Sunday, April 22, 2012

The Sky Has Fallen

It's Earth Day again and I want to make my argument once again for voluntary change rather than what I expect will be mandatory as a crisis looms. See, the problem is that there really is no justice for the ignorant gas and oil producers who claim the market rules their decisions. The climate change deniers can say it's a total left wing conspiracy so pot dealers can make more money but there's no punishment for ignoring the obvious. In a perfect world you would either take steps to reduce your carbon imprint or you would personally suffer the consequences when the crisis escalates. It doesn't matter how rich you are or how well intended your resource intense gadgets were meant, you would be flayed with shredded iPads when the sun finally goes dark. But it's not a perfect world and I guarantee that the hoards of trolls rowing down the denial river will eventually say, "Well, that's all water under the bridge now. No use crying over spilt milk." and they will be referring to several cities in America (not their own) being obliterated by super storms. Obviously, that kind of person is repulsive and has no place in a civilized culture. But the truth is that they are also the motivated capitalists who will immediately embrace solar power and wind power and pot farms as soon as the market dictates the demand.


They tell the truth when they admit they have no opinion outside of the consumer trade market. They are vacuous husks of flesh who read the Wall Street Journal and worry about atrocities because it might impact the future trading of hog tongues. Really, this is a repulsive person, obviously, and I can't bring myself to trade with them and that leaves me in a standing boycott of almost everyone on the continent. I've met honest individuals but only a handful are engaged in their own trade. Everyone else, including me, has sold out and works for the Pharaoh in hopes of pie in the sky though that's a dirty lie. My point is that we're fucked and there is no justice. The arms trade America did with Germany and Iraq and the Taliban absolutely and positively came back to bite us on the ass...but where is the justice? Reagan traded weapons to Bin Laden so he could fight the Russians and those same weapons ended up killing American soldiers. Was any justice meted out to the Reagans for their shortsighted ignorance? Nope. Your dead son or daughter in the armed forces was considered water under the bridge, collateral damage, acceptable casualty and life moved on. I don't see any end to this kind of insanity and maybe that's good but I also have a suspicion that we get the exact country that we deserve. I've talked about social equity before and I thought I invented the term but it's tossed around by snobby intellectuals like me quite a bit. The poster child, in my opinion, is Sir Wilfred Grenfell. Gandhi is a close second but they are both in the same league. Basically, they did not profit financially from their endeavors, but the culture profited enormously. And I don't mean they got iPads and cock rings for their donkey. No, Labrador and India grew as healthy cultures in a fundamental paradigm shift and it was all because two men did not exploit the market. Grenfell and Bill Gates are very similar but one of them did not see the market as one to be profited from. Grenfell wanted to live in a cooperative and self sufficient culture so his efforts were directed toward that end...and it worked. He actually set the foundation of a culture that is like night and day to what I see in modern America. You would have to visit Labrador to actually see what I'm talking about. It's true that population made it something Grenfell could accomplish but I look back in time and only 100 years before Grenfell landed in Labrador, American expansionists were moving west and had the exact same scenario. Native populations that were surviving but not prospering and lacked medical advances and European enlightenment. I'm telling you that the scenario was identical and the populations were identical. The same opportunity for an exchange of ideas was there but instead of one man leading a movement to improve the lives of the Labrador Fisherman, what happened was the American Holocaust as the native population was obliterated, the landscape altered, the wildlife massacred, the rivers polluted and the remaining settlers destined to be wage slaves arguing over the last chicken nugget on their 15 minute break from manufacturing car parts.  I'm telling you that this is night and day compared to the people of the Labrador Coast and the only difference was the philosophical position of Wilfred Grenfell and the presidential politics of Madison, Monroe, Polk and Jackson. A terrible decision was made in 1800 and the irreversible detour took place. Instead of Canadians who don't lock their doors, I can not park my car in a major city without fear of being robbed or killed. Labrador simply draws the brotherhood out of you. It all comes down to social equity and the difference one person can make. My point is that a utopia can be created, it has been created but we fucked up completely in the creation of this country and continue to fuck up by allowing lawyers, students of law and justice, to charge $200 an hour for their time. We get exactly the injustice we deserve.

There are too many arguments against my case to defend against right now. I'm naked and typing in the morning as I prepare for another day sorting tax returns. It's Earth Day and the number one argument I hear from laissez faire industrialists boils down to this: "My house is standing and my water is clean so there is no problem." This is the kind of person who thinks sex ends when they have an orgasm. Totally selfish motherfucker, but basically following the lead of the selfish presidents and senators they elected. I don't know many role models like Wilfred Grenfell in America. Maybe Martin Luther King and Sergeant Shriver. No, there are damn few Americans who took Grenfell's path. Can anyone think of one? I Really can't. America is the king of selfish, shortsighted exploitation of resources and people for immediate profit and terrible consequences for someone other than you.

My argument is that if you don't hear a lot of people in Joplin, Missouri saying, "The sky isn't falling. Everything is fine!" That's because a dozen tornadoes destroyed that town. Do you live in Joplin? If not then maybe you should shut your mouth up about extreme climate conditions. And don't forget the Sudan, Thailand, Japan, Mexico, Kabul. Just because your Walmart is still open doesn't mean someone's bathtub isn't overflowing in Russia. And New Orleans isn't full of optimists who think the environmental movement is full of Chicken Little hippies crying foul. Why? Well, go to New Orleans and find out. You're too busy watching American Idol? Oh, then you are a fucking asshole who deserves the worst and you have no business entering a debate about the climate. Go back to your chicken nuggets and Depends diapers and wait for the next orders from your leaders.

My point is that the sky did fall. The sky is falling. The population bomb did explode. But Americans have insulated themselves against reality, they don't move around with open eyes, they are afraid of change, they would rather exploit than sustain. Is your groundwater polluted by natural gas hydrofracking? No? Then it must be a perfectly safe process. If you live in a philosophical and material bubble then everything will appear exactly as it is out your door. To a man with a hammer everything looks like a nail; to a man with a remote control everything will appear like a flat screen television. And if CNN doesn't say there is an environmental crisis then there must not be one. Hahahaha. CNN reports on Justin Bieber concerts! Ragu Pasta Sauce pays CNN to put their commercials immediately before a video on child rape. If you trust CNN then you are hopeless.

We get exactly the culture we deserve and if I could wish for one thing this Earth Day it's a free pass for everyone in America to visit Joplin and the Sudan and New Orleans and Chihuahua and Japan and see for themselves exactly what happens when the climate gets ugly...because I'm pretty sure the Media and our elected reps ARE DOING A PRETTY FUCKING SHITTY JOB OF GETTING THE MESSAGE OUT.

I'll tell you, it sounds like sour grapes but right now my neighbor could be a Kickapoo Indian brave instead of a hillbilly dope dealer and I'm pretty sure which one I'd prefer. We fucked up badly and the scars are permanent but please don't wait for CNN or MSNBC to tell you what to do. It's our job to tell them what to do.
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Man in the Van by Oggy Bleacher is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License.