Home: The Very "Leverage
Point". 1
(ongoing draft)
The most
obvious place where a meaningful intervention would start a
profound change for better in the whole world is the basic unit of
any community--a home. It is at home where we grow up and learn the
basics of living as humans; it is where we should go to get well,
to rest and to recuperate; it is at home where we get ready, time
after time, to interact with the world "outside". However, the
"home" of today is very different from what it ideally ought to
be.
A "home" today, on the whole, is an indicator of our social
system's dysfunctionality note2. Consider this: It is obvious to
everyone that humans need to rest, to sleep, to take care of their
basic needs to be able to function well within the society. To take
care of all these essential needs should, of course, be done at
home. Yet it is commonly accepted as a good thing when prices of
homes go up and thus homes become less available. Logically,
rationally this does not make any sense!
As a result of this the society, as a whole, suffers. A "home", as
we know it today, is frequently a source of discomfort, anxieties,
a source of existential stress, and this results in a plethora of
societal ills that plague the whole society.
People who don't have a proper home are more likely to suffer from
lack of rest, sleep, from financial worries (about finding a good
home, about having to pay the rent, mortgages, taxes...); They, due
to this stress, are more likely to engage in criminal activities,
they are more likely to become physically and mentally affected,
and generally the unavailability of a really good home to most
members of the society creates stress that ultimately permeates all
parts of the society.
The obvious solution to this conundrum would be to ensure that
instead of a home to be an expensive privilege, to have a home, no
matter how humble a home, should become a thing necessary for
people to have in order to be able to function well in the society.
In short--instead of a source of stress, a home should become a
source of comfort, a place to where one goes to become well.
The most expedient way to make sure that a home becomes a secure
and a sustainable foundation of the society would be to change only
one thing: the right to sleep, to rest, and to be able to take a
basic care of one's basic necessities would have to be introduced
into the constitution as an inalienable right; No more, and no
less.
To constitutionalize all the basic things that are necessary for a
satisfactory quality of life as basic rights would alone ensure an
organic unfolding of all necessary adjustments in the social
fabric. An unfolding into a profound and lasting relief that would
be felt all across the globe.
People need land to live on, to have their homes on. The surface of
Earth is a valuable and also a limited resource. A resource that is
too valuable to let any irrational, fickle commercial interests to
be in charge of. Land is precious, it has to be managed
intelligently--all kinds of life, not only humans, need it for
living; An unnecessary stress, felt by all directly and indirectly,
is caused by the gross mismanagement of land that is currently in
existence--a stress that we hardly can allow to exist, especially
in times of ecological and social crises that we are faced with
these days.
A good stress-free home (one's castle indeed!) should be the basis
of any truly civilized society, regardless whether the times are
good or bad. At home is where culture is being continuously
re-created. If there, at home, is any lack what-so-ever, it will
affect the whole of the civilization unfavorably.
FINIS
Notes.
Note 1
"leverage point"--a term probably most popularized by Donella
Meadows - Leverage_Points.pdf - http://www.donellameadows.org/archives/leverage-points-places-to-intervene-in-a-system/ (link checked on Feb. 25, 2014)
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Note 2:
Dictionary.com:
dysfunction
- noun
2. any malfunctioning part or element: the dysfunctions of the
country's economy.
3. Sociology. a consequence of a social practice or behavior
pattern that undermines the stability of a social system.
<http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/dysfunction>
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