You know, it’s funny, if I was much younger and I read the kind of stuff I’m about to write, I think I would just ignore it or simply dismiss it, based on the source. I am certainly not the most erudite dude around, but I don’t think I’ve heard anyone talking the way I am about to talk, when it comes to the biggest challenge we are all facing.
Around ten years ago, I got on the Peak Oil jag and I was annoyingly zealous about it. The premise behind it is that oil is a non-renewable resource and it will become increasingly expensive to extract, until it is simply unaffordable. While it is certainly true, it was missing a valuable piece in the puzzle of our survival. This is where global warming enters into the mix, but I never bothered to step back and look at the much larger picture, plus it really wasn’t part of the equation back then.
I gotta tell you, aging is a funny business and until you get here, there is no vocabulary that will make sense to you. I swear I don’t understand it myself, so it is not like I can tell you what happens. Now, before you think I am on the path of some kind of self-flagellation, I am not about to invoke the wisdom word either, because I don’t believe in it. I believe in experience and the more you acquire, the clearer you can see the landscape of history, your own and a much bigger one as well.
I have always followed the news, knowing just enough to be able to talk about most anything going on in the world. Not quite a year ago, I decided to create a podcast that addressed world events, salted with my irreverent commentary. It is one thing to gloss over the day’s happenings, but entirely another, cutting and pasting stories together, creating this wacky mosaic of events that manages to get my motor running, which is exactly what has been happening.
Every week, I assemble 20-30 different stories, addressing what has been happening all over the world. I had no idea what it would do to me, but its impact has been electrifying. The fact is, very few people listen to my programs, but I have become a crusader nevertheless, a complete surprise.
I am not all that bright, but I just don’t understand why no one has bothered to look at where we are the way I have, because it seems so obvious. When this obsessive compilation of news is coupled with my longevity, it’s created an unexpected recipe, a focused flavor for the reality of our situation, at least in my opinion.
We have thousands of years to look at our history, the way each dominant society has mimicked its precedents, an inevitability of timeless vanity. We are exactly where we are, because of where we have been. I don’t understand why our history has not been seen as the predictable path forward. Man, I have made the same mistakes time and time again and no matter how smart I am or how much I think I have learned, I still screw up. There is no way I’m unique, I know it has been our nature for millennia.
Just like me and my small world, every dominant society has thought the outcome of their actions will change, because they are smarter than they were the day before. Today, we are facing global challenges requiring a perspective that has forever escaped us and that’s simply not going to change. Power and humility are incompatible, blinding us to the consequences of our actions.
What is referred to as the climate emergency, actually is exactly that. It is not something that is coming, it is here and already has a life and momentum all its own. It is seemingly beyond our ability to grasp its magnitude. It is the first truly global problem mankind has ever had, one of our own creation. It has everything to do with the abuse of power and even worse, our abuse of nature. Look no further than how wealthy countries have hoarded the Covid vaccine from the millions of people in poorer countries, the same people who will be the first victims of the climate emergency. In the natural world, we are losing species at an alarming rate, directly related to our excesses, a true house of cards.
The accumulation of wealth and the intoxication of power have forever been our drugs of choice. After all these years, we finally have perfected this perverted cocktail. It has no borders and speaks a multitude of languages. Our governments are still busy undermining each other, foolishly thinking dominance is the trophy, a hollow illusion. Science, once the stronghold of truth has been forever maimed, pandering to expedience, fueled by fear.
I know the clock is ticking for me, which is what got me thinking about all this in the first place. I sometimes look over my shoulder, seeing how I got here, something that I believe would serve all of us. The true genius of our species is our ability to adapt to the consequences of our actions, not to avoid them. For us, hindsight is after the fact. No matter what comes, this planet will survive and so will we, at least for now, at least for now.
My podcast: Mind and the Motorcycle
https://www.buzzsprout.com/1292459
Foster and Feinstein on Youtube
I like: “Power and humility are incompatible binding us to the consequences of our actions’”. Actually, it’s to the actions of the powerful.
By the way, Bezos outdid riding to the edge of the atmosphere in a vehicle shaped like his penis when he “thanked” Amazon employees and customers for paying for the trip (while he pays zero in taxes).
Glad you liked it. Bezos is a penis. We are all vulnerable to that incompatibility, because it doesn’t take much.