Seize The Future. Part 1

"I don't see any future for whale species except extinction," Payne said. "This is not on any body's radar, no government's radar anywhere, and I think it should be."

Where the sentence above is concerned, I'm afraid that we humans could just as easily substitute the term mankind for whale species.

Plan of Action

Over a century ago Vladimir Lenin composed a famous tract entitled What is to be done. The pamphlet was, of course, about what needed to happen to enact a communist political program in Russia. Today, the human species faces a far more important-at least to my mind- and daunting task than the one Lenin outlined. What humanity is faced with is nothing less than altering the way we inhabit the planet.

Last week, in a nationally televised speech notable for its lack of gravitas, President Obama asserted that "the time is now" to make a shift in our nation's energy arrangements. Plainly, such an idea is nonsense from the standpoint that the time for such a shift was generations ago, but, we humans, both at the individual and the collective level, rarely make bold changes until (usually for reasons of survival) we are forced to. Bearing in mind that A.) it is quite likely too late to ward off catastrophe, which I choose to define as an accelerated massive die off of human, animal, and plant species, and B.) that the task of radically changing how we power our homes, package our food, travel to work and play, fertilize our soil, build our dwellings, and generally take care of ourselves on an individual and societal level is overwhelming in prospect, I would like to offer that our first steps, because they will be the most difficult, are, almost certainly, the most critical.

One thing we mustn't do is look to government to act as a leader let alone a facilitator of reform. Government has proven time and again that they are retrograde and obstructive to progressive and essential reform. In fact, part of the necessary change will involve living, to the best of one's ability, beyond the reach, literally and figuratively, of elected and appointed officialdom.

For generations, Republicans of yore, and presumably those who still think of themselves in what now seems like a hoary and absurd political affiliation, were committed to a program known as "starving the beast". This concept generally meant, and must still mean, destroying all non corporate friendly government functions by dint of choking off their funding. In large measure- excepting hysteria tinged rhetoric by "right wing" cadres that assert that President Obama is some sort of crypto-Marxist- proponents of "starving the beast" were very successful. In fact, they were so successful that, with very few exceptions, the banking sector and a few other malefactor industries, have now managed to co-opt the entire Federal Government to such an extent that it is the rest of us who are being figuratively and literally starved.

Towards (a sort of Luddite) Resistance

As much as one can, one needs to live one's life in a way that defies anything that smacks of a well established cultural norm, because entrenched cultural norms are, quite frankly, killing us. By eschewing institutionalized cultural norms I do not mean that, starting tomorrow, we should all discard such endeavors as building nuclear families, or creating a network of friends, or holding memberships in civic or charitable organizations. Far from it. What I have in mind are cultural practices that support and bolster the maintenance of materialistic existence of the sort that systematically eats away at basic social networks that are vital to the maintenance of local community. And if it's not clear now, it will, in due course, become clear that the creation and maintenance of robust local communities will be vital to our individual and collective survival. Having said that, I would like to add that the irony of my preaching such a message on a blog read by people who live far away from where I, and my family, dwell is not lost on me.

To say that we are subsumed by devices and products that are utterly devoid of all but the barest utility is hardly an exaggeration. I really don't know where to start by way of cataloging and describing a phenomenon that, for the purposes of this post, I'll refer to as horrific technological waste, but, however one wishes to refer to this monstrous and seemingly all encompassing condition, it is, indeed, a menace that is almost impossible to exaggerate. I submit, for example, that the omnipresent sub culture of the cell phone-yes, dear readers, I, too, own one- may be, to date, the single most infamous progeny to ever emerge from the steaming cauldron of horrific technological waste. We must endeavor to divest ourselves of this sort of gargantuan cultural junk as if our lives depended on it, because, quite frankly, they probably do.

In keeping with that sentiment, we must also strive to become, with respect to daily necessities, as self sufficient as possible. I imagine you've all heard this line before, ad nauseum, so forgive me for, as it were, piling on when I say that, where possible, grow your own food. And if you can't grow your own food, then support local operators that do. We should do this for the simple reason that even though it will almost certainly entail a greater strain on our personal finances, the price for not doing so is simply too high.

Humor me when I advocate avoiding, if possible, the purchase of items packaged in plastic. Likewise, where you can, use public transport instead of a car. Equally, when and where you can, walk rather than availing yourself of public transit. Most importantly, at least where the subject of personal transportation is concerned, avoid, if possible, owning an automobile. I'm sorry to report that better and more fuel efficient cars aren't the answer. Far fewer automobiles of all kinds are much closer to the answer, at least until such time as autos are powered entirely by means that are vastly more fuel efficient than anything available presently.

Making the aforesaid changes amounts to a case of we can take these steps ourselves with some modicum of control over the process or we can cede any potential for autonomy that still exists, and expect to be dealt with in an arbitrary (and most likely) harsh manner as exigent circumstances dictate.

End of Part 1