After the tragic events at Virginia Tech University, a lot of people are coming out of the woodwork to analyze how something of this nature could happen. Lots of theories and conjecture fill the air. What amazes me, however, is that every pundit and so-called expert points to one solitary explanation and has one concurrent solution to the problem.
I suppose I shouldn't be so amazed because we live in a society that always seeks a magic pill to cure our ills. Every day of the week -- in the wee hours of the morning -- you can find a host of magic pills displayed on cable television. Are you a big flat slob? Hey, take this pill and you can lose thousands of pounds without exercise or eating better! Do you feel unpopular and unloved? Buy this product or get our credit card and people instantly will love you! Living in abject poverty? Well, simply scrape together all the money you have in the world, send it to us and we'll send you the instructions on how to become filthy rich while doing little actual work!
As Duff Badgley remarks above in the Sound Off! section of the upcoming edition of Greener Times, many Greens have embraced fully biofuels as the sole solution to the peak oil problem without considering that this solution too generates its own set of problems and dilemmas.
There is no magic pill! There is no singular solution to any of the world's problems. We must instead embrace a multitude of potential solutions with the understanding that each partial solution will also bring us its own set of inconsistencies and problems. If not, we will be easy prey for the hucksters and isms of our world. We will become so focused on a singular remedy that our blinders will keep us from looking at new and innovative ideas.
To use a boxing analogy, it's like a boxer who looks to score one knockout blow. More often than not, the opponent is pecking away with jabs and feints, piling up an insurmountable lead in points. As the match moves into the later rounds, our "knockout artist" becomes more desperate to score that one big punch by swinging wildly, thereby leaving himself open to being knocked out himself.
In this same vein, if we spend our lives looking for that one singular solution, our planet and society will grow ever more fragile. As things worsen, we will be bound to latch onto any idea that seems even remotely plausible. People who are motivated by greed and power will find us easy to manipulate as we grow more desperate. In the end, because we spent our individual and collective lives looking for a mirage, life as we know it will die.
And we'll only have ourselves to blame.
I suppose I shouldn't be so amazed because we live in a society that always seeks a magic pill to cure our ills. Every day of the week -- in the wee hours of the morning -- you can find a host of magic pills displayed on cable television. Are you a big flat slob? Hey, take this pill and you can lose thousands of pounds without exercise or eating better! Do you feel unpopular and unloved? Buy this product or get our credit card and people instantly will love you! Living in abject poverty? Well, simply scrape together all the money you have in the world, send it to us and we'll send you the instructions on how to become filthy rich while doing little actual work!
As Duff Badgley remarks above in the Sound Off! section of the upcoming edition of Greener Times, many Greens have embraced fully biofuels as the sole solution to the peak oil problem without considering that this solution too generates its own set of problems and dilemmas.
There is no magic pill! There is no singular solution to any of the world's problems. We must instead embrace a multitude of potential solutions with the understanding that each partial solution will also bring us its own set of inconsistencies and problems. If not, we will be easy prey for the hucksters and isms of our world. We will become so focused on a singular remedy that our blinders will keep us from looking at new and innovative ideas.
To use a boxing analogy, it's like a boxer who looks to score one knockout blow. More often than not, the opponent is pecking away with jabs and feints, piling up an insurmountable lead in points. As the match moves into the later rounds, our "knockout artist" becomes more desperate to score that one big punch by swinging wildly, thereby leaving himself open to being knocked out himself.
In this same vein, if we spend our lives looking for that one singular solution, our planet and society will grow ever more fragile. As things worsen, we will be bound to latch onto any idea that seems even remotely plausible. People who are motivated by greed and power will find us easy to manipulate as we grow more desperate. In the end, because we spent our individual and collective lives looking for a mirage, life as we know it will die.
And we'll only have ourselves to blame.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Comments are unmoderated, so you can write whatever you want.