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?
"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?"
Don't be foolish, Sensei...
HG