My friend Masanori and I have insisted for years we are baka, or fools. We have good evidence to support our conjecture; neither of us have led what could be called wise lives to date. But mostly I think we are fools because we are willing to look seriously at what many other people refer to as nonsense. Often a lot of other people. Often most of them.
Most people today will tell you we need economic growth to create jobs. But if everyone simply grew their food, there is a job for everyone and no one goes hungry. I may be baka for suggesting such nonsense, but the current path is not doing us much good; we are destroying our planet and the future of our offspring to "secure our future". Who is the fool?
Don't be foolish, Sensei..."Why do you have to develop? If economic growth rises from 5% to 10%, is happiness going to double? What's wrong with a growth rate of 0%? Isn't that a rather stable kind of economics? Could there be anything better than living simply and taking it easy?"
HG