At 04:03 PM 11/22/98 -0500, "Ed Weick" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
DC
>>As the viability of the current paradigm faded, human survival became a
>>topic of conversation - even more important than the President's sex life!
>>Eventually a new recognition. Human population was recognized as one of the
>>few controllable variable available to humans NOW. The aggregate lifetime
>>consumption and pollution of a new individual human shifted from a personal
>>issue to a community issue. Procreation license became regulated by the
>>community to meet carrying capacity guidelines, so that the long term goal
>>of "renewable resources only" could be met in several decades.
EW
>I do hate to sound cynical, but it is hard to hear the background music. It
>is beautiful, melodic dream-like stuff with birds twittering through it. I
>went bowling yesterday, for the first time in forty five years. The music I
>heard there was quite different, much like the throb of a freeway during
>rush hour. My score was very low, but that doesn't matter. What does is the
>hundreds of people there all trying to outdo each other in knocking down
>those pins. Those who weren't bowling were puffing away on cigarettes and
>discussing the President's sex life or their own. Are these the people to
>whom you are going to issue licences to procreate? Or are you assuming that
>they will all die off and only the pure-in-mind-and-heart will remain? Well,
>good luck!
>
>Don't forget -- those bowlers have billions of equally vigorous brothers and
>sisters living in the slums of Sao Paulo, Jakarta, Delhi, Moscow and Mexico
>City. These people would love to bowl too, but they probably can't afford
>it.
>
>Ed Weick
Ed, regarding your comment: >It is beautiful, melodic dream-like stuff with
birds twittering through it<
You seem to loose sight of the fact that about 80+% of the bowlers and
factory workers, both in your home town and in Sao Paulo, believe in some
story of another. Mystical stories, stories about supreme beings, life
after death, reincarnation, angels providing the background music, 70
virgins for a suicide bomber, or maybe, "We can get out of this with more
economic growth", or "elect my party and there will be jobs for all!" These
are the real people of Earth. They are controlled/programmed by handed down
stories. Logic is nowhere in sight. But sometimes people can believe two
or three stories, even if they are in conflict.
The logic, facts, figures, projections and weight of history which you and
Jay, and, (normally) I espouse, is meaningless on these people - "If it's
that bad, I donna wana kno!!". If humans responded to logic, we'd have
changed course after 'Silent Spring', or 'Limits to Growth' or long before
that.
It's time for something new.
I'm suggesting it's time to create a story of success. Just because the
story might be technically feasible, which I still think it might be, should
be no reason for its rejection - a good story does not have to have angels.
But it's tough getting wise elders to abandon their rigid view of how
history has unfolded in the past, and to participate in creating a new kind
of story to help create conditions where historical processes may shift -
perhaps as in a bifurcation branching from deepening chaos.
The Story does not have to be followed by, "Halaloolia", but by, "Hell, we
can do it!"
There is a growing chorus of people suggesting we need change, such as
Theobald, Raven, Moore, McMurtry, Rifkin, etc. who all tell of why the
existing must go.
I'm suggesting it's time we create a story of HOW success could emerge out
of a dark time in human history. If we cannot imagine how and then express
it, then, who can? And if it's unimaginable, then we may as well give up
and continue bowling or golfing until the energy runs out.
solidarity in Gaia
(I like Gaia as a base theme. It's a good story)
////////\\\\\\\\
Don Chisholm
416 484 6225 fax 484 0841
email [EMAIL PROTECTED]
The Gaia Preservation Coalition (GPC)
http://www.envirolink.org/orgs/gaia-pc
personal page: http://home.ican.net/~donchism/dchome.html
"There is an almost gravitational pull toward putting out of mind unpleasant
facts. And our collective ability to face painful facts is no greater than
our personal one. We tune out, we turn away, we avoid. Finally we forget,
and forget we have forgotten. A lacuna hides the harsh truth." -
psychologist Daniel Goleman
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