Roughly one-hundred-years of successful private innovation, free markets, and low taxes made Sweden a very wealthy country. Their neutrality through WWII helped. In 1970, feeling invincible, the country experimented with various democratic socialist policies. These attempts included the nationalisation of many services and government ownership of companies. This history brings to mind the joke, "how do you find yourself in possession of a small fortune? You start with a large fortune and waste a lot of it."
Read moreShift the Framing of Climate Change Intervention
Perhaps we can’t turn it all around. In a basic sense some rise in planetary temperature is inevitable, so do we roll over and accept our fate? One group of people believe we must spend whatever money we have on policies that can only promise a minimal impact at best. Another says something along the line of “if you can’t cure climate change, then let us mitigate against its most harmful effects, working on technologies with the time we buy ourselves”. The former dominated the conversation, I’d like to look a bit more at the latter.
Read moreThe Issues of Our Time
First and foremost, we must acknowledge the stories that we tell ourselves and be cognisant of their place in the modern day. Stories themselves are not a problem, human rights are a story, but the danger presents itself when stories are taken too seriously - a story about kicking a ball into a net and earning points can turn into fights between hooligans. Stories are far from the only tool we use to navigate the world, another would be the nuggets of supposed wisdom to guide our behaviour, “follow your heart”, but these too have limitations and are obfuscating the need for deeper conversations.
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