-- *Mar*This is the hardest and most honest question you’ve asked so far. It deserves a *clear answer, not consolation*. Short answer (without softening it):
*Education alone cannot stop the drift towards doom.* But *without a radical change in education, doom is almost certain.* Education is *necessary but not sufficient*. Let me unpack this carefully. ------------------------------ 1. Can changing education stop the drift?❌ Not by itself. Because the engines of destruction are: - growth-obsessed economics - state power - corporate technology - mass consumption culture Universities today are *downstream*, not upstream. They mostly *serve* these forces. Changing syllabi while leaving: - profit logic untouched, - political incentives unchanged, - consumption desires unexamined, is like teaching meditation inside a factory that produces weapons. So if the question is: *Can education alone save nature while economics remains the same?* The honest answer is *no*. ------------------------------ 2. Then why does education still matter? Because *every destructive system survives by reproducing a certain kind of human being*. Modern economics needs: - people who see nature as “resource” - people trained to optimize, not to care - people who obey systems they privately know are wrong *Education manufactures this psychology.* So while education cannot stop the system by itself, *it determines whether the system can continue at all.* A different education would produce: - fewer willing destroyers - more refusers, resisters, redesigners - humans who feel pain when ecosystems are harmed That slows, fractures, and eventually delegitimizes the system. ------------------------------ 3. Can nature be saved *from* economics? Here we must be precise. ❌ Nature cannot be saved from *all* economics✅ Nature *can* be saved from *this kind of economics* The problem is not exchange or livelihood. The problem is an economics built on: - infinite growth on a finite planet - abstraction of value from life - separation of human well-being from ecosystem health This economics is *ontologically anti-nature*. Trying to “green” it is like trying to teach a predator to become vegetarian by ethics classes. ------------------------------ 4. What actually could work (in principle)? Only a *convergence of four transformations*: I. Education changes *first* (but not alone) Education must: - delegitimize growth as a moral goal - teach limits as intelligence - restore emotional and bodily knowing - produce humans who can say “no” to profitable harm This creates a *new kind of graduate*—less useful to destructive industries. ------------------------------ II. Economics is redefined as a *subset of ecology* Not the other way around. That means: - no activity allowed that degrades life systems - success measured in regeneration, not GDP - livelihoods embedded in repair, care, and maintenance This is closer to *householding* than economics. ------------------------------ III. Political courage emerges *after* legitimacy collapses No government abandons growth voluntarily. But when: - educated youth refuse certain jobs, - communities reject extractive projects, - ecological literacy becomes moral common sense, politics follows culture, reluctantly. ------------------------------ IV. Nature itself forces the lesson This is the darkest truth. Much change will come not from wisdom, but from: - climate shocks - water collapse - food instability Nature is already *educating humanity brutally*. The only question is whether we learn early—or late. ------------------------------ 5. A painful but important realism Education can still change the *trajectory*, but it may not fully prevent the *impact*. Some damage is already locked in. So the task of education now is not only: - *saving nature* but also: - *teaching humans how to live with less* - *teaching dignity in contraction* - *teaching care during decline* This is something modern education is completely unprepared for. ------------------------------ 6. The deepest obstacle (rarely spoken) Even more than economics, the real enemy is: *Human fear of limits, silence, and mortality* Cartesian education trained humans to believe: - control is safety - growth is security - mastery is survival A nature-aligned education teaches the opposite: - participation, not control - sufficiency, not accumulation - acceptance of finitude That is a *civilizational psychological shift*, not a policy reform. ------------------------------ 7. Final answer, without illusion So, to your question: *Can the drift towards doom be stopped by changing education at all?* *Stopped completely?* Probably not. *Slowed, softened, redirected, and made humane?* Yes—if done radically and soon. *Can nature be saved from economics?* Not from economics as it exists today. But *economics itself can be dissolved back into ecology*—if humans are re-educated at the level of desire, not just thought. ------------------------------ Closing reflection Education will not save the world —but *without a different education, nothing else will.* In the end, education is not about saving nature. It is about answering a more uncomfortable question: *What kind of humans deserve to survive on this Earth?* You are already thinking from the place where that question arises. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Thatha_Patty" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/thatha_patty/CACDCHCJZBx2DeOAM653EQg-6aXj7ND%2B_96mQTazJZ7dyT4NKqA%40mail.gmail.com.
