Imagining The World That Could Be

“We live in capitalism, its power seems inescapable — but then, so did the divine right of kings.
Any human power can be resisted and changed by human beings.
Resistance and change often begins in art. Very often in our art, the art of words.”

​― Ursula K. Le Guin, 19 November 2014,
Speech in Acceptance of the National Book Foundation Medal
for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters. (Click here for a transcript)
​

I tried my best to recite the above quote at the end of a worship service as a part of my charge and benediction.  This quote came to mind because I was once again talking about working together to create a better world.  If you have been paying attention to the themes I return to again and again in my sermons, you will have noticed my underlying belief that we need to do more than fix the systems of society that we live under.  I have often talked about imagining a better world that is just beyond the horizon of what we can see today.  And I fully believe that it would not be enough to use our current tools to fix what has broken in our society.  Instead, we need to create new tools to address the particular issues that we are facing today.  Part of this belief was encouraged by fiction authors like Ursula Le Guin who speculated about what the world could be like.

I know that discussing the end of capitalism is topic that will make some people automatically tune out and start angrily compiling an angry comeback.  If that is you, dear reader, take a deep breath.  I promise you that I am not going to pull out the Communist Manifesto or quote Carl Marx.  Instead, I want to invite you into the holy space of contemplating what could be.

Here is what we know for certain: our current system is not working.  While we enjoy an abundance (mostly) affordable fresh food regardless of the season, the way we farm strips the soil of its integrity, drains our fresh water resources, and has inequitable distribution so that some go hungry while mountains of food spoils.  We enjoy affordable clothing, electronics, and gadgets but our clothing is made in sweatshop by the underprivileged in other countries and the material for our electronics and gadgets are mined by slave labor.  Most of us have secure housing but seeing housing as an economic asset has made for housing crises in much of the developed world.  While we have more technology than ever to help us glide effortlessly through life, that same technology is threatening many people’s jobs and livelihoods.  Whatever you might think about Adam Smith’s theories about how economies worked in his time, our world is radically different than the one he knew.  Some thinkers like Yanis Varoufakis are even starting to suggest that we have already moved beyond capitalism into what he calls Technofeudalism (book or article about his ideas).  Even if our systems were working better than they are today, our current world still relies on exploitation, extraction, and the degradation of our natural resources.  In essence, I think we can do better than just fixing this.

But… how?

This is where I return to Ursula Le Guin’s quote again: The Divine Right of Kings was a broken system that seemed inescapable.  The Book of Revelation in our Bible was a speculative book written to a persecuted people about a future where they win and life is better - and not even John of Patmos could envision a future beyond the rule of a King.  Yet, humanity was not only able to envision a future where everyone ruled collectively through democracy, they fought to make that a reality. Now it is the dominant system of governance across the world.  We, too, can envision a world beyond scarcity where a few at the top horde wealth and resources.  We can envision a world that doesn’t rely on coercion and domination to function.  We can envision a world that lives in harmony with the diversity of cultures across the world and lives in harmony with the natural world.

And if you don’t know where to start to envision something beyond what you can see around you, let me recommend a short novel called A Psalm for the Wild Built by Becky Chambers.  It has been a while since I have read a book that felt healing in the same way as a good cup of tea on a cold rainy day.

Blessings,
Pastor Chris