- 6 weeks ago
Category
đź“š
LearningTranscript
00:00I was wondering if you can elaborate on how our inner void and compulsive consumption
00:06are linked to environmental destruction and how we can also manage that as purely individuals
00:13that have such a much smaller impact on environmental degradation.
00:18It's very simple.
00:22It can be explained even to a kid and I do that.
00:25So we are upset within, we are not okay within, we are unfulfilled and we do not know why.
00:36Because we are not educated, not trained to have an inward focus in life.
00:42We don't look at ourselves, we don't reflect at our thoughts, actions, feelings.
00:47So we remain upset, unsettled within.
00:51And when we are that way, then we want to go out and do things.
00:58Let's go somewhere, let's eat out there, let's fly to that place, let me buy new stuff.
01:11Why can't I have a private jet?
01:15Why can't I fly to my job daily?
01:23So when you do things outside, it's obvious it requires energy.
01:32And it so happens that the more uprooted you are inside, the more is the number of unending
01:41things that you compulsively want to do on the outside.
01:46I am not at rest, I am not at peace.
01:49So sometimes I go and pick that up.
01:53Sometimes I go and you know, try putting that chair over there.
01:59Sometimes I run upstairs, drop something there.
02:04Oh, what if I could have a badminton coat in the adjacent lawns?
02:14So I will cut down, uproot all the trees and have a cemented coat there and I will do all
02:20these things.
02:21And I am doing these things because I am not alright within.
02:24Just that doing all these things requires energy, energy.
02:33And a thing of coincidence is that most of the planet's energy today comes from fossil
02:41fuels, fossil fuels.
02:46So when you go out and do things, you release carbon, it's as simple as that.
02:52Now going out and doing things is not really the problem because if you are doing something
02:56for the right end, it usually has an end point as well.
03:03But when you do not know what you are doing, then you do it endlessly, like corporate profits.
03:08Go and ask somebody in the board of a corporate, you know, do you have an end point?
03:20This is how your P&L and balance sheet looks.
03:23Is there ever going to be a point where you would say enough is enough, it's saturated
03:27and we are not proceeding any further?
03:30We don't require at least an ever increasing number against my profits.
03:41Even a stable level of profits would do, go and ask them.
03:44Not a single person, not a single CEO, not a single stakeholder is going to say, there
03:50is a definite end point.
03:51They will say we require it to increase every year.
03:55Now for it to increase every year, you will have to consume energy.
04:00You will have to dig out stuff from below the surface of the earth.
04:07You will have to burn things.
04:10And you will have to brainwash your consumers into believing that the products of your company
04:14are needed for them to have a sustainable or respectable life.
04:21You will destroy everything.
04:23You will destroy your employees as well.
04:25Because since you have no upper limit to your profit, so you will want to extract the maximum
04:32from your employees, offering the minimum you can to them.
04:37You would exploit the earth, you would exploit your employees and obviously you will exploit
04:42your customers.
04:44And all that is climate change.
04:48When you extract stuff from the earth that requires energy, that releases carbon dioxide
04:54and methane.
04:57When you brainwash your consumers, they purchase not just your useless products.
05:04They get identified as being purchasers and consumers.
05:08So they keep on purchasing everything, not just your stuff.
05:13Not just your stuff.
05:16And when you purchase, then somebody manufactures for somebody to manufacture something.
05:20Again what is needed is energy.
05:22So climate change is nothing but a product of the unfulfilled dark interiors of this species
05:32homo sapiens.
05:34No other species is born with this kind of unrest within.
05:39No other species is responsible for the climate disaster.
05:42We are.
05:43We are.
05:44We are.
05:45Why?
05:46Because only, only, only the human being has a hollow in her heart.
05:52A hollow that she keeps trying to plug in using all kinds of material things.
06:00A new haircut, a new pair of shoes, a new husband, a new job, this, that and all of that is energy.
06:15I am not feeling well, not feeling well.
06:17Your feelings are carbon.
06:21Because in feelings, as we said, there are no facts.
06:23You do not know what the facts of your insides are.
06:28All you have is feelings, and feelings are blind.
06:32Feeling to feel so much is to experience so much without understanding anything.
06:37When you feel something, do you ever understand it?
06:42You feel you have a headache, right?
06:44That doesn't mean that you understand how the brain works, and why it is aching.
06:48So, we feel a lot, but we are not at all in touch with facts.
06:54And this feeling, given the kind of respect we give to feelings, makes us run hither-thither,
07:00and all that is carbon emission.
07:05There can be no scientific, no economic, no political, no technological solution to the
07:11climate disaster, not at all.
07:14Because this is purely a spiritual crisis.
07:20I agree that, you know, overconsumption is one of the biggest problems for climate change
07:25and climate justice.
07:26But sometimes it's not even overconsumption, you're consuming the bare minimum.
07:32But like you were talking about technological advancements, how do we stop our society from
07:37going stagnant?
07:38Because innovation, every innovation in every field now, requires some sort of large carbon
07:44footprint.
07:45How do we, is there a way to co-exist with innovation, spirituality, and climate justice?
07:51No, I do not see how innovation is out of tune with mitigating the climate disaster.
08:00Right now, what you call as innovation is nothing.
08:04But a particular kind of innovation, that would further the capitalist objective.
08:13We don't just innovate, we innovate only in particular directions.
08:17Directions that would enable us to have more profit.
08:21So we are not having real innovation, mind you.
08:24We only innovate where there would be an ROI on the innovation.
08:35So it's not as if innovation goes necessarily hand in hand with consumption.
08:46That's the kind of innovation we are seeing.
08:48But that's not the rule.
08:54This idea that unless there are more profits and these things, we would not progress.
09:02Are we even testing this idea?
09:05You see, man does not exist for the sake of financial growth.
09:13Instead, financial growth is for the sake of the human being.
09:18Right?
09:19True.
09:20Do we realize first of all, what we truly want?
09:24Now obviously, to an extent, money is important in that.
09:32But isn't there a point beyond which the returns start diminishing?
09:42If you live in a third world country, with very little financial resources, then obviously,
09:50having money would contribute to your welfare.
09:52We all agree.
09:54Right?
09:55You would get better nourishment, you would probably get a roof over your head, your students
09:58would get better schooling, your kids that is.
10:01All that would start happening.
10:02We understand.
10:04But a point comes when more money or more consumption does not contribute any more to your welfare.
10:12The curve starts flattening.
10:16Is that not so?
10:17And then there might be a point when the curve actually starts dipping.
10:23Negative marginal utility.
10:26So why do we continue to believe that unending growth in per capita income or per capita consumption
10:36is the sine qua non for human progress?
10:42That's not that way, it's an assumption that we need to challenge.
10:47Look at, there are several countries where the per capita income is very modest, yet the average
11:01life expectancy is better than some of the first world countries.
11:10innovations are happening at the same rate or at a faster rate than the global north.
11:22Japan is known to have people who live the longest.
11:26Are Japanese richer than the Americans?
11:35No.
11:36In terms of per capita income, no.
11:41But they are more peaceful and happier.
11:44So is capital, money, financial growth needed for its own sake?
11:55Or is all economics actually for the sake of the individual?
12:03And do we understand what the individual really needs?
12:05We are not saying the individual needs mystical salvation.
12:09No, we are not coming from there.
12:13No spiritual mumbo-jumbo here.
12:15We fully understand that we need money.
12:21But being rational people, we would also want to plot money against welfare.
12:28And see where the curve attains saturation.
12:32And beyond that, if you are still invested in earning money, then you are wasting yourself,
12:37your life and also destroying the planet.
12:41That's what is happening.
12:42That's what is climate change.
12:46So I had an interesting point to add to this because the other day I was taking a class
12:50on human happiness here at Berkeley and we were discussing how in the US, there is the
12:55curve that you just described.
12:57For an average American, the curve sort of stagnates at $75,000 annually.
13:04After that, the diminishing effect of money, as you say, sort of proves out to me.
13:11And it's interesting how within that same class, we were discussing how, sure, wealth is a factor
13:17of human happiness, but the primary factor of humans being happy is human relations connection,
13:26your connection with oneself and with others and how fulfilled you are in those connections.
13:31And yeah, it was just, it was just something that I wanted to add.
13:34Wonderful, wonderful, lovely, lovely.
13:36You see, is that something that the Forbes 500 chaps would want you to propagate?
13:43No, no, no.
13:46If you are happy in your relationship with yourself and worthy people around you, would you find
13:56it necessary to go out and burn rupees or dollars, so that you can have some piece of unconscious
14:04happiness.
14:05They will not want you to know this, that money serves no purpose, rather negative purpose
14:13beyond a point.
14:15And just as, I am glad you brought up this $75,000 figure.
14:19Just as, I am hearing it for the first time, I will look more into it and it's very interesting.
14:28Just as you could come up with a figure beyond which the returns start diminishing.
14:33Similarly, there is an established figure on the per capita material consumption that is
14:40sustainable for the planet.
14:49We also have very established, very scientifically proven figures on the per capita emissions that
14:57can be sustained by the planet.
14:59So, all that is very well known.
15:03Just that the policy makers themselves are financed by the ones who want us to endlessly consume.
15:12And that's a problem with the democratic model.
15:17You see, I am the top manipulator and I want these people to vote for me.
15:23So, I will leave them worse off psychologically than they ever were.
15:34I will condition them, I will indoctrinate them, I will radicalize them, I will leave them
15:40worse off.
15:41That's what democracy does to an ignorant voter.
15:46Please understand.
15:48If these people can vote for me only if they are uneducated, then as a policy maker, I would
15:54deliberately keep them uneducated if I want to come back to office.
16:02If these people will vote for me only when they are radicalized, I will ensure I keep radicalizing
16:09them deliberately so that they keep voting for me.
16:13And that's a huge flaw in the democratic model, the entire world is experiencing it.
16:18We will need to correct it.
16:19Yeah, I also wanted to ask more on, you know, as you brought up a really interesting point
16:30about how climate change is not, it's more spiritual than anything else that we know of,
16:35and how we are ourselves the contributor to climate change, consciously or unconsciously.
16:42I was wondering then, if that is the case, as you said, democracy has its own flaws, who
16:49really is responsible for driving this spiritual change within folks?
16:54Is it us ourselves or who exactly should we look up?
17:00The culprit is the fellow who understands yet not acts.
17:04The electorate we said is ignorant in general.
17:16The ones in power have vested interests in keeping the electorate ignorant.
17:25Then who can be termed as responsible for the state we are in?
17:31The ignorant person is as good as someone asleep.
17:37If somebody is sleeping, you don't go and blame them, right?
17:40They don't know anything at all anyway.
17:45Who is to be blamed then?
17:46The fellow who knows and yet not acts.
17:50He is the one to be blamed.
17:54And this is the person all real positive change will come from.
17:59The fellow who knows and acts.
18:05Unfortunately we have too many people who do not know, but act vigorously.
18:12And there is a great dearth of people who know, first of all, people who know, they themselves
18:18are a rarity.
18:19And even among this rare class, those who know and have the love, the guts, the responsibility
18:28to act, they are absolutely rare.
18:34Those are the people that will bring about change.
18:38Yeah, I completely agree with that.
18:44And honestly, I feel like I try to be that person sometimes, but it's really difficult.
18:49I'll give an example.
18:50Like I live in the dorms and here, you know, the water or whatever takes a long time to
18:56heat up.
18:57And sometimes I've seen my friends, you know, turn on the shower, go and like do something
19:01else and come back.
19:01So it's warm.
19:02Um, and I was telling my dad about this and I was like, yeah, like, I don't really like
19:06how people do this.
19:07Um, and he's like, so you wait in this cold shower and you just like, you just deal with
19:12it because you don't want to waste water.
19:14And my dad tells me that, you know, the way to get it, like, you can't be the person taking
19:19all the burden and all the blame for climate change and dealing with it.
19:23Obviously this is a very small example.
19:25It's just water, but, um, like how does one person manage that burden and, you know, even
19:31educate other people when oftentimes climate change is something that it's not an impeding
19:35issue for most people.
19:36It's not very urgent.
19:39So for many people, it doesn't feel like they have to do anything.
19:41And so for oftentimes people who do know and who do act, it feels like they're the only
19:47ones who do care and they can't get other people to care.
19:50A wonderful thing to bring up.
19:53You see, we said climate change is the thing that emanates from the hollow within the human
20:03being's heart, right?
20:04So this would suggest, and so has been my experience, that addressing climate change directly does
20:16not help.
20:19Because it is, you are addressing the emission, you are not addressing the source of emission.
20:29The source of emission is not really the exhaust tube of the automobile.
20:33It is the heart of the human being.
20:37That has to be addressed.
20:38And if you address that, let's say without even bringing in these two words in the discussion,
20:46climate change, you might still find that the fellow has become, in general, more sensitive
20:55towards the surroundings, her actions, her relationships, her entire being.
21:05That's the problem with climate activism.
21:10We want to behave as if climate change is an isolated problem.
21:18We do not want to, or we fail to see the clear, very strong relationship between human unfulfillment
21:38and the burgeoning emissions.
21:43It's not as if we have been especially unfulfilled only since the last 100 years or so, when the
21:53CO2 PPM started rising.
21:55We have always been like this, just that, till around 1850 or 1870, we didn't have the technological
22:04means to burn so much fossil fuel or burn anything and reproduce so much and sustain such large
22:13populations.
22:15We didn't have the wear with all.
22:18So just by virtue of our incapacity, the earth somehow managed to remain saved.
22:26But after the industrial revolution, we developed the might to do things on a never seen before
22:33industrial scale.
22:34We were always like that, you know, wherever we went, we brought destruction in our wake.
22:49It's not that we are destroying species, annihilating entire species just today.
22:54We have been doing that since centuries, just that the rate has exponentially grown.
23:03We went to Australia, what happened to the native species there, both animals and human beings.
23:15We went to America, what happened to the natives there?
23:18Wherever we go, we go with a sword and a torch.
23:22We are destroyers.
23:23We are destroyers because we are unhappy within, unfulfilled within, joyless and loveless within.
23:37If you address that in a person, you might find that the issue of climate has been taken
23:43care of without even bringing in the word.
23:49You never talk to that person about climate and yet you find that the fellow has become
23:53more responsible.
23:56The fellow does not even know that his carbon footprint has shrunk.
24:01And yet it has.
24:02Whereas when you are on the side of activism, then you keep harping on this thing, you know,
24:09you please manage your water consumption and see, you must shut down these lights, use less
24:17of this, use less of that and all that is just so boringly moral.
24:25Who would want to hear that?
24:28So be it the vegan activists or the climate activists or the plastic activists, they are
24:34abhorred.
24:35People run away looking at them because they are so predictable and what is predictable
24:42becomes boring.
24:43Now she will come and pontificate on this and that, I have had enough of that, no, I don't
24:52want that.
24:53Why not speak to people about their life, about their love, about great literature, about the
25:03pressing issues in the world, take them deeper into themselves.
25:10There is such fabulous literature available on the wisdom side.
25:16Why not have a club that discusses such literature?
25:20And a very silent by-product of this thing will be that people will become more climate responsible.
25:28Why not have a silent by-product?
Recommended
50:27
|
Up next
0:27
0:45
11:14
0:55
51:02
0:45
Be the first to comment