Herdthink?

A herd cannot actually "think", in the sense of being deliberate.  Group "decisions" are reactive, not proactive.  It's been alleged here that our species 'made a choice' to remove itself from the equation that balances life on earth, known as natural selection.  Of course, no group choice was made to do that.  Choices were made by individuals faced with the struggle to survive.  Collectively, it appears in retrospect to be a progressive movement via technological innovation; it fits into history books better that way.

Individual choices among nearly all other species are also purely reactive, made in the 'fight or flight' moments, or in response to some other physical stimuli: sights, sounds, smells, etc.  Our species evolved to possess higher cognitive function and that trait has proven ultimately to make us too smart for our britches, as it were.

It would appear that the slow and steady march of evolution on earth has led inexorably to a self-limiting outcome.  It seems we'll be hitting the reset button within the next 50 to 100 years, if present trends continue unchanged.  In the 4.5 billion years of earth history, one wonders how many times the reset button has already been pushed?  Maybe by ancient asteroid and/or early climate change? Some astronomers think "our" sun has another 5 billion years to shine before it goes dark, so it's likely the same button will be pushed over and over, too many times to count.

Is it inevitable the same evolutionary outcome will happen each time?   The rules of natural selection, as they're commonly understood, would point toward this recurring, "tragic" conclusion.  The apparent point of species competition is not to maintain balance, but it is to simply prevail among all perceived adversaries and in so doing, hope to ensure one's own survival for another day.  (In fact, there is not even a sense of competition at all, as we consider it.  There's no game to be played in the struggle to avoid being eaten.) The individuals who successfully adapt and mutate to possess better traits for outcompeting others will get the reward of mating ('way better than any consolation prize!), perhaps pass along those clever genes and log the mutation in the historical record.  Excellent game plan, except for the two minute drill, as it were.

If the rules are followed to the end of the game, the dominant species will be the one that develops cranial capacity to house a smarter brain.  That's the same brain that figures it will be good to invent nuclear weapons and will later think it's ok to ignore environmental clues that we've seriously screwed up the biosphere.

This planet seems to be designed for bloodsport, like a giant colosseum for gladiator contests.  Humans get to come out on top this time around, but it looks like the curtain will come down soon on our show and the spilled popcorn, peanut shells and litter will be swept up in time for the start of the next show.  (I have a hunch that squirrels will be the dominant species next time  - they have mastered the birdfeeder in this incarnation and in the next go-'round watch for them to crack the cold fusion puzzle.)

Are all planets with developing life like this one?  Are there any out there where the model for interspecies relationships isn't based on eating whatever you can run down and catch in your claws?  Wouldn't it be nice to actually inhabit a place like the Rousseau painting entitled, Peaceable Kingdom?  It depicts a paradise-like, calm coexistence among creatures in repose with small children in their midst.  None seems interested in tearing the flesh off the bones of the others - how refreshing - 'must be all vegans.

Back on the ranch, it has been noted that humans are the dominant herd.  It seems we are now witness to a development that could be called 'species fragmentation'.  Others might call it "class warfare".   The same, scorched-earth approach we used on the other species - where, if you're not cheating you'e not trying hard enough - we are now using on each other in an intraspecies grudge match!  There's a real Smack DownTM going on like that in Wisconsin!  Winning at all costs is the battle cry and if that means bringing down the whole place and everyone in it, well, dammit - it beats losing!...(?.or isn't it just the same?..only worse?)

"It is possible to be provincial in time as well as in place; and the unfortunate truth is that all but a handful of people are narrowly provincial in time." (taken from excerpts from Confessions of a Philosopher, 1997 by Bryan Magee, as excerpted by the author of www.basicincome.com/bp/index.html - 'really worth checking out.)

It might be that we're just in a prolonged economic downturn, or we might be witnessing hints of the behavior some believe will be necessary to survive in the end-game scenario alluded to above.  Are the Republicans now foreshadowing the traits of those who will be scrapping over the last of the spoils?  They're certainly reminiscent of that one brat in the sandbox who simply would not share his toys.  That's the same child who so shocked others nearby that they each vowed then and there to either be just like him (Republican) or to never be like him (Democrat).

"In every age of transition men are never so firmly bound to one way of life as when they are about to abandon it."

Bernard Levin 

(copied from the source at the link below)

It could be that we are seeing the 'darkness before the dawn' in our herdthink behavior.  We might actually start electing people from the political center so that fruitful compromise might lead to actual beneficial legislation, and..... I might have the winning lottery ticket waiting for me at the convenience store.

Maybe we should all give Buddhism further consideration - but with this twist:
beyond embracing the pain which is human experience, we should think about embracing the pain which is right-at-the-end of human experience.

This notion leads us, at last, to the subject of a posting in the near future - excarnation.  What are the choices for a species looking to make a graceful exit - or perhaps, at least that specie's members who belong to a large and rapidly-aging generation where the needs for their extended care will soon far outdistance the resources to meet those needs?   (Writing for a fainthearted audience would be no fun.)

Not as Simple as Herding Sheep

No, posting the following line of argument is more like herding cats - and necessarily so!  This is an attempt to rationally argue for an irrational concept - the existence of God.  (Not to be confused with anything to do with church.)  This is an answer to skeptics of faith - those who will believe it when they see it.  But, I also argue for them of the non-existence of God.  On the whole, it is a messy, long-winded, free-ranging exercise that probably calls for a cup of tea.   Thanks, I hope it works for you, here we go:

 Scientific researchers continually extend the micro and macro ends of the spectrum of observable physical phenomena, and yet there remains an unknown portion beyond each end that contains imaginable, but unknowable, things - and probably, infinite unimaginable things. (All of known science was first unimaginable, then was imagined and only then could it become known.)  Somewhere in those fuzzy realms of unknowable things, we imagine that laws and truths exist, but we can’t prove them without evidence.  There, we come up against the limits of rationality and it is as enticing as it is maddening. 

In the vastness of our known world and of these unknown realms we simultaneously look for evidence of, and want to imagine, a grand, singular, unifying principle - because without that, everything is just too detailed and complicated to behold independently.  

Rational Thought and Imagination might be the defining characteristics of our species, for better and worse, and it would seem they are the tools by which we first separated ourselves from the unity of everything else at some point in our distant past.  We imagined a better way to live and made it happen through the very rational process of trial and error, in myriad permutations over millennia to become something like self-evolving.  (We left the chance of natural selection to the other creatures.) Because this  really hasn’t worked out very well in some important respects, we’ve been trying to use these tools ever since to find a path toward reunification with this grail of imagined singularity.

This last bit is the short explanation for why there is no god, gods or God - we imagined the story of God(s) and most humans have stuck with it, despite a lot of evidence to the contrary.  Some argue it’s only logical that a species possessing higher cognitive capacity should invent gods.  There might be evidence that it serves an evolutionary need for us to do so.  I have no argument with any such evidence, in fact, it supports the case I hope to make here.

Along with the ideas of the unifying principle and of God, let’s also consider that of the Truth:  At some recent point, since the ascendancy of Science, we seem overly occupied with the Truth.  Of course, it is the supposed outcome of the rational mind doing it’s thing and we certainly aspire to rationality.  On the other hand, the most rational of us know best the relativity of the concept of Truth.  The frame of reference, or context, largely determines the validity of, first, observation, and then interpretation and finally any conclusions or judgments.  Evidence supports the Truth?  Yes, and all of it exists in our minds after being sifted in there through our individual filters.  Can Truth exist apart from the mind?  ‘Not sure there has ever been a more pointless question.

For most of our history, we probably lived as much or more by imagination than we have lived by rational thought.  Only in the last five or six centuries has the trend been to hold rational thought in relatively higher esteem.  Just lately, as evidenced by our currently-imbalanced politics and policies, have we seen something like popular disdain for the supposed shortcomings of imagination.  One of the most celebrated rational minds in history belonged to Albert Einstein who made the matter clear when he simply stated, “Imagination is more important that knowledge”.  (It certainly precedes knowledge , but perhaps he sensed a growing imbalance when he proclaimed this for counter-emphasis.)

A word about imagination:  Since imagination resides in our minds, we believe its products are our own unique creations.  The terms denotes creation of a representation, or image, of a concept that hadn't been previously considered - where? - in one's mind.  Is it imaginable that there is a function of the mind that is similar to a receiver and that what comes to it, and what we truly originate, are often virtually indistinguishable to us.  It's possible we think an "original" thought is ours but exact ownership or origin is not certain.  It's possible that it happens far more than we can imagine.

Consideration from a different angle:

Certainly, unchecked growth in any petri dish, or on any single planet is a self-limiting concept, and yet it is the central, driving principal of being.  Flourish or face extinction.  We know on some level that we are living a lie, as it were.  We intuitively hold to the notion of indefinite growth, while knowing we live in a finite realm.  Since we made ourselves the exception to the governing rule of natural selection that holds species in balance, our mortal proposition actually is ‘flourish and face extinction.’  Something has eventually got to give, and that will probably be at the boundaries of our known experience: it could either be an unrecognizably-altered existence, or an abruptly-discontinued existence, or it could be continued existence in an unknown place/time.  

Darwin has clearly demonstrated that growth occurs in stages and not all advance to the next stage at the same time, if at all.  It can be assumed that any surviving organism is well-equipped for its present stage and only those that exhibit the requisite, superior traits will mutate or “matriculate” to the next stage.  Organisms cannot be expected to have full knowledge of their future stages of development until they “arrive” there; there’s no need for it yet.  

From the realm of unknowable things come this important question: what if evidenced-based, rational thought is the same tool God has used to construct obstacles or challenges to higher development? 

Successful organisms react to challenge by striving and so challenge is an important catalyst for growth.  Now, if there is a singular source, a creator of all things, it/he/she necessarily exists beyond, above and apart from our existence in time and space.  So, He, She, It - would have cards to play that we’ve never even seen in the deck.  Certainly one of those cards could mean that, at this stage of our development, all observable evidence will point toward the idea there is no god, so that only those who successfully strive will find hints of anything beyond known science.  

Einstein also said, “I want to know God’s thoughts; the rest are details.”

Picking up on these hints must necessarily call for imagination - the very tool we currently hold in relatively low regard.   We’ve long-used imagination to further our own evolution and we are all faced with using it to make a leap to the next level: attempting to imagine an eternal, singular source.  This is the proverbial leap of faith.  A majority of the species claims to have made it, but it’s not for everybody. 

  

Could it be that levels of development “await” us that are only knowable to those residing at that level and are only barely imaginable our present level?   Given what scientific theorists have to say about the time/space continuum, could it be that some advanced levels of development are beyond the known scope of mortal time and terrestrial space?  Is it a given that all of our species will make the grade, as it were, or does it take an act of will on our parts?  What is that prerequisite act of will?  Living a life of belief in, or that is imaginative of, that which is presently unknowable.

So, the case has been made (tediously, if not convincingly) that our imagination is an underutilized tool and it must be used, not to look for evidence, but to imagine a singular, infinite source in an earnest way, as a matter of survival in a future, unknowable stage of development.  There is mystery and that should be okay.  Some find meaning in the idea when put this way: salvation can be found in believing in God (I don’t find it meaningful particularly, but it works for a lot of folks). 

What is it that spurs the imagination most?  Reverence.  A deep and compelling affinity for that which is is bigger and better than us and seems to beckon our attention.  Beyond just the ability to notice, and even beyond careful consideration, we possess the capacity for loving and for devoted attention.  Why? Does it only exist as a evolutionary trait, a necessary parental instinct?  It seems we have evolved to a state of a surplus capacity for love.  More than a surplus capacity, it is actually seems to be a limitless capacity and in that unique regard, it is perhaps our best avenue to comprehending the infinite.  By definition, infinity is a singular concept and a comprehension of this realm naturally stirs deep-seated reverence.  This is Einstein’s God, and that works for me.

The Big Question.

It was mentioned in an earlier post that our existential conundrum is that our planet is too small.  Actually, it is the perfect size for us, and it’s we that have grown too numerous - by several orders of magnitude.  This is, of course, the mother of all problems and it’s no wonder that we chase after every shiny object trying forget about it.  Any and all distractions are welcome if they save us from contemplating how thin we have worn the welcome mat.   How else can you explain such phenomena as Rick Perry, Beanie Babies or the Home Shopping Channel?

There might be some readers who will insist this is an overly dramatic, apocalyptic view of things and that, even if the general trend is not good, we still have a lot of time to change.  Maybe, maybe not.  I’m betting that, if there is a seventh generation of our descendants, they will have wished we did more sooner to fix things.

 I think those who are planning for trouble based on the Mayan calendar have an apocalyptic view.  Others, who are paying attention to patterns of life on earth and see disturbing trends, are simply being observant.

Almost 7 billion of us are consuming resources at an all-time high rate, and creating more waste than ever before.  By 2050, it is expected that earth will be asked to host 50% more of us..... (I would ask any Tea Party member, if this many of us has had no significant impact so far, what is the magic number beyond which we've suddenly got problems?  Is there such a point in our future on this finite planet? - or maybe we should just worry about that question later - right now, it’s about jobs, jobs, jobs!)

Is it inevitable that this population prediction will come true?  By no means, that’s why predictions are so difficult. (Especially about the future. Predictions about the past are often right on the mark.) Climate change and rising sea levels will probably make many populous, coastal areas unlivable and widespread eco-refugee migration will concentrate population elsewhere which could lower regional birthrates, thanks to a way-less-than-romantic mood at that point. It is not at all unimaginable that the rate of population growth will flatten out or even decline somewhat in the next few decades, if circumstances get severe enough.  

All of our species’ problems are related to overpopulation, including those that are like the horses we’ve already let out of the barn - they’re running wild on their own now.  These are the ones that will probably have the greatest influence on birth and death rates:  climate change, drug-resistant viruses, invasive species, etc.   It also seems that our gluttonous rate of increased energy and resource consumption almost has a life of its own.  So, we can probably expect some “corrections”, as the market analysts are fond of saying when they get their lunch handed to them.

What is not hospitable for 8 or 9 billion can’t be too good for 5 or 6 billion either.  It won’t be wonderful for any number of billions.  We’re looking at a difficult scenario for the grandchildren.

So, what to do?  What to tell the grandchildren?  At the risk of taking this post on a wildly divergent path, and of boldly diving into ridiculously deep water, I’ll put out a couple of off-the-wall questions:  

For one, well, wouldn’t it be helpful to know for sure if there is a God?  If God swoops down out of the clouds on Judgment Day, like an ace thrown on the last trick, well then I owe the fire and brimstone evangelists an apology, and I’ll be packing my bags for hell!  It’s beyond bothersome that we can’t know for sure, not in the same way you can for sure know the contents of the phone book for example.  

Should we get really serious about recycling, turning out the lights and growing a vegetable garden, or just attend church regularly?  Both? Neither?  

This leads to the biggest of all the big questions and I’ll pose it here, but then address it in more detail another time soon: Did God create Man or did Man create God?  This can be “answered” by faith alone, or through a logical process we can at least examine the question a little more clearly and do a sort of “work-around” on the answer.  In any case, please stop by again soon with your thinking cap securely strapped on.

Our Herd in a World of Hurt

“Sustainability” is a term thrown around so much lately it has lost its meaning and now has about the same impact as baaa-ing from a flock out in the pasture.  Baaa, baaa, yada, yada....  Not unlike, “going green” and “all-natural” and all the other well-intentioned slogans for inspiring stewardship, this bumper sticker label has been commercially co-opted and leaves one searching for yet another term that will actually make a difference.  (It would be good for us to keep some important words from running around in the marketplace where they’ll get gobbled up and pooped out into a sales pitch.)

Our species has not done anything truly sustainable since we first decided to make permanent settlements for ourselves over five thousand years ago.  Since then we’ve had “investments” to protect and support.  These called for bigger families to outnumber other clans and to defend some piece of land, and to tend the herds and work the fields.  In turn, all that called for more land to support the bigger families and off we go, down the wrong road.  We are now a long way down that road and I’m am really sorry to say it seems its a dimly-lit, one-way, narrowing alley.

It’s pretty common for us to think of domesticating animals and raising crops as the start of Progress.  But play it out for yourself, the likely ultimate price of progress appears to be self-extinction or -excarnation - which, had we known....   We didn’t, or couldn’t, know - or didn’t want to know we we’re doing anything wrong for the longest time.  The evidence didn’t support any concern.  Dammit.  

Could anything we might have intentionally done at anytime have made a difference?  At what point along the steady march from village to town to city to metropolitan area to mega-sprawl could we have stopped and said, “This just ain’t right.”  There have been voices, but not loud enough to be heard over the din of the marching band blaring the fight song for Civilization, Scientific Progress, Innovation!

One recent voice, Wendell Barry, has said in regard to resource stewardship, anything we do today called “use”, future generations will call “theft”.  Thus it has been for millennia - it’s just that now, we have nearly seven billion thieves and the cost is so much more obvious.  What’s not obvious is how we will overcome the costs that are now already apparent.

So far this year, that is now still in its hurricane season, is the all-time priciest for climactic catastrophe recovery costs.  Hurricanes, droughts, floods, wildfires, tornados, heavy rains, straight line winds. If we exclude earthquakes, we will still set a record for disaster relief expense. I would love to say this is an aberration and next year will be back to normal - I really would love to be able to say that with some degree of confidence.

I do not study the weather firsthand with any dedication, but I definitely pay attention to the patterns for the weather systems that come through our area, and they are shifting in a fluky way.  It seems a new jet stream path has caused wind directions, temperature ranges and rain amounts to be less predictable.  We’ve had three street flooding episodes this year, which is one more than the total of the previous 16 years (since we’ve lived here).

From this cheery vantage point, there are a few fruitful directions in which we can take our thoughts (not many, just a few).  And, these will be subjects of near-future posts and with those, we may find some ideas in which to find hope. 

The Real Tragedy Started on 9/12

I heard a snippet of a country-style song on the radio with the lyrics, “Where were you when the world stopped spinning?” (maybe it was, “...turning?”) in reference to 9/11.  There were thousands whose lives either ended that day, or whose lives were so disrupted that the world did indeed feel that way.  How can your heart not ache for them?  They were not in “harm’s way”, nor were they threatened by anyone - nor threatening anyone - by simply living their usual routines that morning. Yet their world stopped spinning because some fringe ideologues recklessly decided to make a grand, symbolic, criminal gesture.

For those who offered, or needed, or received help after the tragedy, everyone’s compassion is warranted.  Indeed, if there's a good thing about any tragedy it is the potential for growth through the demonstration of compassion.  This is why we so often hear, ‘it is not what happens to you in life that counts, it’s how you react to it’.

For a short while, a world that previously might have had mixed feelings about America, was unified in their show of support. What followed as “America’s” reaction gives clear, strong testimony to the power of fear and greed.  It took only a little while to turn aside the outpouring of goodwill,‘circle the wagons’ and reinforce the world’s previously-held disdain for the failed promise of the U.S.A.

It took the powerful greed of a very few powerful men to capitalize on the powerful fear that the attack had instilled in the American people.  Instead of quenching the small flames of public pain, jitters and anger through clear-sighted leadership, they fanned the flames into a consuming fire of terror and then turned their sights on selecting a profitable object for revenge.  

Donald Rumsfeld was appointed to a cabinet position by Dick Nixon, our criminal president, who once called Rummy “..a ruthless little bastard”.  For about the next thirty years, Rummy and his good friend and protegé, Dick Cheney each worked their ways into and out of key administrative positions in government and big business, helping themselves and each other up the ladder rungs of power and wealth, to where they stood on 9/11:  Secretary of Defense and Vice President.  These two mortal stand-ins for Lucifer somehow spawned an equally-evil, if dull-witted, offspring.

President George W(orst Ever) Bush, in roughly the same time frame, skipped out on Viet Nam by signing with and going AWOL from the Texas Air National Guard, bankrupted a small Texas oil company, got slapped with a DWI, lost a bid for a seat in congress, was handed an ownership stake of the Texas Rangers (and screwed that up), won the governorship with the strong-arm help of his father.  (Here is a link to a list of his “accomplishments”, in case you’re looking to become outraged: http://politicalhumor.about.com/library/blbushresume.htm)

The combination of these three men and the timing of the 9/11 attacks has proven to be a ‘perfect-enough storm’ for a shameful, disastrous and very dark chapter in the story of America.  The terribly sad irony is that they cloaked their greed with the U.S. flag and sold their fear-mongering scheme via paid “expert consultants” to the networks - and it was all about grabbing personal wealth and power and about helping their political and business friends to more of the same.  They ducked in and out with pockets’ full o’ cash and left everyone mesmerized, seeing stars and stripes and repeatedly mumbling the vow to never forget. 

9/11 makes some people want to cry for reasons of very personal loss.  It makes want to cry for the national sense of loss and for what we might have otherwise become by now.  The world really needed our story to continue as a heroic tale, instead of we’ve handed them something that reads like a rap sheet.

From Baaa-d to Worse?

“Sustainability” is a term thrown around so much lately it has lost its meaning and now has about the same impact as baaa-ing from a flock out in the pasture.  Baaa, baaa, yada, yada....  Not unlike, “going green” and “all-natural” and all the other well-intentioned slogans for inspiring stewardship, this bumper sticker label has been commercially co-opted and leaves one searching for yet another term that will actually make a difference.  (It would be good to keep some important words from running around in the marketplace where they get gobbled up and pooped out into a sales pitch.)

Our species has not done anything truly sustainable since we first decided to make permanent settlements for ourselves over five thousand years ago.  Since then we’ve had “investments” to protect and support.  These called for bigger families to outnumber other clans and to defend some piece of land, and to tend the herds and work the fields.  In turn, all of that called for more land to support the bigger families and off we went, down the wrong, unsustainable road.  We are now a long way down that road and - I really hope I'm wrong - it seems its a dimly-lit, one-way, narrowing alley.  

(If you live in a red state, I know, I know this is not making any sense.  Just move on to other blogs about puppies or outboard motors.)

It’s pretty common for us to think of domesticating animals and raising crops as the start of Progress.  In fact, almost nobody would say otherwise.  But play it out for yourself, the likely ultimate price of Progress appears to be self-extinction - or excarnation - which, had we known....   We didn’t, or couldn’t, know - or didn’t want to know we we’re doing anything wrong for the longest time.  The evidence didn’t support any concern.  Dammit.

Could anything we might have intentionally done at anytime have made a difference?

At what point along the steady march from village to town to city to metropolitan area to mega-sprawl could we have stopped and said, “This just ain’t right.”  There have been voices, but not loud enough to be heard over the din of the marching band blaring the fight song for Civilization, Scientific Progress, Innovation! 

One recent voice, that of Wendell Barry, has said in regard to resource stewardship, anything we do today called “use”, future generations will call “theft”.  Thus it has been for millennia - it’s just that now, we have over six billion thieves and the cost is so much more obvious.  What’s not obvious is how we will overcome the costs that are now already apparent.

This year, that is not yet over, is the all-time priciest for climactic catastrophe recovery costs.  Hurricanes, droughts, floods, wildfires, tornados, heavy rains, straight line winds...  excluding earthquakes, we have still set a record for spending on disaster relief.  I would love to say this is an aberration and next year will be back to normal.  I would love that like I can't believe.  Make-believe is so appealing.

I do not study the weather firsthand with any dedication, but I definitely pay attention to the patterns for the weather systems that come through our area, and they are shifting in a fluky way.  It seems a new jet stream path has caused wind directions, temperature ranges and rain amounts to be less predictable.  We’ve had three street flooding episodes this year, which is the total of the previous 16 years (since we’ve lived here).

From this cheery vantage point, there are a few fruitful directions in which we can take our thoughts (not many, just a few).  And, these will be subjects of near-future posts and in them we may find some ideas for hope. 

It Gets This Baaaa-d, That's How Baaaa-d is Has to Get!

Thinking has a downside.  It really does.  There’s something like a dark tunnel that comes over the horizon after riding a train of rational thought a ways down the tracks. There are several whole segments of society not at risk of ever finding out about that.  Generally, any of the groups of fervent believers in any sort of ‘magical thinking’ are not likely to take logical thought to any point too far.  They can’t afford to. If one lives in a house of cards, don’t leave the window open, please no fresh breezes of honesty.

‘Magical thinking’ is a misnomer, of course it’s actually magical believing.  Belief doesn’t require a factual basis, it only means buying into a good story, regardless of its proximity to the truth.  These several groups in society are zealously evangelical in their attempt to make reality conform to the story they’re inhabiting.  The degree to which they harshly impose their story on others only depends on how much power they wield.  Right now, they control the legislative branch and have a good hold on the judicial.

These seem to be reincarnated witch-burners, they epitomize the Sheepness behind the blog name.  If I could reach in and tweak their simple little Sheep brains, it would become my full-time vocation and my life’s mission.  They’re not to blame for all our woes, because the rest of us play a supporting role as acquiescent or apathetic Sheep.  Stupid, violent sheep are easy to pick out of the herd, but why they are then tolerated within the herd is another question.

Stupid, violent Sheep will never find this blog.  They get their political views from Rupert Murdoch via Fox news, or from the NRA via their toothless cousin Billy Joe with the Confederate flag baseball cap and the spit-stained overalls.  Or, their analytical expert may be the hairdresser, who heard her boyfriend say said that his brother-in-law told him that he heard there was no such thing as global warming - the gummint’s trying to pull the wool over on us sheep agin - baaa...

note: The aforementioned dark tunnel is just around the next bend and it really is no fun at all to go inside.  I’m going to suggest that you can still “Have a Nice Day! :)®” if you don’t read beyond this point.  

The dark tunnel that becomes apparent after thinking a while starts with a feeling that there’s something fishy going on here.  Actually, there is a malaise that has a hold of society on many levels that has the same root cause.  We do what we can - as often as we can - to distract ourselves from following this troubling line of thought.  (In fact, almost all of modern day life is devoted to avoiding it.) Following the causes for that unsettling feeling will - sooner or later - develop into a full blown realization of our existential conundrum:  this lovely little planet just ain’t big enough for us.  

If we were bacteria studied in a lab, our species’ petri dish would be over half full of us, the medium would be over half-consumed.  We’re past the peak and on the downhill slope of our curve.  If you want all the depressing details, check out this link:

http://pastthetippingpoint.ca/node?page=1

The essential, founding story of this country is merely the latest chapter (written with accelerated pacing) in the larger fundamental human story as it has unfolded since the time of the introductory chapter entitled, “the Garden of Eden”.  The other title “the Neolithic Revolution”, somewhere between 50 to 130 centuries ago.   Either label refers to the same evolutionary development where we switched from hunter-gatherers to farmers-herders.  

This gradual change for our species resulted in a lifestyle of permanent settlements, after having followed migratory herds around in nomad fashion for the previous 200 - 500 millennia.  It is - in fact - where we went wrong.  We took a gradual wrong turn, but it makes a better story if we say it happened in a climactic moment because of a Villain.

Fast forward to the 19th and 20th century A.D.  The theme of this chapter would have us believe that we can grow indefinitely: resources are unlimited, the environment is too big to be impacted by humans, whether we are three, or six or nine billion.  This story line says this is all God’s Creation, given to us to trash out however we wish, because we are incredibly special.  We were made in God’s image and given this piece of paradise, except that one of us told a lie a long time ago and now we’re all doomed until we’re saved at the very end, just in the knick of time.  So, no worries.

The human species is essentially parasitic. We are the apex predators of all food chains, the ultimate invasive species.  If parasites have a plan B at all, it is one based on the hope that another host will come along just as this one is consumed.  We’re going to need a new planet pretty soon.  Some experts are guessing it will be within one or two generations.  

The real conundrum isn’t so much that the time clock is ticking for us, but rather does it do any good to point this out.  Can human nature be changed before dire circumstances   force it, or before it’s too late to make a difference?  

At this point, well inside the tunnel, the train seems to slow to a crawl.  ‘Really sorry about ruining your day.

In a post in the near future, I’ll get the train to back up out of the tunnel and point out a possible different set of tracks.  It has to do with the question:  Did we take a “wrong” turn? i.e., was our path inevitable?  Stay tuned.

Speaking of the weather....

Just because we're setting records with increasing frequency for extreme weather events doesn't mean it has anything to do with supposed global climate change.  Just because scientists have made observations, recorded data and made mathematical calculations based on factual information doesn't mean humans have anything to do with the causes of all these extreme weather events.  Just because hundreds and thousands of millions of people have been burning coal, wood and other fuels for centuries doesn't mean all those smoke particles in the atmosphere are the cause of changing temperatures that might be changing for other, natural reasons.  Just because the science isn't 100% conclusive, and couldn't possibly be - except until after the point at which it is too late to help, doesn't mean we should do anything about some of the possible causes that we do have control over while we can still make a difference...

    .... it doesn't matter to the ostrich what the weather is doing as long as its head is in the sand*.
                                                     .     .      .      .      .      .      .      .
Since it's unlikely a Republican is going to weigh-in with a response to this post, I'll go ahead with a wild guess at a conservative opinion on this matter:

'If you're suggesting that government should force business to spend money on reducing greenhouse gas emissions, it's obvious you don't know how costly that would be to my corporation's bottom line and how much that might affect the shareholder stock dividends for the third quarter!  The board of directors would never stand for it and besides, they've based my compensation package on short-term profit margins, so less government regulation is what we need - not more!

It's also unlikely an Evangelical would ever post a reply here, so again, I'll just have to offer a guess:
'These events are God's punishment for our wickedness!  We have committed an abomination before the  Lord by allowing homosexuals in our midst!  These are Signs of the End Times and the Almighty's Merciful Hand of JUSTICE shall smite the evildoers and lift up the Righteous to sit at His Banquet Table on the Judgment Day!'

..so there! take that, you so-called scientists and your inconclusive "facts".

Actually, there's no need to speculate about any of this.  Michele Bachmann has actually combined the unassailable logic of both positions and said (the earthquake and) the hurricane are God's message to the politicians in Washington to rein in the spending.  (You Tube videos of her speeches are too good to be true.) It will be so reassuring when she becomes president because we will finally have someone in the office with a direct line to the Creator of the Universe - that's a hell of a ticket!

* (for the record, ostriches do not bury their heads in the sand.  They will lay their heads down and stay motionless making themselves look like a lump if threatened.)

How Baaaa-d does it have to get?

The StarTribune sometimes can make me really angry.  This morning I just wanted to find the weather forecast and instead I stumbled upon the business section where the following was printed:

...Despite recording nearly $1.1 billion in profits last year, Ameriprise actually got back $224 million in federal income taxes...25 companies reported average global profits of $1.9 billion last year.  But through a variety of accounting techniques, tax breaks and loopholes they managed to shave millions off their actual tax payments, and in many cases got money back from the Internal Revenue Service...They averaged tax refunds or credits of about $300 million each...at the top of the (list), ranked by CEO compensation, Stanley Black & Decker (paid CEO) John Lundgren...$32 million last year, while the company got a federal corporate income tax credit of $75 million."

All I wanted was to find out the weather forecast, dammit!  This may teach me to look through the paper more carefully next time.

I've got a friend who is waiting to hear if she'll be able to keep her job, which doesn't pay all that well in the first place,  but her family relies on her monthly checks that go entirely to paying the mortgage.  Because the family was feeling a squeeze a couple of years ago, they refinanced along with most of the working class half of the country.  We all were convinced by lenders that house prices will just keep going up, so what might otherwise seem like overextended borrowing was really nothing to worry about.  The spiel given to anyone with a 98 degree body temperature went something like this:

"You can just keep refinancing; it's not only a house, think of it as living inside your very own ATM.  We've got the money right here waiting for you, all you have to do is sign some papers and walk out with a check in your hand - it's just that simple!

Still, my friend is not one to complain, even though her mortgage payment is for a loan amount twice the present value of her house.  Not that she would smile much either, she could use some serious dental work because she has deferred routine care for years and just has teeth pulled when they get too bad.  Instead, she has seen to it that her own children don't go without at least some visits to the dentist.  Insurance coverage under a dental plan? Nah...she's a teacher at a private school.  Her students have shiny white teeth, smiling all the way to the door of Mommy's Lexus as she picks them up at the end of the day. 'No insurance, no pension and she may be shown the door after twenty, dedicated years of service, which in her world means loving care and self-sacrifice.  That's who she is.

So, my friend is waiting to hear if bankruptcy and/or foreclosure are possibilities for her family.  She'll hear next week whether the school can afford to hire her back this year after the administrator returns (seriously) from a vacation in the Bahamas (unbelievably taking off the entire week just before the start of the school year!)  My friend waits on pins and needles while the one who determines her future sits sipping drinks in the shade of a oceanside cabana.

Meanwhile the CEOs of any of those 25 top companies are waiting to hear how many of their tens of millions will be in stock options.  They have good accountants who will make it seem like they're broke on paper, just like the ones who finagle the books before the IRS returns are filed down at the office.  They'll all be getting refunds. The weather forecast for them is always sunny.

I'm going to probably skip looking up the weather forecast altogether, I'll just end up thinking of the time I stumbled upon the business section.