Random Ramblings & Miscellaneous Musings

Random thoughts that almost became blog articles but, you know, didn’t:

The only truth is the one that conforms to reality.

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Any society that puts a higher value on dead trees than it does on live ones deserves its fate.

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Human beings became stewards of the planet largely because the fuckin’ polar bears and whales wouldn’t stand up and do it. Well, okay, I can understand why the whales didn’t stand up, but the polar bears? C’mon!

The irony is that we humans, despite our supposed superior intelligence and opposable thumbs, have been spectacular failures as planetary stewards; polar bears (and whales) could have done a better job.

Of course, polar bears (and whales) lack a profit motive.

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"Senate Democrats haven't passed a budget in a thousand days even though the law requires it," McConnell said, ignoring the fact that Senate Republicans have blocked every budget proposal put forth by Senate Democrats. Were it not for lies, damn lies and really insane lies, Republicans would operate in total silence (as would many Democrats, come to think of it).*

*My comments (highlighted) added to the original quote.

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Government is not the problem; intellectually challenged morons that think government is the problem are the problem.

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Maybe the best way to end abortion is to transplant an unwanted fetus from a woman that would otherwise opt for abortion into the uterus of a right-to-lifer. Think win/win.

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When right-wing trolls post comments on lefty blogs accusing lefties of being on a mission to discredit Republicans, they confirm my suspicions that right-wingers are incapable of rational thought. C’mon, it doesn’t take a genius to recognize that Republicans are perfectly capable of discrediting themselves (as their track record amply demonstrates) and probably wouldn’t accept help from Democrats were it offered.

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The rest of humanity is doing to the planet what Haitians did to Haiti. Just as Greece is the microcosm of the global economy, Haiti is the microcosm of the global environment. Both countries prove that when your position is untenable, you’re basically fucked. Do we really need to prove it on a planetary scale?

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The powers-that-be and the bastards-that-are, are one and the same.

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The problem is not a job shortage; the problem is too many people. With population numbers, climate change, environmental degradation and non-renewable resource depletion all in conflict, business-as-usual no longer works. Unless we transform our economy into something that is steady state and sustainable, we can expect the economic decline of the middle and working classes to continue its downward spiral in stages punctuated by brief intervals of perceived economic “recovery.”

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Capitalism’s major fatal flaw is its absolute lack of sustainability; no system that consumes its resources to satisfy a profit motive can endure over the long term. Eventually, market saturation sets in, or environmental thresholds are breached, or consumer-demand changes, or critical resources become scarce, or some other limiting factor kicks in, and suddenly reality gives the economy a kick in the teeth. Yo, dumbass, you’re about to exceed the limits of physical reality. Abort! Abort! Having no other recourse, the economy aborts. Economic collapse is inevitable when delusions of endless prosperity through unlimited growth collide head-on with the limits of physical reality; the lesson here is that unrestrained growth cannot sustain in a constrained environment. 

Q >>>

The Problem with Problems*

Global warming, environmental destruction, polluted water, depleted fish stocks, an endangered food supply, an energy crisis, a shortage of affordable housing, poverty, education funding shortfalls, rising healthcare costs, declining numbers (relative to the population) of living-wage jobs, war . . .. These are among the most egregious, most vexing, most persistent problems that plague society today. What are we going to do about them?

The conventional mindset is that if society's problem solvers throw enough money at a problem, or do something equally stupid, the problem will just go away. Sorry! Reality doesn't work that way. In reality, one must attack the source of a problem if one has a serious desire to solve the problem.

Everyone has their own ideas about how to remedy society's most pressing problems, but that, in itself, creates another problem. Most remedies postulated by concerned citizens and well meaning (or not) politicians concentrate on treating the symptoms, not the disease. These are nothing more than feel-good solutions that dull the pain of failed policy while ignoring the underlying cause. They give the illusion of making progress, but deliver nothing of substance.

Feel-good solutions are band-aid solutions; they're stopgap measures at best. The sore that is the crux of the problem continues to fester under the band-aid until the band-aid falls off, at which point the original problem becomes a little more difficult to deal with.

Virtually all of the problems mentioned in the first paragraph of this short essay stem from one source—overpopulation. Until all members of society, from the movers and shakers to the moved and shaken, can recognize, understand and accept this simple truth, and will themselves to act in concert to end our collective nightmare, the nightmare will continue, unabated, to its ultimate, frightful, painful conclusion.

We can take decisive, positive steps to limit population growth by placing sanctions and controls on the front end; we can implement harsh, brutal, extreme measures on the back end; or, we can do nothing, thus letting the status quo prevail. We can do it the sane way, we can do it the insane way, or we can let Mother Nature do it her way. That, too, is a choice. The only certainty is that we, as a species, will either live or die by the choice we make.


*This brief article originally appeared in Petey's Pipeline E-zine, Issue #17, October 17, 2005.