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What can I know (if trust in knowledge has been lost)? | 63 This is a political issue, by which I would like to emphasise that - it is not a technological issue, for we are already in possession of the necessary environmentally friendly, material- and power-saving technologies; - nor is it an issue of economics, because the literature of the economics of non-growth has proved from many angles that the decreased use of natural resources is not an obstacle to social development, the improvement of the quality of life or sufficient employment. According to many, it is actually their unavoidable precondition. At the same time, it does not make impossible the (fair and proportional) increase in prosperity of those concerned. At most the indicators of economic performance would have to be swapped for new ones; - finally, it is not an ethical issue, because it is not true that it would entail the limitation of human freedom. On the contrary, the strategies of non-growth promise the opportunity of liberation from the slavery of the way of life and work dependent on technological systems and on consumption. If the issue is political, it could also be phrased thus: what is needed for good decisions to be made? (I term good the management capable of preserving and increasing humanity’s physical and mental resources in the long term, i.e., something which goes against the currently still dominant economic point of view in several ways. That is why I do not speak of sustainability, because the current system should not be sustained, but renewed — or destroyed, so that something completely different could be built in its place, but for this there is quite simply no time. If acknowledge this, we save ourselves much futile philosophical debate.) We know of no regime realising global justice —i.e., the fair sharing among nations or continents — in a peaceful fashion. The world order of free trade, together with the international treaties created to uphold and limit it, are not suitable for this; those who invented it did not even do so for this purpose. And violent solutions only increase destitution and people’s vulnerability. Therefore, instead of the global application of the principle of equality we should choose the principle of solidarity, which can only be applied locally — in political communities whose members are induced by common interests (interdependence), common knowledge (of togetherness) and the commonness of the physical environment to cooperate for the preservation of the fundamental resources needed for life, in the interest of the improvement of their quality of life. The third chapter of this book will explore this possibility.
