Few of us who live here and now, in the United States in the early two-thousand-teens, think twice about the assumption that growth is a very good thing. We believe that our communities succeed by “growing new businesses,” that the companies we work for must “grow or die” and that our economy fails if it does not “grow.” This concept is entrenched and rarely challenged.
David Gardner, a filmmaker from Colorado, does challenge this notion in his new film, Growthbusters. Gardner’s premise, that growth on a local, national and global level can be deeply and permanently destructive, is disorienting. Coming to understand how growth can be very negative, and how we might cope with this revolutionary idea, is the purpose of this Salem Progressive Film Series evening, Thursday, January 12, 2012.
The event begins with the screening of the 2011 film and is followed by remarks by Gardner himself. Also speaking will be Salem’s former Mayor Mike Swaim (1996-2002), an innovative thinker who also appears in the film.
The film is framed by Gardner’s personal odyssey to halt the heedless development of his hometown, Colorado Springs. He begins with footage of several years ago, when he was an irritant to his City Council, fighting unquestioned attempts to develop the city. We see him treated with derision by council members and follow his bid to be himself elected to that same council in 2010.
But Gardner widens the film enormously, showing how the issues that confront a community are identical with those that nations deal with, and that the consequences of overcrowding – ecological deterioration and reduced quality of life – are the same no matter the scale.
Interviews with Nobel economists, population ecologists and billionaires-turned-anti-growth-advocates secure the argument solidly in the real world. Gardner eases us through the interviews and statistics, intercutting them with accounts of his own candidacy.
Some may find Gardner’s message diffused by repeated and clumsy attempts to seemingly focus attention on himself. We too often cut to a “therapist’s office” where a woman tosses him softball questions in awkward and artificially staged scenes. The viewer may also weary of repeated shots of the director posing heroically.
However as the movie proceeds, the director steadily introduces the “elephant in the room,” the crisis of the overpopulation of the planet itself, and how it results in the collapse of ocean life, climate change, mass starvation and conflict. He tackles the issues of how our current growth model generates profits for the few (“the 1%”) and widens the gap between the very wealthy and the rest of us.
Especially interesting is his argument that Fox News and government perpetuate thinking that growth benefits all of us. He explores the way media demotes us to “consumers” and fuels a misguided quest for The Good Life that will never be satisfied. He describes, with a retired physicist, how difficult it is for us to grasp our overtaxing of the planet because of our inability to conceptualize exponential growth.
Alternatives are explored that promote sustainability over headlong expansion, including bartering, green energy and the decision to go childless. An Australian millionaire offers grants to young people who can imagine ways to direct the planet in healthier directions.
Mike Swaim was included because of his reputation as an advocate for sustainable community planning. In a recent conversation with the Salem Weekly, Swaim voiced vigorous, unflagging interest in finding ways to “apply strategies in Salem that will make us better, not bigger.”
The question remains: can Swaim’s and Gardner’s idealism and the radical concept of “non-growth” sway the mindset of millions of human beings?
David Gardner and I recently discussed the current economic collapse. Gardner said, “There is a tendency to believe that this crisis is a result of lack of growth. That is certainly the interpretation our politicians give it.”
But as we suffer through these hard, bitter times, Gardner believes a crisis economy provides “the perfect opportunity to open minds, too. As millions grow disenchanted with the status quo, we can finally become willing to explore alternatives to the headlong rush to growth.”
