On 2008-Dec-17, at 08:10, Kevin Callahan wrote: > http://www.treehugger.com/files/2008/11/obama-cites-michael-pollan.php > > In an interview with Joe Klein, Obama refers to the article, > explaining how Pollan's ideas fit into the concept of a new energy > economy. > > Obama's analysis of Pollan's message: > > There is no better potential driver that pervades all aspects of our > economy than a new energy economy. I was just reading an article in > the New York Times by Michael Pollen about food and the fact that > our entire agricultural system is built on cheap oil. As a > consequence, our agriculture sector actually is contributing more > greenhouse gases than our transportation sector. And in the mean > time, it's creating monocultures that are vulnerable to national > security threats, are now vulnerable to sky-high food prices or > crashes in food prices, huge swings in commodity prices, and are > partly responsible for the explosion in our healthcare costs because > they're contributing to type 2 diabetes, stroke and heart disease, > obesity, all the things that are driving our huge explosion in > healthcare costs. That's just one sector of the economy. You think > about the same thing is true on transportation. The same thing is > true on how we construct our buildings. The same is true across the > board.
There is a spiritual group led by a self-professed Guru called Andrew Cohen. His teaching is that enlightenment is no longer simply about getting a high for a few seconds. To him, enlightenment has evolved since its early discovery thousands of years ago. Today, enlightenment is about replacing your ego and its selfish needs, with an "ecstatic compulsion to evolve", on the level of culture and world affairs. His groups' pitch and selling point repeats over and over the need for people to get in touch with and become that ecstatic and selfless impulse to evolve new culture capable to dealing with the world's problems, like global warming, population, and so on. My point is, grand complex visions are easy to come by. My curiosity about Cohen's group is, ok, what have you guys actually achieved so far? And that's what people in the audience end up asking him. Ask Cohen for an example of something they've achieved, and the answer you get is, "I don't like to say". What was it Steve Jobs always says? Stefano PS. Perhaps the comparison between Obama and a Guru and his group is a bit oddball, but here's the point: his students are very devoted. As the story goes, all he has to do is say the word and they will go stand in a freezing lake doing prostrations for hours and hours. These people are educated professionals. If it is a matter of needing will power, and commitment, and transcending their own selfish desires, in pursuit of a higher cause, with complete devotion, these people have it. But curiously, just having a grand vision, complete commitment, devotion and perseverance, hasn't so far revealed to them useful solutions. And I personally think that their problem is that they are aiming way way way too high. So.... remaking the whole energy economy and agriculture and food supply and health of the people... ? Stefano _______________________________________________ OSX-Nutters mailing list | [email protected] http://lists.tit-wank.com/mailman/listinfo/osx-nutters List hosted at http://cat5.org/
