"AS A YOUNG MAN I BEGAN LIFE BY SEEKING TO ASSERT MY RIGHTS AND I SOON DISCOVERED I HAD NONE NOT EVEN OVER MY WIFE. SO I BEGAN BY DISCOVERING AND PERFORMING MY DUTY BY MY WIFE MY CHILDREN FRIENDS COMPANIONS AND SOCIETY AND I FIND TODAY THAT I HAVE GREATER RIGHTS, PERHAPS THAN ANY LIVING MAN I KNOW." - Cable to H.G. Wells, The Hindustan Times, 16 April 1940
America won. I don't say that with any pride, in fact, it gives me sort of a sick feeling inside.
Hedonism, consumerism, greed have been spread across the globe.
In 2003 (!), the China Daily announced that the 100th Kentucky Fried Chicken had opened in Beijing. Wikipedia lists 97 countries with KFC franchises including Iran, Pakistan, Kazakhstan, Syria, Yemen and nearly every other country in the Muslim world.
Is it any wonder that so much of the planet hates us?
In 1886, the Supreme Court of the United States made corporations 'people .' As 'people,' they have rights. Unfortunately, the Supreme Court did not give corporations souls.
Even in this country there is a love/hate relationship with the facts. Corporate America brings money and jobs, and with the money comes freedom and democracy. Liberal Americans also note that it comes with ecological damage and health damage. Conservative Americans note the sex and drugs.
'People' without souls are sociopaths.
Showing posts with label pollution. Show all posts
Showing posts with label pollution. Show all posts
10 May 2011
15 February 2011
Maladjusted
"...there are some things in our social system to which all of us ought to be maladjusted... It may be that the salvation of the world lies in the hands of the maladjusted." Dr. Martin Luther King
The temptation to anger about...our political system, the environment, the economy, the starving millions, the way we treat animals, the war...the list is endless, leads generally to only to one of two things. Violence - lashing out at the perceived institution responsible for the injustice, and make no mistake, these are injustices. O inertia, apathy, at the size and number of things that need to be fixed in this world.
Most of us choose apathy.
Oh, we recycle or become vegetarians or vote or use energy-saving light bulbs or stop wearing fur, small gestures that soothe our conscience, but have little effect on our actual ways of living.
Don't get me wrong - these things are better than nothing.
But...How many of us are willing to stop driving? How many of us are willing to stop paying taxes? Hell, how many of us are willing to stop voting Democratic or Republican and look for an alternative to these two sad sacks.
I am not maladjusted. I drive. I pay my taxes. I eat meat. I have stopped voting for either of the two parties, but I put no money or time into the effort to make a third party viable.
I want to be maladjusted.
The temptation to anger about...our political system, the environment, the economy, the starving millions, the way we treat animals, the war...the list is endless, leads generally to only to one of two things. Violence - lashing out at the perceived institution responsible for the injustice, and make no mistake, these are injustices. O inertia, apathy, at the size and number of things that need to be fixed in this world.
Most of us choose apathy.
Oh, we recycle or become vegetarians or vote or use energy-saving light bulbs or stop wearing fur, small gestures that soothe our conscience, but have little effect on our actual ways of living.
Don't get me wrong - these things are better than nothing.
But...How many of us are willing to stop driving? How many of us are willing to stop paying taxes? Hell, how many of us are willing to stop voting Democratic or Republican and look for an alternative to these two sad sacks.
I am not maladjusted. I drive. I pay my taxes. I eat meat. I have stopped voting for either of the two parties, but I put no money or time into the effort to make a third party viable.
I want to be maladjusted.
01 February 2011
Would Jesus Drive?
"Living so as not to hurt others"
In July 2002, a small, now defunct, magazine called "The Other Side" published an article I wrote which I titled with the above question. "The Other Side" was a left wing Christian magazine similar, if slightly more radical than, "Sojourners". They did little editing to the original article except to change the title. I guess they felt that "Would Jesus Drive?" was too in the face of their readership.
The thesis of the article was that driving an automobile was an act of violence. Even though I now drive daily, my beliefs haven't changed.
Ninety three (93) people a day are killed on our nations roads every day. The number injured is probably ten times that high and many of those injuries are life changing. And how many billions of dollars do we spend on new cars, upkeep, infrastructure, not to mention gasoline.
Our neighborhoods are chopped up by black dead zones, strips unsafe for life of any kind.
Exhaust from our cars is changing the atmosphere. Mass extinctions are taking place all over the globe.
And then there are the oil wars.
So how do I "justify" driving? Foster daughters. Living in a moderately sized city with children, it is impossible to give them what they need without a car. I knew that in 2002 when I wrote the article. We have designed our cities to make life without a car extremely difficult even for people who don't have children.
Does the good out-weight the bad? I like to think so, but...
In July 2002, a small, now defunct, magazine called "The Other Side" published an article I wrote which I titled with the above question. "The Other Side" was a left wing Christian magazine similar, if slightly more radical than, "Sojourners". They did little editing to the original article except to change the title. I guess they felt that "Would Jesus Drive?" was too in the face of their readership.
The thesis of the article was that driving an automobile was an act of violence. Even though I now drive daily, my beliefs haven't changed.
Ninety three (93) people a day are killed on our nations roads every day. The number injured is probably ten times that high and many of those injuries are life changing. And how many billions of dollars do we spend on new cars, upkeep, infrastructure, not to mention gasoline.
Our neighborhoods are chopped up by black dead zones, strips unsafe for life of any kind.
Exhaust from our cars is changing the atmosphere. Mass extinctions are taking place all over the globe.
And then there are the oil wars.
So how do I "justify" driving? Foster daughters. Living in a moderately sized city with children, it is impossible to give them what they need without a car. I knew that in 2002 when I wrote the article. We have designed our cities to make life without a car extremely difficult even for people who don't have children.
Does the good out-weight the bad? I like to think so, but...
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