Our Three Taboos

My summary of our global situation and why there are no real solutions within the current system, which justifies itself with a series of mythologies and taboos against questioning these mythologies.

In everyday usage, the word taboo refers to cultural rules of conduct that smooth social interactions. For example, in America, it’s taboo to start eating before the host has taken a seat at the table.  These behavioral taboos define what’s acceptable (polite) and unacceptable (rude). 

The classic definition of taboo is what must be forbidden to maintain the social order. At the top of the list in many cultures is sex.

These three taboos are so powerful that they cannot be discussed openly.
In the modern era, the economy is the dominant force in society, defining our social relations and our relations to the natural world. As a result, the most powerful taboos are fundamentally economic. 

In my analysis, there are three taboos that are so dangerous that we are forbidden from even recognizing them, much less discussing them.

1.  The economic system is out of sync with human life and the planet’s biosphere.
2.  This system severs the links between work, family, community, the natural world, agency, security, meaning and the moral universe, leaving us unmoored, ill, insecure, anxious and deranged.
3. Forging replacement links requires breaking free of the system. The system is designed to sever the links of human life to benefit itself, and so it’s impossible to forge new links within the system.

The system validates and justifies itself with a mythology that institutionalizes these taboos and demands compliance with the system’s fabrications of how the world works and what’s important.

The system’s myths that cannot be questioned are:
1.  Progress is having more of everything. The essence of Progress is growth: ever-expanding income to consume more and acquire more wealth and possessions. 
2.  Prosperity is the limitless expansion of desires satiated by the ceaseless expansion of consumption.
3. Technological advances are the unstoppable engine of Progress. Human ingenuity knows no bounds.
4.  Our economic system is the best possible system because it generates the best of all possible worlds. As a result of our economic system, we have the best of everything.

It is taboo to question any of these core mythologies. To question the inevitability of Progress, Prosperity and Technology is to obstruct the advance of civilization, a mortal sin that must be punished.

The beating heart of these mythologies is desire is limitless, for we always desire more comfort, convenience, novelty, luxury and engagement, the pleasant-sounding cover-word for addiction. Comfort, convenience, novelty, luxury and engagement are code-words for profit, as the desire for more of these powers the endless expansion of profits.

The fabrication at the heart of the system’s mythologies is that earning a profit by satisfying desires is good for everyone. Those reaping the profits are fulfilling our insatiable desire for more comfort, convenience, novelty, luxury and engagement.

This happy narrative leaves out the key features of the system, which are 1) the system benefits the few at the expense of the many, and 2) the system severs all the links that are the foundation of a healthy, meaningful human life.