We are ingenious. We
are imaginative. We are often fantastically adventurous, and we have a tremendous
capacity for compassion.
But as a friend of mine put it the other day, mostly we are
extremely myopic.
This make-or-break moment is a special time in history. The problems are systemic. Most of the
arguments concerning possible problem solving scenarios, and the eventual
solutions we choose, usually involve how to fix these systems, and not how to discard
them altogether. We are constantly
thinking “inside the box”, as they say.
For instance, we discuss current class and economic systems
like they are laws of physics. We talk
about printed paper money like it is something other than an abstraction -instead
of treating the imaginary financial notes like the made-up things they are.
We pretend there can only be so much cash to go around (…which
is literally printed on presses and made up by banks in computers), that our
debt is an insurmountable mountain… and that you can only owe so much, pay so
much, live with so much, spend so much, afford to give away so little, cannot
share or divide this limited resource, and that we must by all means keep it
away from those who haven’t earned it…
Meanwhile, this (Clicking the quote will take you to the full
article):
The stakes are as high as they are ever going to be. We are
in… the beginning of a… or in the midst of an… or some say, a too late to turn
back from- extinction event.
It also appears that people in positions of real influence lack the imagination to
discuss anything other than how to fix this current system.
It seems other influencers
honestly think they will survive any global demise, for all their wealth and
resources…
Worse yet- many appear resolved it’s already too late- and
they should just do what they can, and get as much as they can, until it’s
finally all over. This cynical and
morbid perspective is well expressed in the following monologue from a
character played by actor Brian Cox,
in the movie The Veteran:
Where is the ingenuity in thinking like that..? Where is any
real sense of adventure..?
I believe in our ingenuity and imaginations, and our
abilities. But sometimes, well, going to
another planet, or saving this one, has no immediate pay-off in the present
economic context. Sometimes the profit
motive just ain't there... and it won't be good 'business', even if it might be
good economics, or just make plain exploratory sense... that's the difference
between government and business. We choose
to do things through government not to make a profit (though there’s no excuse
for waste), or even to break even... but because it's needed, it's innovative, it’s
adventuresome, it’s moral, improves the quality of our lives, or makes sense in
some other way. Maybe it saves our all
our lives altogether.
What we need, if not an actual Apollo-style program to save ourselves,
is at least a Space Race mindset.
This means we cannot continue to think small thoughts. Here are questions I continually ask in order
to provide myself a context out of which I can approach some issues. They’re not the only questions I should
probably ask by any means… but they’re an honest start for me, to keep me from
thinking in the box:
1) What are ‘The Commons’ really, and do how we maintain the
current condition of those ‘Commons’… Aren’t these the current infrastructure of
roads, bridges, rail, communications, energy, national parks, the world’s air (not
only one nation’s, unless you live in a sealed dome) we breathe, the water we
drink, education, healthcare, the lives of our cohabitant species, and the combined
cultural knowledge and experience which is our historical national (no, too
small…) global heritage..?
2) How would you re-create an educated (see ‘The Commons’
above) populace which was once the envy of the world… a workforce which would
have enough ingenuity and inventiveness to work in the next generation’s companies,
and thrive in a global market (and how would that market have to look?), plus be
equipped with a foundation of knowledge to save our species?
3) Because none of us are immortal, and all of us are aging-
How would you keep between 60 and 75 percent of all personal bankruptcies from
occurring, not to mention the personal emotional tragedies, which are directly
related to ‘Medical Costs’ you, me, our spouses, our children, and our friends
and families cannot ourselves/themselves carry (‘Commons’, again)?
4) How would you create ‘consumers’ so that businesses can
flourish? Because businesses need customers before they hire anyone to fulfill
the demand, and consumers have to have money in their pockets to be consumers (…
and is even being a consumer in the
traditional sense even sustainable)?
5) What historically or currently accurate successful
models, from our own country’s historical
experience, or another’s, would you duplicate or make better, in order to
achieve all this (we’re not talking some Ron-Paul-Keynesian-Economic Utopia,
but real nuts-n-bolts what’s been working somewhere)?
6) What organizational missions, inventions, or legislative
ideas floating around out there that we can support, or that my leaders support,
which aspire to any of the above?
We have to be willing, no- not just willing- daring… we have to be courageous enough to direct our entire
mental and physical resources in a race against planetary extinction, and
nothing less than that.
This is our generation’s lot… most definitely our children’s…
and strangely…
This does not disturb me, so much as gets me all revved up. To
me, this challenge sounds like a science fiction style adventure… even if we
are already past a tipping point…
The stakes only make the adventure more exciting.
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