Zero Exploitation

In its original use, to exploit was to achieve and accomplish. In the 1830s the word exploit began to be associated with selfish use of humans, particularly in slavery.

We might consider the word a template of human development. There are few instances in history where humans were not exploited as slaves for others. 

Even today in our local communities in ‘wealthy’ countries the salaries of some workers are below the living wage, making us party to a modern version of slavery.

Our current social media/tech unicorns exploit our behaviours for the profit of the few.

And then of course we have the exploitation of nature. Land, oceans, animals.

It is an aspiration to hold that in the future we might live full lives of regeneration, where we add more value in all domains than we extract and exploit as a thoughtful deliberate practise.

This is a whole system shift. It starts with each of us looking at the fullness of our life, what we consume, the supply chain, our choices, the all-in-accounting costs.

It starts at the beginning, at the frightening realisation of just how much we are enmeshed in some form of exploitation of other humans, of nature, of our beautiful home planet.

April 30th 2019

Photo taken April 30th, 2019