"The System" is a Superorganism which started about 10,000 yrs ago with the advent of the raising of annual grains which could be stored. Ag surplus made division of labor possible, and that yielded hierarchy and inequality. No conspiracy, just social evolution. The System kept growing and expanding until eventually it was a runaway machine...with no one at the helm. Exactly what we have today. And it just keeps expanding. It ignores biophysical limits, which means it's bound to collapse. The only thing in question is "when".
Constant "Growth" requires ever more fossil ENERGY. The problem is: "easy energy" (cheap in cost and easily extractable from the ecosphere) - for all practical purposes - is gone. Never mind (not really) the environmental damage caused by fossil energy; soon the "Energy Return on Investment" (EROI) will discourage investors. Plus, compounding the problem, manufacturing renewable energy at the required scale requires: (1) massive amounts of new mining and refining of dozens of metals and other minerals, many of which also are no longer "easy"; and (2) a huge expansion of power transmission lines, the "energy grid". Both (1) & (2) require significant amounts of time and investment.
Growth requires more energy, and more of that enables our society to become more complex, and then more complexity requires even more energy. Establishment thinkers believe such a situation can continue without restraint. Infinite Growth. They appear to think Technology and increasing efficiency will allow such to continue. The Laws of Nature (especially in Physics and Ecology) say otherwise. We must convert from high-energy use to low-energy use if we are to survive and thrive.
BOTTOM LINE--- Growth of "The System" needs to be not only reduced, but also eventually eliminated. We humans have used more energy in the last thirty years than in the prior 150 years, and demand for energy still is increasing. Such a scenario simply is not sustainable.
RELATED NOTE--- Growth also can be one of several causes of war: https://steadystate.org/the-
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Not only my opinion. Be Well
