Backwards and Forwards

May 5, 2009

Reading over my verbal ramblings, I have come to believe that I am sometimes near the mark of things to come. Of course, a consistently black view of life is bound to hit home now and then. So much for prescience. Still, I find it amusing to repeat here what I wrote late in 2003.

"December 17, 2003

I opened my eyes. It was 2:30 in the morning. Some evil premonition had disturbed my sleep, itself fitful at the best of times. It had come to me that now, beginning my eighth decade on this earth, there was a very good chance I would be dead before the Republicans, in the manifestation of their worst instincts as neo-cons, were turned out of office, or at least the presidency.

This is a depressing thought. Day after day I am bombarded by images of this spoiled, pampered, inept, inarticulate, and altogether mediocre piece of Texas tumbleweed the system has seen fit to place into high office. It is enough to make one almost wish for the sweet hereafter. Bush, who is given succor by brighter and more evil men, has had the country handed over to him (For who knows how long?) by virtue of a New York tragedy and a fearful nation’s reaction to it.

That this crowd was given a free hand so meekly by the citizenry speaks, I fear, more about a shallowness and the willingness of the majority, out of fear, to forsake the Bill of Rights than about the hollow men who now hold the reins of power, and are likely to do so for the foreseeable future.

The last thought, of course, segues into another realm of discourse, that of the seeming futility of hoping for something better from humanity than the everlasting redux of wars, terror, bloodshed, greed, vice, and corruption that the populace and body politic find so stimulating. I remember a brief time in my life (It was the late sixties) that I thought that man might yet rise above the ineluctable control of the forebrain over his behavior. For a short time, I actually thought man showed signs of improvement. I was even able to believe that Jacob Brownowski had something when he talked about the “Ascent of Man” in his book and on public television. The successful uprising against the stupid Vietnamese war, and the purging from the White House of another Texan stirred some hope that “Making love not war” might actually be in the cards. How naïve! But optimism was short lived. My naivete soon became clear, and Huxley still rang true: “Ends are ape chosen, only the means are man’s.”

December 23, 2003

Does it never occur to our pundits, who manage to collar the airways on a regular basis, that at some time there has to be an end to more? More people, more growth, more things, more waste, more war. The only things there won’t be a surfeit of are pestilence, poverty, and pollution. Now admittedly this is not likely to happen during the reign of GWB and the men (and women) who steer him (You can’t really think he is guiding this ship of state!).

Mankind is not notable for taking the long view. After all there are mouths to feed, pleasures to pursue, land to grab, and other people to dominate, endlessly pleasing pastimes. But even a cursory glance at this planet, teeming with six billion and more members of our species, makes it difficult to dismiss the problems apparent with our environment and the current ways man goes about his business. But we cannot agree about this, even when the vast body of evidence supports serious concern about poverty, food supply, pollution, energy, population, and decreasing species diversity. Opportunists arise as devil’s advocates, marshal distorted statistics, and make a case against the collective opinion of those closest to and most informed about the disciplines involved. Whether the case is distorted or not, there are plenty ready acolytes willing to follow the lead of a pretender expert when what he says suits their uninformed bias. To hell with solar energy, there’s plenty of oil for a long, long time. Species are not disappearing at an alarming rate. Population is slowing down and will level off before disaster strikes. Food production is capable of meeting demand now and for the future. Go ahead indulge yourselves: make more things, consume, the problems are overrated and overstated.

That real problems may (I say may) be years ahead does not obviate the need to address them now and with vastly more resources than we are now willing to commit. It takes, after all, years to effect solutions once action begins, not to mention the time needed to plan before we act.

The global problems facing mankind, and our reticence to act on them, are analogous to the terrorism threat that now saps so much of our (this country’s) resources. There were plenty of flags raised in advance of 911 to indicate that trouble was coming. The Middle East has been a festering sore for as long as I can remember, and many years before I was even around. That the Bush crowd failed to act on the signals it received in advance certainly damns them, but it is not the whole story. Administration after administration has avoided dealing with it. And now we take arms against these seas of trouble. Wrong approach again. Still we refuse to address the real problems: the inequities between the haves and the have-nots of this world. We are too busy adding more toys to our collections of unnecessary goods; too busy looking after the elite; too busy promoting the freedom to be the same, and think the same thoughts, and dance the same dance as the ones currently in power."

All this was somewhat strident, but, if nothing else, writing is a form of catharsis.