Better Bricks & Good Foundations

We all know what building blocks are right? We see them all around us.

In buildings obviously and the bricks they are built with, but less obviously in those structures with which our society and civilisation is constructed; relationships, organisations, institutions, the financial system and businesses.

For now though I’m going to attempt to simplify things. We’re going to start with a look at an ordinary down to earth house brick.

It’s right there in front of you now — can you picture it? Good.

What I would like to ask you is this.

“What do you see when you look at the brick?”

That brick you see has a story, it has a history, and on a day to day basis this is hidden from us.

Some of this story could be positive. Craftsmanship, pride, and employment for example.

It could also be negative. Exploitation, environmental damage, and financialisation.

Did you see these?

You see that brick right there is more than it’s physical appearance. It is made of with and of this world, and the world we have built contains many flaws. You have to adjust your thinking and change your focus to see them.

Now let me invite you into the world of Minecraft.

Plonk, Zap, Wizz, Plop. The room around you has magically transformed into a blocky Minecraft landscape and there you are staring at virtual house brick. Your head might feel a bit like that in here.

Now I would like to ask you again.

“What do you see when you look at the brick?”

You see the unavoidable truth is that the virtual worlds we create also present to us the problems inherent within our own physical and social reality.

These digital realms of almost unsurpassable imagination and possibility have a tendency to replicate, propagate and instill. They can act as a barrier and a veil.

Within that virtual brick there are some aspects which you could see as more immediate to the experience such as the subtle advertising or marketplace that coexists in the world that has been invisibly wrapped around your presence.

But look deep inside it and we peer back out into the real. Our world of fossil fuels, property, financialisation and, not looking at anyone in particular, highly circumspect tax avoiding corporations.

You see that virtual brick in front of you contains all of these problems too. It is equally as flawed and potentially unsustainable as the real brick was.

In these two worlds I’ve presented, the virtual and the real, it’s nigh on impossible to build anything without supporting a system which is has a destructive effect on the world and all living things.

But this truth only becomes apparent when we question what we see around us and ask why things are the way they are. To move beyond their appearance and to question their underlying nature.

This isn’t philosophical. It’s just making a bit of an effort.

When we build anything in our world, by reaching for the closest brick we become responsible for re-embedding the faults of the past into our future and with it everything which is structurally, ethically, and morally at fault.

It is important to move beyond our unconscious actions and decisions. To move beyond appearances.

To ask for and expect better building blocks with which to construct our future.

Better Bricks

So if we want a better world we need better bricks.

We could hope for some big actions by government to change the system for the better.

• a financial system which isn’t harmful, that doesn’t invest in fossil fuels or the arms trade
• large multinational companies which diligently monitor their supply lines for exploitation

These large types of system change take time, decades if we’re lucky.

Do you feel lucky?

Or we can decide to do it ourselves.

Small actions by large numbers can add up to an immense shift in society and how we do things.

Government by and large cannot dictate how we act. Most companies and organisations are small and they can decide for themselves what to do.

If they began taking concerted steps to become;

• Disability Confident
• Stonewall Champions
• Sustainable/Circular
• Considerate Employers
• Ethically Banked

There is no shortage to the improvements, options and support available to organisations and businesses who decided to do this.

It’s good for their businesses, it’s for the people who work for them, and it’s good for society.

And if they encouraged and supported their suppliers and peers to do the same?

Those small, deliberate steps develop exponentially into something real and tangible.

The building blocks with which we construct our future with would be continuously improved upon and our lives would be all the better for it.

By the time politics works out which levers to pull, back to scratch, or hand to grease we could have done the job for ourselves and have the skills for the next challenge that comes along.

Good Foundations

We can also build with bricks ready made for the future.

By that I mean without the contaminants or structural flaws of our present system.

New foundations made of the right stuff.

We can see a lot of this happening today in the social/new economy movement.

It makes sense to have an alternative system that moves beyond the limitations we set ourselves within the context of today’s society and the way that the economy operates.

Are there not a set of shared principles and values to which a core of foundational actors across the social economy agree to? An ethical gold standard of behaviour and trust.

Is it possible to create a solidarity network which does not advertise, or charge interest, or have unfair fees, or returns profits to every customer and generator of value, or uses surplus to invest in the new commons?

There is nothing stopping us from doing these things other than our imagination and the will to do so.

The answers will not come from politics, they can only come from us and how we decide to act.

We we can build a system which transcends what we see around us and shows us that it’s possible to do things differently.

It is only upon the most solid of foundations that we can build a civilisation that is at one with; nature, humanity, and our place in the universe.