Friday, April 4, 2008

Conversation with Dick McGarrety and Morey's

why do we need to grow, Dick? what is all this nonsense about how if we don't grow, we lose, we die? -Wendy

and I paraphrase
Because growth maintains demographics. people die and are replaced, but they are replaced at a faster rate than they die. the world is growing, populations are growing, industry, growing at such a rate, that to stand still is to fall behind. there is contraction and expansion, but the expansion is going more ferociously.

But, Dick, there has to be an end. resources come to an end. projects come to an end. -Wendy

Yes, there is always an end. There are circles, ripples of expansion going out and eventually they touch the borders of other projects, competitors, new realities, and their expansion stops and eventually they disappear. the whole time there are ripples going both ways, in and out, yet the out reaches beyond the borders until the borders touch the end, the other borders.

what happens when we hit that "end" and shouldn't we be trying to predict it, even control it? what would happen if we choose it ahead of time and build our reality around the control of growth? maybe that would be more sustainable. -Wendy

You know, many people have tried to do that. its called utopia. people try to predict and control the future to create the best possible long term experience for future generations. what happens is you just can't always predict how people will want to live, will choose to live as time goes by. whenever you have people trying to make "the best" decisions for future people, there is usually trouble and disagreement. it has to be a more organic process.

1 comment:

Trevor said...

This is a really interesting post. I'd love to hear more of your reflections on it.

t