Alternatives

The Chinese believe that if the weather is very bad it is because of bad government. We have all noticed the wild fluctuations in our weather recently, heatwaves in March and snow in May. This changing of the climate we are told by scientists is because of global warming and I have no reason to doubt that this is so. Yet time and again the summits convened to try to deal with this crisis fail to come up with any concrete proposals. Why? Because of the vested interests of the elite in the global oil economy. We all know that oil is a resource that is all but exhausted. Yet we continue to rely on oil to maintain the illusion of progress. Oil fuels our vast transport systems and powers our electricity generators.

 Meanwhile, the government assures us that the best viable alternative is nuclear power. Yet this technology would leave us with a far worse pollution problem than oil and one that will last much much longer. If in years to come my great great grand children where to dig up my skeleton and scan it with their Geiger counters they would still find my bones were radio-active from the nuclear accident at Chernobyl. Every human on the planet has some of the fallout from that calamity in their body and now Fukashima is doing the same. You will notice how Fukashima has dropped out of the news even though that disaster is set to be even more deadly than Chernobyl. It has directly impacted the lives of over one million people already and now the scientists are saying there is worse to come!

Anyone who has read my blog might well wonder what factor connects my various posts. What is my common theme. In my mind what connects these disparate subjects is the idea of “ the era of transformation”. Virtually every culture and religion in the world speaks of an “end-time”. Not the end of the world but the end of the world as we know it. Some religions have a very dire version of this with the earth being completely destroyed and only a few “chosen ones” surviving the holocaust and being spared the post-apocalyptic horrors. Other cultures have a more upbeat idea of the last days of this world with the light of reason shining brightly as we enter a new golden age. Others still like the Maya of old tell us that this world or “sun” will end and a new one begin without informing us whether the new world will be better or not, just very different.. The Maya calculated by the use of advanced mathematics and astrology that the period of transition would reach a critical mass in December of this year. And I have no reason to doubt that.

Whatever the truth may be it is obvious to thinking people around the world that the current global capitalist system is now just hanging on by it’s fingernails. When the string snaps and the balloon goes up I have no doubt that the 1% will do everything in their power to hang onto their wealth and privileges. But with locally based economies spreading further and faster their wealth might prove to be less valuable than they thought. You can’t eat paper or gold. I believe the “Occupy” movement is the most salient political action in the world today. It is not a single issue campaign but a demand for radical change across the entire spectrum of modern economics and government. A post-greed ethos (it might be possible) where compassion for the whole of mankind, the ecosphere and all it’s inhabitants and Mother Earth herself would be seen as normal, sane and obvious. As Victor Hugo once said, “ All the forces in the world are not so powerful as an idea whose time has come”.
 Fukashima