Well, it's not a pointless conflict...but it is stupid. As for transitioning away from oil...the current state of technology does not allow it, without the elimination of several billions of people....which will eventually occur...more quickly than it otherwise would. There is a savage truth in that scene in the Matrix...where Agent Smith compares humanity to a virus. It's not a perfect comparison...we do...can... sometimes cooperate, but competition is always just under the surface and while, unlike a virus, we can plan, we trust our plans too much.
Actually, the current state of tech allows a lot more transition than people think. But Umair’s point was not that eliminating dependence on oil is immediately possible. It’s that governments continue to *foster* dependency on oil instead of investing in the technologies we need for the future. And while we pretend that does not matter, climate change is growing more and more destructive: not in the future, but now.
Climate change was established science 50 years ago. If our governments had taken it seriously then (rather than taking petrodollars), we’d be in a greener, healthier, less feral world.
Yes of course, but the powers that be want to eat their cake and to have it. Governments or the 'elected' officials at least, tend to think in election cycles, anything longer is someone else's problem. They assume all will be well...because...it probably will be reasonably well until after they are dead. That will probably be changing sooner, rather than later. Will governing officials change? I see no reason for encouragement.
We are in a convoy with our fellow humans. Unfortunately, in our efforts to improve our position within that convoy, we too often allow the selfish or insane to be in the driver’s seat. Shame on us. At those times, we become passengers in a demolition derby. Redemption demands that reasonable passengers work together to regain control.
One day the oil will run out. We will have squandered a legacy for this one bright glittering spark of ingenuity and waste. The world shrinks and the forests return and tribes of people return to some agriculture, some hunting, some gathering, making more humans, and killing others on a smaller scale.
The universe will cast its uncaring eye past all of this and gaze again into eternity.
Umair, let me introduce you to gardening for your next write-up. You can still plant those vegetable seeds! 😊
There is also a lot of good change around the world. People are standing together in ways that openly defy oppression, refusing to be a product of profit. I have never been more active in politics than I am right now. Calls, letters, emails, protests & community meetings & some good old-fashioned social media seed planting against local stupidity.
One thing I’ve learned is that when folks see 20 community activists with signs, they see 20 people like them.
Speaking truth can spiral that quickly into much larger community activism.
IMO, you are absolutely correct about the porn part. That’s a fair analogy to describe this shared experience, & is one of the more accurate I’ve read.
We're not even trying. Compromised, co-opted, self-serving leadership was bad. It was competent at graft, in any case, and not so blind they courted societal suicide. The serfs had a place, if at the bottom. Psychos and apocalypticists are in power now. Steve Bannon must be thrilled. Evangelicals, who are driven by all kinds of weird primal shit, are excited. They expect to see Jesus riding in on a cloud amidst inconceivable destruction. What fun! Rational, responsible leadership is simply disallowed. It gets in the way of God's plan. Which is the annihilation.
Global diplomacy by a rapist, by a felon convicted of business fraud which is lying and cheating to steal something they have no right to is what we are stuck with at the moment. Kabuki governance by those who don't even know what that is. I can only see two clear paths right now. The first is a violent resistance, like the burning of the California warehouse with the comment "All you had to do was pay us enough to live," that wakes up the billionaires to the power of the sheer number of the rest of us. The second is a pandemic engineered by the crisper guys (or others) that wipes out 75% of the population worldwide so that global conflict becomes impractical. There should be a third, reasonable path, but I just don't see it happening quickly enough to avoid the first two. That said, perhaps the tipping point for this mass hysteria of stupidity has arrived and reason will return in time to avoid those paths.
Well, it's not a pointless conflict...but it is stupid. As for transitioning away from oil...the current state of technology does not allow it, without the elimination of several billions of people....which will eventually occur...more quickly than it otherwise would. There is a savage truth in that scene in the Matrix...where Agent Smith compares humanity to a virus. It's not a perfect comparison...we do...can... sometimes cooperate, but competition is always just under the surface and while, unlike a virus, we can plan, we trust our plans too much.
Actually, the current state of tech allows a lot more transition than people think. But Umair’s point was not that eliminating dependence on oil is immediately possible. It’s that governments continue to *foster* dependency on oil instead of investing in the technologies we need for the future. And while we pretend that does not matter, climate change is growing more and more destructive: not in the future, but now.
Climate change was established science 50 years ago. If our governments had taken it seriously then (rather than taking petrodollars), we’d be in a greener, healthier, less feral world.
Yes of course, but the powers that be want to eat their cake and to have it. Governments or the 'elected' officials at least, tend to think in election cycles, anything longer is someone else's problem. They assume all will be well...because...it probably will be reasonably well until after they are dead. That will probably be changing sooner, rather than later. Will governing officials change? I see no reason for encouragement.
Agreed
We are in a convoy with our fellow humans. Unfortunately, in our efforts to improve our position within that convoy, we too often allow the selfish or insane to be in the driver’s seat. Shame on us. At those times, we become passengers in a demolition derby. Redemption demands that reasonable passengers work together to regain control.
One day the oil will run out. We will have squandered a legacy for this one bright glittering spark of ingenuity and waste. The world shrinks and the forests return and tribes of people return to some agriculture, some hunting, some gathering, making more humans, and killing others on a smaller scale.
The universe will cast its uncaring eye past all of this and gaze again into eternity.
Umair, let me introduce you to gardening for your next write-up. You can still plant those vegetable seeds! 😊
There is also a lot of good change around the world. People are standing together in ways that openly defy oppression, refusing to be a product of profit. I have never been more active in politics than I am right now. Calls, letters, emails, protests & community meetings & some good old-fashioned social media seed planting against local stupidity.
One thing I’ve learned is that when folks see 20 community activists with signs, they see 20 people like them.
Speaking truth can spiral that quickly into much larger community activism.
IMO, you are absolutely correct about the porn part. That’s a fair analogy to describe this shared experience, & is one of the more accurate I’ve read.
We're not even trying. Compromised, co-opted, self-serving leadership was bad. It was competent at graft, in any case, and not so blind they courted societal suicide. The serfs had a place, if at the bottom. Psychos and apocalypticists are in power now. Steve Bannon must be thrilled. Evangelicals, who are driven by all kinds of weird primal shit, are excited. They expect to see Jesus riding in on a cloud amidst inconceivable destruction. What fun! Rational, responsible leadership is simply disallowed. It gets in the way of God's plan. Which is the annihilation.
dang, you’ve upset my apple cart again! 🤦🏼♂️
Global diplomacy by a rapist, by a felon convicted of business fraud which is lying and cheating to steal something they have no right to is what we are stuck with at the moment. Kabuki governance by those who don't even know what that is. I can only see two clear paths right now. The first is a violent resistance, like the burning of the California warehouse with the comment "All you had to do was pay us enough to live," that wakes up the billionaires to the power of the sheer number of the rest of us. The second is a pandemic engineered by the crisper guys (or others) that wipes out 75% of the population worldwide so that global conflict becomes impractical. There should be a third, reasonable path, but I just don't see it happening quickly enough to avoid the first two. That said, perhaps the tipping point for this mass hysteria of stupidity has arrived and reason will return in time to avoid those paths.