seeing feelingly
On the urban wild diary, a thought provoking article by Bill Moyers on Battleship Earth, with a hopeful note at the end on how we can take action on the challenges Bill Moyers describes...check it out.
Living in a conscientious way is a difficult thing. One can opt out of 21st century life with some danger becoming a quaint object of curiousity somewhat like our local Mennonites with their horse drawn carriages and no electricity. Living as they do, although the charm of their dress, lifestyle and values is obvious, is not something most of us are willing to do, realizing as we do, that our modern conveniences are just that, conveniences that we have learned to rely on.
What steps can we take and yet live in the comfortable way we do? Perhaps we need to take a serious look at the real costs of our lifestyles, not just in the immediate dollars we pay out to purchase appliances and pay for utilities, but the long term dollars it will cost to deal with the damage to the environment. In terms of the natural catastrophies that seem to be more and more destructive, we will all in the end, probably pay with our lives. We seem to be on a train plunging down a steep track to nowhere, with the engineers blindly and happily leading us over the edge of the abyss, while we insist on the comforts of the train...even the doubtful will be swept along.
Perhaps, in the end, when our destructive species is extinct along with so many of nature's other species, a new breed of being will be dancing on the shore as Harold Horwood said in "Dancing on the Shore". One reviewer pointed out , that
I am not that optimistic, myself. Maybe I'm more of a cynic regarding human nature, but I believe too many people are eager to dismiss and disregard those with environmental and social welfare concerns in the pursuit of power and profit.
Living in a conscientious way is a difficult thing. One can opt out of 21st century life with some danger becoming a quaint object of curiousity somewhat like our local Mennonites with their horse drawn carriages and no electricity. Living as they do, although the charm of their dress, lifestyle and values is obvious, is not something most of us are willing to do, realizing as we do, that our modern conveniences are just that, conveniences that we have learned to rely on.
What steps can we take and yet live in the comfortable way we do? Perhaps we need to take a serious look at the real costs of our lifestyles, not just in the immediate dollars we pay out to purchase appliances and pay for utilities, but the long term dollars it will cost to deal with the damage to the environment. In terms of the natural catastrophies that seem to be more and more destructive, we will all in the end, probably pay with our lives. We seem to be on a train plunging down a steep track to nowhere, with the engineers blindly and happily leading us over the edge of the abyss, while we insist on the comforts of the train...even the doubtful will be swept along.
Perhaps, in the end, when our destructive species is extinct along with so many of nature's other species, a new breed of being will be dancing on the shore as Harold Horwood said in "Dancing on the Shore". One reviewer pointed out , that
(u)ltimately, however, Horwood, though decrying man's 'massive and unnecessary attacks on the environment,' argues that it is not 'necessary for us to wring our hands and cry doom. We are part of the biosphere. We are changing it. For the first time in the history of life on earth it may be changed with
caution, with foresight, with intelligence, instead of by the blind forces of chance.'
I am not that optimistic, myself. Maybe I'm more of a cynic regarding human nature, but I believe too many people are eager to dismiss and disregard those with environmental and social welfare concerns in the pursuit of power and profit.
posted by Kati at 12:07 p.m.
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