Speak the truth._x000D_ Speak it loud and often, calmly but insistently,_x000D_ and speak it, as the Quakers say, to power._x000D_ Material accumulation is not the purpose of human existence._x000D_ All growth is not good._x000D_ The environment is a necessity, not a luxury._x000D_ There is such a thing as enough.
Interpretation
The quote emphasizes the importance of truth and a sustainable relationship with the environment over material wealth.
In this quote, Donella Meadows advocates for the unwavering expression of truth, particularly in the face of authority or power. She warns against equating human purpose with material accumulation and highlights that true growth may not always be beneficial. Meadows asserts that the environment is essential for our existence and that we should recognize when we have enough rather than constantly striving for more, encouraging a shift in values towards sustainability and ethical living.
In practice
In a speech about environmental responsibility, one might quote this to emphasize the need for sustainable practices.
Both the United States and the world economy have already reached - and surpassed - their sustainable physical limits. Ground water is being drawn down, soils eroded, forests cut faster than they grow, fish caught faster than they reproduce, non-renewable fossil fuels burnt without developing substitutes.
There is hardly a place on Earth where people do not log, pave, spray, drain, flood, graze, fish, plow, burn, drill, spill or dump. There is no life zone, with the possible exception of the deep ocean, that we are not degrading.
No one can define or measure justice, democracy, security, freedom, truth, or love. No one can define or measure any value. But if no one speaks up for them, if systems aren’t designed to produce them, if we don’t speak about them and point toward their presence or absence, they will cease to exist.
Like the other great revolutions, an environmental revolution will require sacrifices and lead to enormous gains. It, too, will change the face of the land and human institutions, hierarchies, self-definitions, cultures. It will take centuries. If it happens. There is no guarantee, of course.
There are no separate systems. The world is a continuum. Where to draw a boundary around a system depends on the purpose of the discussion.
A vision should be judged by the clarity of its values, not the clarity of its implementation path [in Mediated Modeling page 43]
The injunction to be nice is used to deflect criticism and stifle the legitimate anger of dissent.
Then, without realizing it, you try to improve yourself at the start of each new day; of course, you achieve quite a lot in the course of time. Anyone can do this, it costs nothing and is certainly very helpful. Whoever doesn't know it must learn and find by experience that a quiet conscience makes one strong.
If a man would reap praise, you must sow the seeds, gentle words and useful deeds.
It is evident that skepticism, while it makes no actual change in man, always makes him feel better.
Great genius takes shape by contact with another great genius, but less by assimilation than by friction.
Be more interested in character than reputation
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