Episode #6

Episode #6
June 2020

Helena Norberg-Hodge
Author of Local is Our Future, founder of Local Futures, pioneer of the worldwide localization movement

Discovered a utopia-like community 35 years ago, Ladakh. Advocates human scale into our economic system since then.

INSIGHTS FOR BUILDING A BETTER NOW

Creating more localized economies is a way forward and it is happening all around the world.
Our democracy depends on our economic priorities reflected in: taxes, subsidies and regulations.
Localisation can include international trade, but needs to be linked to human scale interactions.
The main activism is about seeking out information and raising awareness about the problems of the globalized system.
We need to shift the focus on the individual as a consumer to the individual as a voter to create a strong voice for policy change.

SHOW NOTES

“How can we think we're going to solve problems if we allow our government to subsidize, to tax and to regulate in such a way that the measurement of progress is pollution and illness? And that if people do plant a garden, grow some vegetables for themselves, they're being unpatriotic as there'll be a reduction in GDP.

“We’re not going to have genuine democracy if we don't have any say over what the economic priorities are. Every single price in the marketplace is a political choice.”

“The problem is not innate human greed. When you create a system where we can see how much we actually depend on other human beings, and how well it works when we're able to function in those human scale ways and institutions, that brings out the best in us.”

“In Ladakh, I discovered the most peaceful, the most tolerant and the absolutely most joyful people I had ever encountered. They never ever had those time pressures. They never expressed or experienced the sort of stress that we do in the modern world. I discovered more deeply what it means to live in a society where one of the most important things is this generosity of time.”