We did not inherit the Earth from our fathers;
we are borrowing it from our children.
-Native American Saying
I think we’ve all heard this saying before, so much so that it’s become a cliché - a punch line, instead of the most important, insightful, and truthful idea about the world that humans could hope to live up to.
It is, in fact, a very different mantra than the one we hear all the time from businesspeople everywhere. More often than not, the sentiment we hear on a regular basis is that, “You can’t be a capitalist and care about the trees.” But frankly—we here at PHETASY don’t buy that. In fact, we think it’s exactly the opposite. We think if you are a capitalist, then your first priority should be the trees. We think that such a lame excuse for social irresponsibility is exactly what guilt-ridden millionaires say in order to satisfy their consciences and better justify their greed; at the expense of their children, their children’s children, and if we are lucky, (but at this rate it might be pushing it), their children’s children’s children.
Yet there is another mantra repeated over and over again in our society that is just as damaging. It’s the idea that if you care about the trees (or the children) then you can’t or shouldn’t make money (or have anything to do with money for that matter). The problem is, a lot of activists have become jealous and/or resentful of the money capitalists have made, and outraged over the devastation wrought on our planet due to capitalism’s quest to make a quick buck. They believe that money is the root of all evil. It is not money itself that is evil though, it is the people who become obsessed with it, who shape their lives around it, and who do unspeakable things in the name of the almighty dollar that should be considered evil. So the entire population of good Samaritans walking the earth is under the giant misassumption that they have to try and save the world for free or they ain’t saving the world at all.
We disagree with black and white philosophies of any kind, especially ones that are so exclusive. In fact, we not only disagree with them, but we hereby proclaim all black and white philosophies to be erroneous. (We also realize the giant PHETASY in the preceding statement. Click here for the definition.) And since we take great pleasure in making up words, here is another one to better describe what we consider ourselves: entreprenactivists. How ‘bout them apples?
There is nothing wrong with making money because the more money you make, the more social change you can effect. And we are out to do both—make money and subsequently save the world. We want to leave this blue planet better off than we found it. And we think we can. But we need help - and lots of it. Which is ultimately why we do what we do— we’re trying to rally people to the cause.
Not only do we agree that we don’t inherit the Earth from our fathers, but we are borrowing it from our children—we think we can have our cake and eat it too. A revolutionary thought, we know, but watch your reality and the reality around you change when you start to trust something so simple.
To learn more about how PHETASY is getting involved click here.