Steven Vincent Johnson wrote:
Hi Ed,
...
Yes Steven, I agree this is what we need. However, how can this
approach be brought about?
If I knew the answer to that question!
As for me, it often feels as if all I personally can do is continue to paint
better visions of the future - directions we can take if we chose to.
Hopefully some of my visions will eventually germinate.
And a good job you do. We all need, I need, a vision of a better future
even it never materializes.
We need a government whose self-interest is
not to keep energy cost high and we need a population that will elect
people based on their interest in solving such problems rather than
stopping stem cell research and killing social security. I predict the
problem will be solved after gasoline reaches $5/gal and after Bush and
his philosophy have been completely discredited.
Aren't they already paying $5.00 a gallon in many European countries? It
remains to be seen if we start bellyaching loud enough when the inevitable
$5/gal price invades our own homeland.
Yes, gas is above $5/gal there. However, this is not a problem there
because people do not need to drive long distances and the cars get much
better gas mileage. Besides, public transportation is so much better
that cars are used less. Thanks to the policy of short term profit and
immediate gratification, the US has dug itself into a hole.
At that time, people
will be so desperate that they will finally listen to reality.
...or to another fanatical regime even worse than the current Bush
administration. "Oil is our God given right to take. etc..."
Like you, I have no confidence that the American people are capable of
electing a better government. The quality seems to be totally random,
with a fat tail on the down side these days.
That is one of my concerns. Perhaps it depends on how scared silly we get.
I suspect that when a person loses his pension, his job, and his house,
and food costs rise out of sight because of high energy costs, he will
be so pissed that gay rights, abortion, and other religious issues will
become much less important. Although he will still think such issues are
worth discussing, they will not be worth electing air heads who have no
understanding of other issues. Also, remember in the past a
conservative was a person who had money, or at least its expectation,
while a liberal was a person who had none. Right now people are fighting
to keep what they have. When this is gone, as it will be soon, they
will suddenly become "liberal". In the past when public works were
required to offset economic down-turns, Roosevelt built dams, Eisenhower
built highways, and Kennedy built the space program. Now we need the
next president to make the country energy independent while creating
jobs that can not be done in China or India. Only then will all of the
ideas and background being discussed on Vortex become important enough
to implement.
Until
then, nothing will improve because the special interests presently in
power are doing very nicely, thank you. However, they are not the kind
of interests that improve our lives. Just consider the situation, the
airline industry is going bankrupt, the auto industry is also going down
the drain, practically everything for sale is made in China, major
pension funds are being wiped out, social security and medicare are in
trouble, the national debt is out of control, and we are losing a war
that is killing our youth for no obvious benefit. In spite of all these
problems, the government is about to shut down, or at least be weakened,
because Bush and his gang want a couple of questionable judges. If
people don't care about these problems to do something, how would you
expect to gain support to solve the energy problem?
Regards,
Ed
I continue to have hope. I suspect you hold out for hope as well even though
you may be battling your pessimisms - just as I wrestle with my own fears.
Like your $5.00/gallon wake-up-call scenario prediction, I, too, suspect
there will eventually be a major pivotal point experienced within our
society as perceived by historians looking back another hundred years from
now. Nobody can predict accurately what accumulation of events will trigger
that pivotal point, or even worse, what path our nation will chose to follow
as a result of the collective decisions we may take. In a metaphorical
sense, it's as if the current time we're going through could be described
as: the Seeding Time. This is the time one hopes to plant as many fertile
seeds as possible. Hopefully, when society finally wakes up they will begin
to perceive all the seeds that have been cast at their feet but ignored for
so many years. Hopefully, enough of them will start making intelligent
choices as to which ones to water.
In the visual/metaphorical sense I created the following digital painting
depicting such a concept, seen at:
http://orionworks.com/artgal/svj/seeding_m.htm
A great picture and very symbolic to our times.
Regards,
Ed
