Achieving the Four-Hour Work Day will be chaotic and divisive, but absolutely worth it

The most remote inhabitated island on earth,
 Easter Island, collapsed for reasons not dissimiliar
to those presently facing existing civilizations.

The journey to a Four-Hour Work Day will not be easy; it will be chaotic, socially and politically divisive and viewed from the present paradigm, impossible.

Of course we don’t have much to compare it to, and to consider it from within the restrictions of what exists makes it appear dysfunctional and wholly irresponsible. It is neither of those.

Of course, the idea of a Four-Hour Work Day did not emerge in isolation as it has a few implacable allies; among them a dramatically changing climate, an imploding world economy, and the rapid depletion of finite and irreplaceable resources.

Good sense, even in the face of an imminent world catastrophe, is surprisingly rare and it appears that our blind addiction to what exists has obliterated our reason, and fear, of inevitable difficulties.

What is happening is an echo of the collapse of earlier societies, one being Easter Island, the most remote inhabited island on earth.

The idea of building large stone statues for the deified dead, whom the islanders believed provided for the living, was an obsession that equates with today’s equal obsessional-mandate that argues our quality of live hinges entirely on growth.

About 15 000 people worked tirelessly to build the statues and although aware of what they were doing and the inevitable consequences, cut down the island’s trees, one by one, to move the stone giants about on until the late 16^th century, they had totally deforested their home.

The environmental degradation they had brought upon themselves in pursuit of superstition is being played out again and, interestingly, the similarities are striking.

Easter Island was isolated leaving those living there with no retreat – our earth is absolutely isolated in the universe and despite the fancies of some, we have no escape and yet we continue to use and exhaust the resources upon which modern life is built.

Despite the enthusiasms of some who point to technological solutions, we are travelling with enthusiasm, laughing and smiling and we rush blindly toward the abyss aware, but not paying any attention to the inadequacy of those ideas and a chaotic outcome that will decimate life on earth.

What do we do? First, we accept that nature cannot be negotiated with and so understand that we must learn to life with it; second, use less of everything; third, use the extensive and intricate knowledge we presently have to soften the emerging difficulties.

How do we do that? Ensure an economic equity among all, that is making many poorer and many more people richer and to do that we consider implementing the Four-Hour Work Day.

In all that, it is worth remembering that existing market driven economic processes did not arrive trouble free – its birth was damnable, chaotic and decidedly troublesome as we went about investing society with the present and existing market system.

In fact, if we knew then what we know now, we would not have gone down this path at all, but of course it is easy to be intelligent after the event.

The challenge now is to simply be intelligent and within that understand that fewer working hours will, after a period of adjustment and difficulty, make life better for all.