532 - Hearing the Inner Calling (Green Gone Wrong and Independent Diplomat)

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Episode #532 - Hearing the Inner Calling (Green Gone Wrong and Independent Diplomat)

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Break those mental chains!

⌚ Sat 1 January 2011  ☻Heather Rogers, Charles Eisenstein, Carne Ross

Download Hour1 Download Hour2We start a new decade of Unwelcome Guests with a show appropriate to New Year's Resolutions. In our first hour we hear Heather Rogers on her new book, Green Gone Wrong, about why buying 'green' products will never solve the world's ecological crises. Our second hour presents a healthier alternative for resolution material - two individuals who have heard an inner calling and decided to take up an issue, to act upon their convictions in spite of the change to their routine; Charles Eisenstein tells how he came to write Ascent of Humanity, and Carne Ross tells why he quit the UK Diplomatic Service and how he came to start a non-profit diplomatic service for marginalized people groups.

As an antidote to the mass of corporate greenwashing which would have people try to consume their way out of our environmental problems, we hear a 2010 interview of Heather Rogers about her new book, Green Gone Wrong: How Our Economy Is Undermining the Environmental Revolution. She debunks emissions trading or other corporate inspired efforts to try to prevent ecological disaster without fundamentally restructuring the way the economy works. The idea of 'green' products is a way for consumers and producers to feel good about their behavior which continues to despoil the planet, and will never solve the world's ecological crises.

Our second hour starts with some reflections on a brief musical exhortation from urban political commentator, D.J. Rubbish. Then we hear an interview with Charles Eisenstein about his sense that there was something wrong with the world, and how he came to give up his job as a translator and write Ascent of Humanity, and how he found his vocation as a promoter of the Gift Economy. He speaks in detail about his experience of the gift economy - about the danger of 'begging' and guilt tripping other people into donation, thus undervaluing their tendency for appreciation and depriving them of the spirit of generosity.

We conclude with a 2009 talk from Carne Ross about how and why he became a UK diplomat, and how, after learning about the hypocrisy of the UK diplomatic service around the issue of Iraqi W.M.D.s he decided to overcome his fears and quit. Likening the experience to "falling off a cliff", he recommends that everyone try it at least once in their life. He concludes by describing the unexpected path his career took since then - at his wife's suggestion, he started up Independent Diplomat, a non-profit to provide diplomatic services to warring parties ignored or sidelined by the mainstream international system.
Music: Stop Wanking by D.J. Rubbish
Thanks to KPFA for the Heather Rogers interview.
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Source archive: Green Gone Wrong (53 min) Heather Rogers Stop Wanking (3 min) D.J. Rubbish Uncensored Original Marie Levit interview (55 min) Charles Eisenstein Independent Diplomat (25 min) Carne Ross

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