Excerpt from a letter that Satish responded to:
This magazine comes across more like an exercise in being terribly nice and also comes across as just another corporate soothsayer, i.e. it’s just business as usual, but in a nice way. I have been meditating for 40 years and very much align with Buddhist philosophy, but this won’t help combat the hard-nosed corporate world… unless they see a greenwashing opportunity.
– Resurgence & Ecologist reader
You are rightly concerned about the devastating impact of corporate capitalism on the natural environment and on a large number of people. I agree and sympathise with your concerns.
But the problems produced by capitalism are well known.
From Karl Marx to George Monbiot, hundreds and hundreds of writers, thinkers and activists have highlighted the problems created by capitalism, corporate greed, consumerism and other unjust systems. The problems are well documented, defined and understood. Vast numbers of people are now aware of these problems and yet all the people who criticise capitalism are themselves a part of the same problem. Only very few people attempt to be a part of the solution. There are many who curse the darkness, but very few light a candle.
So much energy is wasted in critiquing and cursing the darkness, and very little energy is devoted to lighting the candles. So much time, so many words and thoughts are spent on critiquing and analysing the problems, and very little attention is paid to finding solutions.
There are many publications, magazines and websites dedicated to challenging the capitalist system, and rightly so. We wish them well. May they sharpen their arguments against capitalism and consumerism. But we also need platforms that are solutions-oriented. We need to highlight examples that show the alternative to corporate consumerism and capitalism. We need hope and optimism. We need to look at positive ideas and solutions. We need to move from despair to hope.
In my view that is the role of Resurgence & Ecologist magazine and also of the Ecologist website. The role of The Resurgence Trust is to support, encourage and inspire change in practice by constructing new ideas, new economics, new technologies, new business and new examples that are socially just and ecologically regenerative.
In my view this is the way to create a new worldview and a new paradigm. We need new economics based on the idea that both people and planet matter. Ecological economics and doughnut economics are some of the ideas we need, and we support these through our work, not simply as ideas and ideals, but also in their practical application.
It is an easy way out to criticise others. Big business is to be blamed, governments are to be blamed: we can really enjoy blaming others and think that we have done our job! We can then feel virtuous and superior about ourselves. Yes, I say by all means criticise, but don’t stop there. Create new models and new movements that will bring about change in practice.
We can’t wait until all the ‘Old World’ industries, corporations and businesses have changed before we build new models. We need to start building new models of economics now, within the shell of the old. Resurgence & Ecologist magazine and the Ecologist website both need to encourage that kind of approach and report those findings, developments and experiments. These two platforms are both here to support and promote positive, constructive and ecological solutions.
There are, of course, other worthy and respected publications that do a very good job of critiquing capitalism, including The Guardian newspaper, where there are a number of good writers who represent the left wing of political ideology. Red Pepper is another great source of critical thinking and information. New Internationalist is also a worthy resource for showing the defects of the old world order. No point in Resurgence & Ecologist and The Ecologist doing the same thing and duplicating the same message. We complement them by informing our readers about the amazing pioneers around the world who are engaged in creating a new world order. We salute them, celebrate them and emulate them.
These pioneers are working in the fields of organic agriculture, holistic education, local economy, renewable energy systems, rewilding, cyclical economy, regenerative business, and much more. The mainstream media totally ignore them. It is the sacred duty of The Resurgence Trust to show their vitality, their strength, their courage, their relevance and resilience, in spite of the many difficulties and challenges they face.
I hope these thoughts go some way to make our position clearer. I appreciate that you may not agree with this approach. But at least I hope you will kindly appreciate why we pursue a more constructive and spiritual approach in both Resurgence & Ecologist and The Ecologist rather than simply complaining about capitalist systems.
Satish Kumarʼs new film Radical Love will premiere at Bertha DocHouse in the Curzon Bloomsbury Cinema, London on 5 September 2024 and will be followed by a Q&A session with Satish.
