The other day I had a thought: what if all transoceanic trade ceased overnight? The economies of the developed world have been shifting for the past three decades from reliance on industry to reliance upon services, spurred by the explosion of information that led to the rise of all sorts of service-based professions. In other words, if shipments of cheap teak tables and turbofan hairdriers from all over the globe were to stop, suddenly, how adept would our developed societies be at a return to building our own goods?
Wouldn’t it be interesting to see if we could build big again, but this time using the philosophy of sustainability learned during our transformation into post-industrial society? Sure, there are such projects underway, here n there; small fries really, but a unified voice and effort is what is required to reach the goals we've set anytime in the near future. The falling apart of the Kyoto Protocol is a sad example of how a brighter future has taken a backseat to (and bitchslap from) petty national interests. We're still commiting the sins of industrial society and the rotting, undead corpse of that era we've been too lazy to bury is burying us instead.
Maybe the failing of democracy is that the anonymity of it helps us feel less ashamed at voting for some asshat of a politician who will fight to make our lives cushier in the short term, cost paid for by robbing from the future. After all, we could have voted for the man who promised to change the world, but it was easier to call idealism foolish and elect the lesser of two evils instead. 'Cheaper whiskey and smokes? Where do I sign?! Wait, what was that about the pipeline through my backyard? Hey... Hey!'
I keep hoping that one day we'll wake up from our collective coma. It seems like all the voices out there are tainted with ignorance. Misguided passion is even more harmful than not having any at all. I can't help but think a lot of the bullshit would disappear if we woke up one day to find we'd have to make our own tea cups and iphones. It seems like only then will we realize a world in which people learn to demand more from themselves than they do of others.
Wouldn’t it be interesting to see if we could build big again, but this time using the philosophy of sustainability learned during our transformation into post-industrial society? Sure, there are such projects underway, here n there; small fries really, but a unified voice and effort is what is required to reach the goals we've set anytime in the near future. The falling apart of the Kyoto Protocol is a sad example of how a brighter future has taken a backseat to (and bitchslap from) petty national interests. We're still commiting the sins of industrial society and the rotting, undead corpse of that era we've been too lazy to bury is burying us instead.
Maybe the failing of democracy is that the anonymity of it helps us feel less ashamed at voting for some asshat of a politician who will fight to make our lives cushier in the short term, cost paid for by robbing from the future. After all, we could have voted for the man who promised to change the world, but it was easier to call idealism foolish and elect the lesser of two evils instead. 'Cheaper whiskey and smokes? Where do I sign?! Wait, what was that about the pipeline through my backyard? Hey... Hey!'
I keep hoping that one day we'll wake up from our collective coma. It seems like all the voices out there are tainted with ignorance. Misguided passion is even more harmful than not having any at all. I can't help but think a lot of the bullshit would disappear if we woke up one day to find we'd have to make our own tea cups and iphones. It seems like only then will we realize a world in which people learn to demand more from themselves than they do of others.