Tio once told me that people who try to change the world are like ambulances.
Ambulances are great, respond very quickly and will save lives. But we need a health system, research centers and so on to be able to study why people get sick and prevent it, rather than intervening to quickly save them without understanding what made them sick.
In my experience, there are many people who are like ambulances.
- There is plastic in the sea, so let's form an organization to fish out the plastic.
- Rainforest is being cut down or cleared? Then we found an organization that works to protect the rainforest and place areas under conservation or produce/buy “sustainable products”.
- The federal government is voting on an economic stimulus program involving many billions? Then let's make a petition so that the money is invested sustainably.
- The world's governments are doing nothing about climate change? Then take to the streets every Friday and demonstrate against it.
No question, these are all well-intentioned projects/actions by people who seem to care about problems.
But it seems to me that few seem to wonder why or where these problems come from. And if there are those who do that, how many question the economic system, or even trade itself?
Where are these highly trained scientists who are steering the world in a more sensible direction?
Why isn't there a “team of experts” that sits down and says: “Now we're going to put the world in order. This is all ridiculous with all the tribes on planet Earth, their governments and ridiculous presidents, with all the corporations that keep people enslaved and only give them access to things they need if they give something in return (money, data , attention etc.), with all the people who needlessly suffer and die from these conditions... Let's stop this. We can do better than we do now – much better.”
But that doesn't seem to exist...
Or at least I wouldn't rely on it.
Whatever happens is real. What you think should happen isn't real. And that's what disappoints people.
Jacque Fresco
So if you want a world in which there is no war, poverty, famine, environmental destruction, climate change, etc., then you have to do something about it.
This is an important thing that you need to understand.
At TROM we try to give people an opportunity to get involved. Not just one, but many options.
We want to make trade obsolete in order to leave all the ridiculousness of the world behind us and what we need for this are 2 ingredients: education and infrastructure. Education so that people become more sensible (e.g. I don't need the latest Audi Q5 with four-wheel drive) and infrastructure so that people no longer have to spend so much time working and have more time for, for example, volunteer work (trade-free access to things they need and want). We're working on it, but we can't do it alone (it's a constant process anyway with no goal within reach).
That's why you're in demand.
The most important thing is to create awareness about trade as the cause of most problems and along the way create/promote trade-free goods and services. The more people who work on the problem of trade, the better for all of us.
There are many lists about sustainable tips and tricks, but they don't go far enough. Because I have always asked myself what I can do as an individual, here is a list of ideas that I have:
Training:
- Read our book”The cause of most problemsto understand this approach.
- Lerne über die Welt, wie sie funktioniert, über menschliches Verhalten, über Technologie, Kulturen, das Handelssystem etc. –> Auf tromsite.de haben wir Books about many different topics.
- Share what you have learned: talk to other people about it, write articles, make videos, lectures, songs, events, etc. - create awareness of relevant topics.
- Help directly TROM-Project: e.g. proofread my translations, share our materials and tools (the documentation, books, videos, curated news/videos/podcasts, Videoneat, Musikwave, etc.), help us financially and/or ideally, write a book/article yourself, etc ..
- Be creative and think of how you can spread this idea.
Infrastructure
- Join ours trade-free directory. Submit additional trade-free goods and services and evaluate those that already exist.
- Try switching to trade-free goods and services. You don't necessarily need Microsoft and Apple? Then use our trading-free operating system TROM-Jaro and share it with other people or use other trade-free things from the directory.
- Create trade-free goods and services yourself: from blogs to music, from providing food to providing aid, from clothing to furniture, from this to that. If you do something trade-free, call it trade-free so other people are aware of it. Use #tradefree and you can too www.handelsfrei.org to link.
- Help other organizations that offer something trade-free or start one yourself – do whatever you feel like
Start changing society here and now! No need to wait for anyone, no need to be part of a particular organization, no need for any of that.
Don't get me wrong, it's great to advocate for renewable energy, reduce plastic waste, sign petitions, etc. But that's just not enough.
Example: In Germany it seems to me that more and more people are following a vegan diet and I know some who perhaps think that they can change the world by doing so.
There are more and more vegan restaurants, recipes, blogs, vegan clothing, etc. But when I looked at the scientific facts, I found that meat production is actually increasing worldwide - and increasing! (Those)
This can be very demeaning if you think that all people should eat vegan so that we live in a better world. Maybe that's not the case. Maybe we should tackle the trading system itself that created all of these problems.
From the book "Eating the world and ourselves„:
“It is much smarter, more civilized and more efficient to create a global society in which no one feels the need to rely on others to, for example, turn off the lights to save energy, but to create a comprehensive system in which lights turn on and off automatically when they detect presence or not, using infrastructure based on renewable energy, so energy loss is not as important.
The same applies to eating habits, where I think the solution is to create a different kind of society where no one feels the need to sell unhealthy foods or influence food choices through advertising and try to pass on to research to influence the safety of products through the power of money.
This system would provide all relevant information about what a healthy human diet is, unaffected by any 'forces' as is the case in today's world; a system where no one would be interested in setting up such expensive and energy/resource inefficient means of food production.
I would say that you can never rely on people to change their habits, but instead you should invent better systems and methods that produce the desired result.”
Finally, I recommend these 3 books:
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