The Bullshit of 'Growth Economy'

For most of my life, when it came to ‘economy’, I considered myself dumb.

Not dumb as in ‘stupid’. I just figured it wasn’t where my strength or interest lies, and I was content using my time and brain power on learning and understanding things that interested me.

Still, as world in which I became imbedded – mostly unknowingly and only a little bit intentionally – in would have it, every now and again I would be exposed to the concept of ‘economic growth’.

A headline here, a news reported uttering those very words there.

And for a split second, somewhere deep in my brain, a bit of dumbfoundedness would spark up before I moved on to other things.

‘How much longer will we have to grow for?’

‘Growth until what point?’

I never stopped to really lean into that question. Like I said, wasn’t my area of interest.

It would simply be a short-lived experience of that feeling/thought when something deep down is breached. You know it, even if it doesn't fully enter your consciousness.

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I no longer remember at what point I became exposed to people ACTUALLY raising this very question in conceptual, rather than intuition, terms, too. But I remember feeling like, ‘OMG, so it IS A INDEED A THING that this makes no sense!!’

And that thing – the concept of ‘economic growth’ we all grew up with – not making sense to me all this time made sense.

Turns out, the concept of Circular Economy had been around for long.

And before it became a concept, it had always been the lived experience of our ancestors.

Only it’s not been allowed into the ‘important’ rooms, and so we were never exposed to the concept.

I wish I could say that the joy of validation of my lifelong intuition was long-lived.

It wasn’t. It was soon replaced by anger with this very particular flavour; you know the one where you see the absurd, you’re screaming at the top of your lungs how absurd and illogical the whole thing is but no one seems to hear or pay attention to you? Yeah, that feeling. It’s pretty nasty.

But it’s mitigated by the fact that it’s actually a thing. And that the recognition of it is spreading.

Everything that in natural has an endpoint to growth, and then it re-enters the cycle.

Coming to be > growth > reaching maturity > die > transforming to facilitate something else’s ‘coming to be’

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The current, still most prevalent ‘economic growth’ concept is like a horizon.

It was never going to function as intended on a planet with limited resources, including our own human nature.

In fact, I hate the word ‘resources’ in this sense. But, as of yet, I cannot think of a fitting word.

And whatever it is, it’s not limited.

It is exactly how Nature is, and it’s damn glorious.

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Turns out, it’s not me who’s dumb.

It was always unNatural. The most foundational premise was always illogical.

And my intuition knew that before my indoctrinated brain did.

It feels good when the two finally meet.

It’s good for my mental health, too. It feels more intact.

This realisation and subsequent validation helped me take back some of my sanity that the systems that were imposed upon us and, for some reason, we collectively uphold as if they're natural, were trying to take from me.