They write:
[Mark]
Your 'argument' has 2 parts (a) people have cried wolf before but
nothing ever happened and (b) anyway something will turn up.
But (a) is irrelevant because we have never been in this situation
before. If you don't know that now, after participating in these
discussions, andwatching tv, and watching it rain etc, then I can't help
you. (b) 'something will turn up' is technological micawberism and that is
just what got us into this mess in the first place. It also suggests
political passivity + blind faith in capitalism. Actually, all that can
possibly turn up technology-wise is mass extermination. That is after all
one sure way to solve the main problem, ie, too many humans at given
resource-use levels.
[Carroll]
>The alternative to that argument is that repeated scene in disaster
>movies in which people run mindlessly screaming down the street
>in front of certainty, while a privileged elite meet the disaster
>bravely and calmly
Tom:
�technological micawberism�! Heee heee!! I love it! Sums up that whole
mistaken viewpoint � and I hereby am stealing it to broadcast to the
denialists on ROE, dieoff, etc etc.
Mark is absolutely right.
� But this is does not necessarily mean either gloom, or doom.
Ya see, Carroll, there IS another alternative (several) and they revolve
around shifting to a biocentric view.
Consider these positive alternatives:
1) if one persists in requiring the Marxist Revolution and class justice be
reality before attacking the issues of biospherics, the rough calculations
of our �footprint� now provide us with arithmetic to compute when the
Marxist endgame must occur, or when -- at least -- Marxists in denial will
finally be forced to open an eye �
2) nothing in The End Of The World As We Know It scenarios requires that any
single locality must slide over the edge into the abyss. A shift to
bioregional understanding will save your community and your grandchildren
(nothing much in the way of justice can be done for our grandfathers, I�m
afraid.)
3) if you were a whale or a Siberian tiger or an amphibian, you would find
Mark�s statements comforting, as your own biocentric viewpoint has a better
chance of survival while homo sapiens learns to deal with his foolish
madness.
4) While it is darkly comforting to assume that the only scenario is
�chicken with its head cut off� panic, unfortunately most of the major
forces at work are busily plotting ways to meet the crash with their
fantasies of control. They will not be waving arms, but moving with deadly,
dedicated purpose, (they are now!) This � as I have [screamed] and whined
endlessly � is the REAL threat to your grandchildren. There is so much that
can mitigate the wrong-headed actions of the nasty capitalist players who
WILL remain in charge of the Titanic as she slides under the waves. WE can
do a lot to at least keep them from punching more holes in humanity�s
lifeboats.
As for Bush inflicted upon the world, Mark, why does this particular shrub
annoy you? Am I the only one who remembers Nancy Reagan whispering state
instructions to Ronnie out of the corner of her mouth? Am I the only one
who watched Clinton spike the cannons of the Republican agenda for 8 years
using only a twenty-something intern and a cigar? The presidency is a
figurehead and a tool, � has been since the departure of LBJ and Nixon. The
real presidency is in the boardrooms of ADM, GE and Phillip Morris (to name
but a few). They�ve been around a while, and it matters not one whit to
them whether it�s Sore Loserman or Dubya.
Quit whining, quit enjoying the pain fix of despair quite so much.
There is much to do, ya�ll.
Tom
"The soul is the same in all living creatures, although the body of each is
different." ~ Hippocrates
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