Game Changers

From the novel, Grotesque, by Natsuo Kirino:

“In the farming villages of China there are over two hundred and seventy million people, more than the arable land can feed. The farms produce only enough to support a hundred million, fewer than half. Of the remaining hundred and seventy million people, about ninety million work in local factories. The other eighty million have no choice but to head to the cities to look for work. At the time this influx of surplus labor was referred to in China as the Blind Flow. Now of course it’s known as the Pool of the People’s Workforce. But blind flow better captures the reality of a desperate people groping about in darkness, struggling to follow the beacon of light glittering off the money available in the city.”

To one degree or another, this same scenario plays out in every nation on Earth. It’s the reality of an increasing global population and too little of everything to go around. Consider these sobering facts:

According to the Earth Clock, in the first 10 days of 2010 (ending at 12:00 midnight on Sunday), the global population increased—at a rate of about two people per second—by over 2 million, pushing the total global population above 6.8 billion people. During this same time period, CO² emissions continued to spew into the atmosphere at roughly 1,000 tons per second, for a ten-day total over 750 million tons.

In the first 10 days of 2010, more than 700 species went extinct, roughly 350,000 hectares of forest were cleared, and global desertification increased by more than 160,000 hectares.

The oil depletion timer (shown in the Earth Clock’s stats column) tells us that known oil reserves, declining at a rate somewhat faster than 1,000 barrels per second, will run out in slightly less than 40.8 years. What it doesn’t tell us is that, for all practical purposes, oil (read transportation fuel) will become unaffordable for most people in less than half that time. What this means is that most people who now drive will soon be walking, riding a bike, or taking public transportation; it also means that most people who now fly commercial air will soon be making other transportation arrangements. Any way you want to look at it, oil depletion is a game changer.

Another game changer is global climate change, which will bring about food and water crises as it makes its presence felt in all areas of the world. Water is the lifeblood of our planet, and everything depends on its availability. Sudden—or even gradual—changes to local weather patterns will have devastating effects on agriculture and many other economic activities, and cause mass migrations (or die-offs) of most species living in the affected areas. Future wars won’t be fought for access to oil; they’ll be fought for access to water. And food. The coming food fights will make anything you did in your high school cafeteria look well mannered and positively civilized.

These, then, are the game changers that all of us must learn to live with—or die with, as the case may be.

Welcome to the future.

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Fear of Flying

“The Portland Air National Guard confirms that two F-15 fighter jets "scrambled" the Hawaiian Airlines flight in mid-flight. This means that they met it and escorted it back to PDX. The contact took place at about 1 pm.” —from a report filed by Joel Iwanaga, KOIN-TV Local 6 News

Okay, I can almost understand why the captain of Hawaiian Air Flight 39 reversed course and headed back to Portland. What I don’t understand is why (aside from Oregon Air National Guard pilots needing seat time) it was necessary for the Air National Guard to intercept Flight 39 and escort it back to Portland. Was Flight 39’s pilot lost? Was he too fuckin’ stupid to find his way back to Portland? And what, exactly, were the fighter pilots going to do if Flight 39 didn’t comply, shoot it down?

Seems to me that the people tasked with keeping the rest of us safe from the boogey man and other scary things have got their panties in a twist over nothing—again.

Be afraid, people. Be very afraid. The powers that be love it when you’re so paralyzed by fear that you can’t even think straight. It gives them cover to carry out their real agenda.

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Random Ramblings and Miscellaneous Musings

On Tuesday, December 29^th, I posted a couple of videos under the heading Jane Hamsher is Right. Badtux the Snarky Penguin posted a comment about it on Wednesday, and thus began a running healthcare debate with ‘Tux that concluded on his blog on New Year’s Day.

While I don’t always agree with ‘Tux in regards to the causes of or solutions to the health care dilemma, I nevertheless have great respect for his opinions because his thinking often forces me to re-evaluate my own. Anything that prompts me to look at difficult problems from different angles and in a new light is not a bad thing. More on health care (or is that moron healthcare?) to follow in future posts.

On to other things:

My sincere apologies go out to novelist Bill Cameron for not getting reviews of his superb novels, Lost Dog and Chasing Smoke written and posted online before Christmas. I’m working on ’em, Bill; they’ll be ready, soon.

And others, still:

What kind of government do we have? Democracy (the mythical), kleptocracy (the obvious), pantisocracy (the ideal—and no, it’s not what you’re thinking), corporatocracy (the actual), psychopathocracy (the probable)? Lately, I’ve been leaning toward a combination of these—with the total exclusion of democracy and pantisocracy. Our government is a democracy in name only, and pantisocracy is a naïve Utopian dream. That leaves us with a kleptocratic, corporacratic psychopathocracy, which, to my way of thinking, is a dead-on accurate way of describing the government we have. No one can argue that a bunch of crazy fuckers aren’t running (ruining?) things.

A common lament of mechanics goes like this: “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!” Well, folks, the whole damned country is broken—morally, ethically, fiscally, physically, structurally, politically and socially—and it needs many conscientious, right-thinking “mechanics” to fix it. And, no, business as usual is not going to fix our damaged, dying nation, it will only hasten its demise. We need radical new paradigms and outside-the-buns thinking to get this baby up and running, again; anything less than an all-out effort to engineer a total makeover will only set us up for another epic fail.

Shall we begin?

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Better Tomorrows

Today is more than the beginning of a new year. It’s the beginning of a new decade—the second decade of the 21^st century—and a time for making new resolutions (or renewing old ones) and for renewing hope and optimism for better prospects with which to shape better tomorrows.

28 years ago to the day, I resolved to quit smoking (tobacco). I fell off that wagon a couple of days later, then climbed back aboard it on January 10, 1982, and shook the tobacco monkey off my back for good.

27 years ago to the day, following an all-night New Years party, I watched daybreak through drooping eyelids and bleary eyes and the beginning of my last hangover, and resolved to kick my alcohol dependency for good. That resolution stuck on the first try.

If there’s a moral here, it’s that whenever you resolve to do something, do it with as much seriousness as you can muster. Be intelligent about your resolution; be realistic, as well. Apply passion and commitment liberally, and above all, don’t forget to congratulate yourself and give yourself a pat on the back every day that you successfully adhere to your resolution. These are tactics that have always worked for me, and there’s a good chance they’ll work for you, too.

So, what other thoughts do I have on this New Years day? Questions? Many. Answers? Few. Predictions for the country? Dire. Reminds me of a conversation between the Harper brothers:

Alan: Should I change?

Charlie: You should . . . but you probably won’t.

Best wishes for many better tomorrows, everyone. Happy New Year!

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Jane Hamsher is Right

Forcing taxpayers to send trillions to private insurers for junk insurance is just plain wrong.

Anyone who thinks that mandating payments to insurance companies is healthcare reform should get a mandate to do a stint in reform school.

This non-partisan message is right, too:

If the current healthcare bill becomes law, it will be a healthcare disaster for the citizens of this country.

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Shopocalypse Now

Once again, ‘tis the season in which I celebrate not celebrating Christmas. It’s a personal tradition, begun 20 years ago, that’s only gotten easier over time.

Distancing myself from Christmas wasn’t something that happened all at once, it happened in increments as I abandoned one destructive Christmas ritual after another until none remained. Call it “tapering off,” if you will.

You see, Christmas is a holiday tradition that no longer works for me, primarily because it’s touted as a religious tradition and there’s no room in my life—or in my philosophy—for religion. A second reason is that Christmas has devolved into a shopocalyptic spending frenzy that’s become a cash cow for corporations at the expense of everything else.

If shopping ‘til you drop, then working ‘til you drop to pay the tab is your thing, go for it. But count me out. I prefer to celebrate this holiday season in observance of my new tradition—blogging about how and why I kicked the old tradition.

Harry Kwanukkahmas!

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Winter Solstice

December 21^st: The winter solstice, shortest day of the year.

This is also my shortest post of the year. Serendipity? Or synchronicity?

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When Public Education Fails, Useful Idiots Proliferate

One of the drawbacks of lower tax revenues is that education is always among the first of public services to take the hit. As tax revenues decline, the quality of education goes down. School districts, deprived of essential operating funds, react by gutting curricula, laying off teachers, shortening the school year, expanding student-to-teacher ratios, and—in extreme cases—closing schools. The net results are a general dumbing-down of the population and a plentiful supply of useful idiots to provide the labor necessary for wealth creation.

Because most corporations don’t volunteer to fund public education (and usually vehemently object when it’s suggested that they do so), I can only assume that they want workers who are just smart enough to do the work, but not smart enough to ask questions or think independently.

This is yet another way corporations game a system they’ve been instrumental in contriving. Once again they reap all of the benefits without incurring any of the costs. But, with their sole raison d’être being to assure maximum profits for their investors, it’s probably foolish to expect corporations to act in contravention to those ideals.

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A World in Transition

An excerpt from the novel, Pipeline, by Peter Schechter:

“. . .. The Americans are shortsighted; they won’t see that a long-term dependency on Russia is a strategic trap. They can’t get beyond their big cars. Their crazy use of water. Of electricity. Spend, spend. Consume, consume. The United States is incapable of change. It survives on a mountain of overconsumption and debt. They can’t change their culture, so they will jump at any chance to keep things the way they are.”

[Note: Italics are mine]

We Americans are an arrogant lot for the most part. Enamored of our ingenuity and cleverness, our privilege, we blindly stumble toward the future without regard for the consequences of our actions or critical analysis of probable outcomes resulting from the choices we make. Short-term profits override the need for long-term survivability, and critical topics like sustainability, economic stability, species extinction, environmental degradation, climate change, infrastructure repair and replacement, resource depletion, food and water security, energy independence, healthcare reform, fair elections, and myriad others are backburnered because vested interests wish to maintain the status quo.

This short-sighted approach to the future by business and political leaders—they’re virtually one and the same—all but guarantees that the U.S. will continue down the road to third-world status. But that’s probably a good thing. We Americans have been resource hogs and energy spendthrifts for far too long. Getting knocked back a peg or two will do us all some good, and give each of us pause to consider where we, as a nation, are heading, and how we plan to get there.

“In the future, our children’s understanding of what we broadly call “energy” will differ greatly from our own. How we, as citizens, relate to what we use to drive our cars, fuel our factories, heat our homes, and brighten our computer screens will change radically over the next twenty-five years. America’s leaders face choices today that will decide whether tomorrow this transition will be traumatic and impoverishing or deliberate and enriching.” —Peter Schechter

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A Message Worth Repeating

Many thanks to mahakal, at Skippy the Bush Kangaroo, for posting this video. Under normal circumstances, I wouldn’t duplicate someone else’s efforts, but these are trying circumstances and perilous times, and the message contained therein is one that’s worth repeating, again and again, until the small-minded weasels who purport to be our leaders get a clue and actually lead instead of dictate.

See how simple life can be?

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