[S2E6] Human Need Desire ((FREE))
Human survival directly depends on the health of our planet. While our exponentially-growing population has built an empire of industrialism, thought, and culture, this is not without consequence. Climate change is rapidly becoming a global concern that demands our attention. The allure of constant progress and modernization have made it easy to forget that human beings have one life source: our environment. Culture and society have shaped our values to desire lifestyles that ignore the effects of climate change that we already experience regularly: Intense heat, recurring flooding, and rising sea levels that swallow communities both large and small, among others. Our food systems are on the brink of toppling, and clean water has quickly become a precious commodity.
[S2E6] Human Need Desire
The growing disconnect we see from the industrial revolution to our 21st century world is between what we value and why we value it. Most of what we value as humans have social and cultural implications that we are born into. We value owning a nice house because we are taught that it will bring us happiness and security. We desire money to afford things and experiences that promise what everyone chases; happiness, popularity, freedom, exotic travel, even romance. There is nothing inherently wrong with valuing these things - some would say they are the beating heart of what it means to enjoy human existence.
ReFi, or Regenerative Finance, is intended to be a bridge between worlds. It is a bridge that leverages the pioneering spirit that allowed us to become comfortable, technological explorers of the natural world. Instead of tearing down the global economy, it uses both old and new financial tools to reshape the it to include what we must value, and depend on, most. Many climate activists and movements call for the destruction of current systems to make room for a utopian new world that allows all people to have a voice, makes our cities green and sustainable, and returns healthcare to the sick and shelter to the misplaced. We all want this reality. However the systems we have now will not be replaced overnight. Cars will not stop driving, international shipping lanes will stay busy, and economic growth will continue to be pursued. Regenerative Finance aims to revitalize our current structures to not only include ecological health, but tie our economic success to their success. It is simply a method of revaluing what we need to value for human survival, connecting the regeneration of natural ecosystems to the generation of human wealth and prosperity. But what does that mean in practice?
Claire: Well, I think that word "queer" we need to be careful of how we can mobilize it within the Japanese language context. Thinking about "queer" as a term, it entered Japanese around about the 1990s, when we begin to explore queer theories in Japanese, right? That's an important point. But the people that I talk about in the book positioned as masculine but feminine, feminine but masculine, perhaps they have same-sex desires. There are people, celebrities who are on the record as being gay men. That's how Matsuko would describe himself, as a gay man. But some of the other figures maybe would identify more as trans or trans women, maybe non-binary in terms now. So the term "queer," if we understand it as kind of an umbrella term, that is encompassing a variety of genders and sexual orientations and gender presentation, gender identities, and how people view themselves in relation to norms or binaries. I think we can say that most of the people that I've brought to the book could fall into that umbrella of "queer."
Claire: Yeah, that's my critical reading of it, right. The more gentle reading of that is that the media has picked up on the importance of LGBT issues. And remember, the key here is that it's framed as LGBT, right? It's this umbrella term that has suddenly become a term that's used in Japan to refer to a diverse group of people with diverse needs and issues labeled as LGBT. I could say "I'm an LGBT" in Japanese. That's the way that it's being used in the contemporary moment. And the impetus for that definitely, I think, comes from what was to be the 2020 Olympics and comes very definitely from discourses around human rights at the global level. There's a wider discourse there around human rights and the framing of the LGBT and the SOGI, SOGI issues as well, and how they are transported into the Japanese context.
Hoy tells Riley that in 1952, a very covert conference was convened at the British airbase on Cyprus. Authorities from NATO, the Warsaw Pact, China and the Arab League sat in a room debating reality. That resulted in the conception of the Biologic Preservation Organization. He was there, assisting Ruth-El Sadaawi in drafting the initial charter and guidelines for research into sensacity. Signatories guaranteed human rights to Sensates and agreed not to deploy them for military needs. He shows her a picture of himself and Ruth. 041b061a72