If the amount of money going into the war economy were invested in landscape restoration, we would be in a far more positive position. It may get a little dire before we pull together, but I think when the prosperous nations, and in particular the U.S., realize they're wrecking their own kids' lives, there will be a mass change in value.
Interpretation
Investing in environmental restoration is more beneficial than spending on war, and a realization of this can lead to significant societal change.
This quote emphasizes the potential for a positive transformation in society if resources currently allocated to warfare are redirected towards ecological recovery. It suggests that as nations, particularly the U.S., begin to understand the detrimental impact of their decisions on future generations, there could be a collective shift in values that prioritizes sustainability over conflict.
In practice
In a TED Talk about environmental awareness, one could use this quote to highlight the importance of prioritizing environmental restoration over military spending.
Economics was like psychology, a pseudoscience trying to hide that fact with intense theoretical hyperelaboration. And gross domestic product was one of those unfortunate measurement concepts, like inches or the British thermal unit, that ought to have been retired long before.
That's one of the ironies of our time: Right when we're on the edge of serious improvements in health care, we're also cooking the planet.
People don't want to experience change; they just want to wake up, and it's different.
Slumber not in the tents of your fathers. The world is advancing.
What some men don't understand is that by opposing policies to reduce violence, promote equal pay and universal healthcare and voting to limit access to contraception and legal abortion, they are relegating women to another century, a time when men ruled exclusively and women were considered property and had to be guided by a firm masculine hand.
Everything has changed, except our way of thinking.
Between social reforms and revolution there exists for the social democracy an indissoluble tie. The struggle for reforms is its means; the social revolution, its aim.
This is what a crisis does: It makes you question the status quo. That doesn't mean that after a crisis we move into some kind of utopia. But it is an opportunity for political change.
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