Wanna Live Forever . . ?

We should have an Apollo Space Race-style program to save our planet.

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):

“If half the animals died in London zoo next week it would be front page news,” said Professor Ken Norris, ZSL’s director of science. “But that is happening in the great outdoors.”

Earth has lost half of its wildlife in the past 40 years, says WWF

Damian Carrington- The Guardian, Monday29 September 2014

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.

Of Paradigms and Spew

I was an infant child in the sixties. Those of you who, like me, were school children or younger at that time have the original and distinct advantage of always existing with an image of Earth— from the vantage point of outer space; and especially from the moon.

Unlike all of our older brethren, even the boomers who’d just preceded us (though we’re often wrongly characterized as amongst that group), our inherent reality about our home is one of Earth without any borders at all. This is a perspective entirely at odds with even the faintest notion of the concept of nation-state. It is a perspective that is different from any generation in western culture which came before. We have never known a reality which dictates confinement to our planet, let alone a single country or even state.

The dilemma is that we have lived amongst those, most that have been in power, who do not possess that inherent perspective.

In Obama, we have elected a candidate for the first time in history who shares this way of perceiving. This, I submit, is the essence of this so-called sea change; this generational shift.

A new era, we say. That’s the phrase, worn out recently from overuse. The victory . . . so overwhelming; so different in so many ways than what any expected as the ultimate result. It wasn’t just the shear numbers of voters but, of course, the younger demographics, plus the reconfiguration of the political party map . . . C’mon, Indiana. . ? North Carolina. . ?

Everyone says that this now shows what’s really possible for America . . . or for a black man, or any other minority in America. Everyone marvels at those qualities, so eloquently illustrated on November 4th, 2008 . . . which make our country such a marvel and, now once again, such a beacon of faith and hopeful idealism made concrete.

We’ve broken another barrier; they say the world over. . .

But . . . I cannot forget the days leading up . . . and neither should you.

It’s been argued for so long, say, against affirmative action, by misinformed if not misleading persons, that we are a free nation now; no longer a nation of double standards for different classes or cultures. Therefore we no longer need special consideration for people who should be able to achieve, to be truly fair, on their own merit; all conditions on the playing field now being proportionately even. I’m afraid that in all of the current commotion we might even confuse the current achievement as proof of this belief.

Despite this race’s magnificent outcome, we’ve all had the opportunity to observe that the terms are anything but even.

His middle name, Hussein, and his foreign born father were used to make him appear more alien.
The place of his elementary school beginnings was made twisted-history in order to make him appear Muslim, and perhaps anti-Semitic. Guilt by association was used to make him appear a terrorist. The candidate could not even break a sweat, let alone get angry, for fear of being perceived as an “angry black man”.

Despite all of this the man and his campaign stayed steady; no wavering, no distraction from the goal, the dream.

It is not because America is a level playing field that he has made it to where he is; it is in spite of the double standards that he has thrived. This is a tremendous testament to the character and discipline of this man and the people around him. The celebrating, the speeches and all of the praise are about this strength and foresight and persistent perseverance.

And there is also another insane irony; that of a tyrannical public in one so-called “liberal” western state, disallowing the individual freedom of people who love each other, from entering into a private contract together. Over here, so much good, so much hope; over there the dam is bursting with the inhumane monstrosity of vindictive, thoughtless fear.

It’s like we’re attempting to gulp down a kind of giant messy hope sandwich. The large and tasty dripping mouthfuls are glorious, but we’re losing a large bit of it out the back as some spews out the other end; and messes in our laps.

There is one comfort I take though, as I watch my 5 year old child sleep, and alternately turn back to the television to take in Obama’s acceptance speech: That my son’s perspective will forever be different from mine; he will never know an America where a man of color could not be President.

Jerry'O

P.S. Happy Thanksgiving, everyone.
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Copyright © November 2008 by Gerald Ollison. All rights reserved (Excepting the photos, maybe... My bad, Tee-hee...).