The Circle for Things
If the Technology Circle is about industrial technology and production – the Circle for Things is about the end result – the products we love to have.
Transformationism isn’t anti-consumerist. Humans have always loved to own and collect things.
We just need an economic system that globalizes participation in the economies of things while protecting the environment from harm – pollution and waste.
Capitalists and their conservative stooges prove over and over again that they have no interest whatever in doing something about pollution, waste and low quality. If we don’t legislate against their behaviour, they’ll pollute the Earth with their cheap garbage forever.
In the past, the human love of things wasn’t unhealthy for us. We could collect shells, make beads, jewellery, cups and stuff, without causing any harm to the environment, because we were fewer in number (so we didn’t exhaust resources like trees) and the things we made were biodegradable.
Now, because of capitalism, plastic, fossil fuels and industrial engineering, we’re destroying the Earth through our love of things.
Capitalism is a race to the bottom when it comes to quality and responsibility. Quality goods made by crafts people have been shunted aside for cheap garbage from impoverished ‘developing’ nations where people have no choice but to work for a pittance. While cancerous factories spew filth into our waters and skies, garbage dumps overflow and the shores of oceans and rivers are littered with toxic waste.
This is unacceptable. Only a complete Transformation of the economy of things can turn it around.