Piscina Podium - Yes We Can
26.09.09
Homo sapiens is a highly interactive species and at this point in our history, with the capacities we have developed, it can be truly said that we have made our world entire, both by the things we have chosen to change and that which we choose to leave alone.[i] As a consequence, it can also be said that we are able to make the necessary changes to save ourselves, and many other species, if not from universal doom at least to avoid considerable environmental stress; if we choose to. The most worrying human characteristic active here is that hoary old millenarian streak, the seeking of purification in species death or transformation that seems to be driving us lemming-like into willed immolation.[ii] I recall being chilled to the bone by Evangelical US President Jimmy Carter during the Cold War, evincing the conviction that if he happened to be the one who was put in the position of pressing the button that brought about Armageddon through nuclear annihilation, well, that would be as God willed. This may be some primal construct originating in an evolutionary urge for change that has created space for new species development. In an overcrowded world it produces a chthonic dragging anchor, producing the inertia gripping governments world-wide and which allows us to tinker around the edges without making the radical changes we know, well, some of us know, are essential.
Don’t get me wrong, its not that I am totally committed to the construct of solely anthrop-generated climate change, or that we are subconsciously determined to drive ourselves into extinction. I’m more inclined to think that the current global civilisation is so complex, so layered, with strata of societies and individuals at so many different levels of consciousness with outmoded cultural practices that overlap more enlightened awareness. But it is certain that our destructive behaviour is complicit in the multi-factored perfect storm looming on the 360° horizon. There are the social disasters of defunct traditions producing over-population and the conflict that is emerging over scarce resources, manifest toxic agribusiness practices that we seem unable to change fast enough to prevent causing massive deterioration of health, both to ourselves and the environment.[iii] This Earth is a dynamic organism and our present civilisation has been privileged to develop through one of its most benign and stable periods. However, given the planet’s orbit wobble and molten core, along with it’s volatile cosmic environment, not the least of which is our own sun, that calm was never going to last. And I’m certainly not convinced that we can do anything substantial enough to halt the geomorphic and climactic processes now at work.
However, there are many things we can do that will assist this miraculous, life-bearing, cosmic capsule we inhabit to retain some of the environmental factors that make life reasonably comfortable for ourselves and the other species we share it with. We can cease using materials that we know to be poisonous, both for ourselves and other species, and try to clean up the massive chemical mess we’ve made of the environment; we can relinquish the waste disposing habits that are turning the waters of this planet into a toxic soup, and stop dissipating its finite resources in disposable consumer items. Many of the wasteful and entirely unnecessary habits we have developed are also major contributors to the greenhouse gasses that are threatening our survival. We can recognise that there is nothing about culture or society that is set in stone, that we make our world as we move through it, and use our considerable creativity and know-how to prepare for the changes to come. For whatever we do now, even if we cannot entirely mitigate the trajectory of climate change, there are massive upheavals impending and we need to be ready for them. This will mean making changes in our values systems and cultures anyway, and it will be far better if those changes are willed by us, changed by us, rather than forced upon us by scarcity and social breakdown.
I, and a multitude of others, both now and before me, who share this understanding, have been saying this sort of thing for well over a century now, and it feels futile saying it again, and again.[iv] I am given some heart by hearing environmentally and ecologically aware sentiments evinced by an increasing number of people, and witnessing small changes happening around me, particularly in the shift to valuing quality of life and people above material gain. But it seems, ostensibly, those perennial ‘vested interests’ block the way to larger progressive development, along with their symbiotic businesses and dependent communities. A perfect example of this is Australia’s coal industry, which receives massive government subsidies (read public/our money) on the basis of contribution to GDP and employment, despite these figures not actually being quite as significant as those vested interests present. We know coal is one of the most polluting energy sources, and some social engineering with additional funding into diverting those communities into alternative industries is not beyond State and Federal government capacities. So why don’t we do it? And why am I feeling so depressingly cynical about the, albeit quite sincere and fervent, expressions of intention to make radical changes currently evinced by President Obama and Prime Minister Rudd? Yup! Its those bloody-minded ‘vested interests’ again!
We (in the Royal sense) do have the power to change our world, in any way we choose. It’s all to do with the strength of our collective belief in the Great Idea. Witness the way the Industrial Revolution and concomitant rise of the precedence of Science, with their promise of future benefit for all and maxim of, ‘You can’t stand in the way of progress,’ were supported by the great mass of ordinary people. These were, essentially, powerful Ideas. If the British people of the early to mid 19th century had based their belief in ‘progress’ on material fact, the vast majority would have not had such faith, as their living conditions were awful. Indeed, for many ‘ordinary mechanics’ average life expectancy was seventeen, a short and horrendous experience in which the Evangelical’s promise of ‘rewards to come’ flourished.[v] Of course, this figure was exacerbated by massively high birth fatalities due to childhood ricketts, a disease of poverty and malnourishment that deformed women’s hips and birth canal. But people endured these privations in the belief that their descendants would eventually profit. The worst thing that can happen now is to lose our faith in human capacity for conscious change. As President Obama reiterates, constantly, like a mantra, hoping to instil collective faith in our ability to turn this great ship of civilisation around, “Yes We Can!’
[i] When one considers the massive terraforming projects we regularly undertake, it could be said that we decide to leave some regions alone not because it’s too hard but because the energy required would not equal benefits.
[ii] Doctrines posing some form of reincarnation with its highest reward being enlightenment and/or release from the ‘wheel of life,’ and, of course, Christianity’s promise of escape from the trials of material human form in ‘the rapture’ that has fuelled western millenarianism for two millennia.
[iii] The fact that we are currently growing larger and living longer due to increased nutrition is the effect of past behaviours and long-term outcomes of damage from synthetic hormones, heavy metals, pesticides and herbicides, and now the premature introduction of nanotechology to consumables, has yet to play out in succeeding generations. Add to this the weakening of ‘survivor genes’ by social practices artificially supporting proliferation of faulty genes, the over-sophistication of mating and procreation, the medical maxim of ‘life at all costs’ that preserves flawed genetic lines and technology usage that debilitates healthy cognitive and physical development in children and we have a ‘perfect storm’ of chronic disease looming on that front too.
[iv] In my thesis research I read numerous articles in socialist newspapers warning of the repercussions of land misuse and the importance of paying more respect to ecological balance. William Morris’ turn of the century utopian romance, ‘News From Nowhere’ proposed a graceful, artisan society in tune with the natural world.
[v] Frederich Engels’ study of mid-19th centuryworking class social conditions.
