SOTU tonight. Bobama will be pushing his progressive vision, including the need for more jobs, social mobility, higher minimum wage, climate action, the rich paying their share, etc, etc, without once acknowledging the technological basis of these issues or the solutions available outside of market economics. All the while focused narrowly on Americas well-being, as if globalization and physics dont make political boundaries moot. I have yet to hear a single (good) argument on how the continuation of global, industrial capitalism can lead to anything other than irreversible climate change and resource depletion, barring some miraculous technological intervention. Incidentally, that is exactly what TZM seeks to bring about, minus the miraculous. There is nothing otherworldly about pro-actively designing technically efficient and sustainable life-supporting systems/economies that work within natures boundaries while making the most of its resources. But its incompatible with the practices, values, and consequences of our belovedest Capitalism, in the same way that astronomy is incompatible with astrology. One is a natural science that directly precedes new physical capabilities, the other is (at best) a soft science and (at worst) a toxic ideology that misappropriates the fruits of science in whatever manner is most profitable, at the moment, for whoever, efficiency be damned. Lots of blame we be lobbed tonight, but theres plenty to go around. Instead of hunting for scapegoats and having our daily Two Minutes Hate, we could start looking at the actual, systemic roots of these problems that keep cropping up again and again and again. We are in a unique position to actually *do* something about that which in past eras may have been justifiably relegated to human nature. Alas, Pandoras box is open, and ignorance today is often a choice, too often imposed on others by way of poverty. Not just material, but of faculty of mind; so quickly filled with biases, superstitions, fear, and lies, snuffing out even the chance for self-realization. So quick to want answers that we stop asking questions. So attached to perceived answers that we reject real ones. I ask...what IS the final piece of evidence that would change your beliefs about how good this system is the need to do differently? Is there any? Or are they guarded safely by the Cerebus of faith, ignorance, and indifference?
Posted on: Wed, 29 Jan 2014 01:00:04 +0000
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