity, our most basic and natural ways of thinking, feeling, and acting. |
| 1:37.0 | Human nature is supposed to be this universal concept that regardless of nurture, regardless of our environmental, social, political and psychological |
| 1:46.7 | conditions, we cannot truly transcend. |
| 1:51.1 | I disagree. |
| 1:52.1 | There are certain instincts we possess that I might consider universal to |
| 1:56.2 | humanity, for instance fair as a means of basic survival, or disgust as a means of self-preservation from disease. |
... |
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