The Source of All Our Problems
In order to fix any problem you need to begin by truly understanding the source.
Now, part of me agrees that there are millions of little sources out there so it's so hard to ever really understand the true source. So why bother trying?
Another part wants to shrug it all off like some others and just call it basic human greed which is so much a part of our nature that we can never hope to overcome it.
However, the bigger part of me still believes strongly that there is a very definite and definable source to the majority of our current world problems and by really understanding that one problem we can do so much more to conquer it once and for all!
Now, I'm sure many others before me have written entire books on this or tried to define it in so many different and complicated ways, but here it is in two simple words:
"Free Pollution"
There is so much to be said about these two words that it's really tough to know where to begin. The deeper you get into it though the more it becomes clear that these two words put together are connected to every major problem in human history.
Taken separately, the word free encompasses just about everything we see as good, (freedom from slavery, free will, free lunch) and the word pollution can roughly be associated with everything bad or harmful (air, water, earth, sound, and sight pollutions, as well as polluted ideology and morality)
Put them together and what do you get? The freedom of every individual or corporation to cause irreparable harm to just about every other living thing on the planet. The freedom of one group to profit immensely by using up as much of the world's resources as they can and leaving their mess behind for others to worry about.
The basic necessities of clean air, clean water and clean soil are becoming rarer and rarer commodities in this capitalistic world that we have created for ourselves over the last century. The promise of everlasting economic growth and prosperity and all the corporate propaganda that went with it is finally beginning to reach its climax. Where we go from here depends on how we handle the problem now that we understand it.
I'll get into this deeper in further posts with more examples as well as solutions, but the basic idea is this:
If we ever hope to create a fair and sustainable world, every individual or group must become fully responsible for their actions as much as possible. That means putting a fair cost on pollution of all sorts so that the money is there to create solutions to clean up or avoid that pollution for everyone in the future.
For example, if you were to search the web for the true cost of a gallon of gas when you factor in all the social, environmental, health, and political costs involved it's somewhere in the range of $15 US/gallon. Unless individuals actually pay that true cost at the pump how can we ever expect them to switch to alternatives such as walking, biking, public transit or zero-emission vehicles. Unless we make the change soon the real costs to society will keep going up and eventually Mother Nature will step in and start making all the decisions for us.
May we all understand the problem together before that happens, is my greatest hope and dream.
Now, part of me agrees that there are millions of little sources out there so it's so hard to ever really understand the true source. So why bother trying?
Another part wants to shrug it all off like some others and just call it basic human greed which is so much a part of our nature that we can never hope to overcome it.
However, the bigger part of me still believes strongly that there is a very definite and definable source to the majority of our current world problems and by really understanding that one problem we can do so much more to conquer it once and for all!
Now, I'm sure many others before me have written entire books on this or tried to define it in so many different and complicated ways, but here it is in two simple words:
"Free Pollution"
There is so much to be said about these two words that it's really tough to know where to begin. The deeper you get into it though the more it becomes clear that these two words put together are connected to every major problem in human history.
Taken separately, the word free encompasses just about everything we see as good, (freedom from slavery, free will, free lunch) and the word pollution can roughly be associated with everything bad or harmful (air, water, earth, sound, and sight pollutions, as well as polluted ideology and morality)
Put them together and what do you get? The freedom of every individual or corporation to cause irreparable harm to just about every other living thing on the planet. The freedom of one group to profit immensely by using up as much of the world's resources as they can and leaving their mess behind for others to worry about.
The basic necessities of clean air, clean water and clean soil are becoming rarer and rarer commodities in this capitalistic world that we have created for ourselves over the last century. The promise of everlasting economic growth and prosperity and all the corporate propaganda that went with it is finally beginning to reach its climax. Where we go from here depends on how we handle the problem now that we understand it.
I'll get into this deeper in further posts with more examples as well as solutions, but the basic idea is this:
If we ever hope to create a fair and sustainable world, every individual or group must become fully responsible for their actions as much as possible. That means putting a fair cost on pollution of all sorts so that the money is there to create solutions to clean up or avoid that pollution for everyone in the future.
For example, if you were to search the web for the true cost of a gallon of gas when you factor in all the social, environmental, health, and political costs involved it's somewhere in the range of $15 US/gallon. Unless individuals actually pay that true cost at the pump how can we ever expect them to switch to alternatives such as walking, biking, public transit or zero-emission vehicles. Unless we make the change soon the real costs to society will keep going up and eventually Mother Nature will step in and start making all the decisions for us.
May we all understand the problem together before that happens, is my greatest hope and dream.
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