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Ancient Oceans: The Planet's Plunder Will Continue in the Name of Progress
"Salt remnants of ancient oceans flow through our veins . . ."
Now, along with endangered species, the Gulf spill has given us a new category: endangered oceans.
The challenges presented by the disaster lay before us in their incomprehensible enormity. To what extent have the hundreds of thousands of gallons of the highly toxic dispersant Corexit 9500 that BP has poured into the Gulf aggravated the ecological horror? How will hurricane season complicate the cleanup? Will the flow of crude continue till Christmas? How many cleanup workers have gotten sick, and why? Might the "relief well" also blow?
We can't
solve our problems, as Einstein said, with the same kind of thinking we
used to create them. This sums up the situation for me as well as
anything - and pushes my despair up against the door of possibility.
We're at the far edge of the industrial age: the age of fossil fuels.
How do we proceed beyond it?
I opened this column with the words of Theodore Roszak, who coined the term "ecopsychology" in his 1992 book, The Voice of the Earth. The concept puts human beings back into context. We are children of the earth - literally. "Making a personality, the task that Jung called ‘individuation,' may be the adventure of a lifetime," Roszak writes. "But the person is anchored within a greater, universal identity."
This is my meditation for the day: the trans-human context in which we freely create ourselves. This context binds us to the Gulf of Mexico and its fragile ecosystems, which may be in a danger we can scarcely imagine. We have not reacted to this with indifference - with a cold shrug. Our well-being is profoundly at stake. The ancient ocean within us stirs.
Maybe what we're seeing in the Gulf is the mirror of something internal. Maybe the deep alienation we feel from nature, from our trans-human parentage, contributes to the psychosis and dysfunctionality of our species.
Roszak writes: "The ecological ego matures toward a sense of ethical responsibility with the planet that is as vividly experienced as our ethical responsibility to other people. It seeks to weave that responsibility into the fabric of social relations and political decisions."
I read this and think about the wars and violence that circle the globe. Maybe this insanity begins with our decision to dominate Mother Nature - and once that sense of fundamental respect is broken, moral relativism is all we have left.
"Forgive me, all life forms of the Gulf, and all exquisitely unique and diverse sentient beings," writes James O'Dea, author and former director of Amnesty International, in what he calls his prayer for the Gulf. "I have colluded in your poisoning."
Perhaps this begins to get at it - the state of mind we need to cultivate simply to come to grips with the complexity of what we've done in the Gulf. A sense of alienation permeates modern society and drives its markets. It spawns a value system that permits pollution and war in service to these markets, and feeds the hatred and mistrust that fragment the planet.
"Help me now to return to deep community. Help me to commune with Nature, not as a tourist but as a co-inhabitant . . ."
The prayer is a bridge across the chasm of our alienation. It embraces the idea that all of us participate in the fossil-fuel culture; it is a cry for awareness: "May consciousness witness the travesties and crimes that humans have committed against Nature; and may this consciousness not seek guilt and punishment as its new distraction."
I understand what he's saying. Public fury directed at British Petroleum, the government or the president can simply be a convenient diversion of consciousness, leading to a futile, feel-good quest for revenge that results in no fundamental social changes - and no advancement of human thought beyond the level that created the disaster.
However, a prayer for personal awareness simply isn't sufficient. There is another form of alienation that permeates society, as we devolve ever more deeply into spectators of life. This is alienation from our own power.
Public fury at BP's cost-cutting decisions, secrecy, limited liability, choice to use a highly toxic dispersant in staggering quantities, lack of public remorse and whatever else it has done in violation of its unwritten contract with humanity, has a legitimate basis, and demonstrates the extent to which corporations do what they want. They consume the planet's limited resources primarily in service of themselves. We go along with it because we get our oil.
A prayer for forgiveness, a vow to buy locally, bike more and live with greater eco-awareness goes only halfway into the problem. As long as BP chooses not to pray for forgiveness as well, little will change. The planet's plunder will continue in the name of progress.
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73 Comments so far
Show Allhey, visiting professor!
I agree...
from the article:
~ This is alienation from our own power. ~
this feels that he's about to open the critical box, but, he doesn't...
the critical box would contain the connection between individual power and land...
the fact that we allow ourselves to live beholden to a financial entity for our right to inhabit the planet is the core issue...
we allow it beacause these entities use guns to force us to do so...
whatever is preventing us from using force in return ~ fear of the unknown or homelessness, violence or incarceration...moral or ethical objection...general confidence in the system ~ is what is allowing the oil to flood our oceans with death...
isolation contributes greatly to both this fear and this confidence, as does representative government and media bombardment, as one cannot know fact from fiction, nor how many others might share one's confusion and anger, feelings and desires...
we must take physical control of the land...not rely on the official prayers of a corporate board...two very different approaches...
"Well actually, praying, shopping locally, and biking more do not go anywhere near "halfway" to solving our acute environmental problems. And then reciprocal praying by BP--a silly notion, is it not, of a corporation praying?--does not do anything useful either.
Come on, let's get serious here."
OK, let's get serious. What are YOU doing? Specifically.
See, my problem with all the "either/or" solutions is that they are the wrong approach, IMO. We need EVERY approach, and every method we can summons up.
Koehler writes: "However, a prayer for personal awareness simply isn't sufficient. There is another form of alienation that permeates society, as we devolve ever more deeply into spectators of life. This is alienation from our own power."
Which means that you either did not read this article to the end, or else, you missed the most important point. Had you done that, you would have seen that he is advocating for more than awareness and prayer (though, awareness is a prerequisite to everything else), he is advocating for personal empowerment.
If the oligarchs are winning the war against us, which we know they are, how are we going to check their power and restructure them? How can we use a system that works for them, not us, to go against itself? The external power war is over. They won. Now, it's time for the hard, internal work - the work that no one can take away from us or force us not to use.
I believe, and am seeing more people come around to this view, that the power is ours to change our lives - personally. When we come to awareness that we are part of everything - including the problems AND the solutions - then we will change. When we change, the system will change.
Until then, things will go on and things will get worse. I don't see this changing in the near future. Our way of life is a narcotic and we are so dependent on it. However, even junkies know they either have to quit or they will die. Some quit, some die.
The tipping point is at hand, and we each have choices to make.
I agree, Ted Markow.
Mr Koehler, IMO, is not capable of writing kum-bay-ya fluff.
He calls upon all of us to see the connectedness we all have to the planet and to each other. He calls upon us to be merciful to, and respectful of, each other and the planet which sustains us. He calls upon each of us to dig deep within ourselves to re-establish the inherent relationship we have with nature. Whether you call it prayer or blueberry muffin, it doesn't matter. Mr Koehler writes about his deep awareness that the personal inner journey is necessary NOW, to re-establish our understanding of how interdependent all of life is. We also must take responsibility for feeding our self-indulgent plundering of Mother Earth. We are morbidly obese on our plundering of Nature. We consume more than what is necessary to sustain life.
Personal empowerment IS at hand.
Despair is not a word that I often use. Despair is what I now feel. I am overwhelmed at the sight of so many creatures being killed by this catastrophe. We all knew it was coming. We all knew it would be horrendous. We also know that this catastrophe is far from over.
Pray (or blueberry muffin) for a way that you, personally, can contribute from your intense heartache. You see, 'blueberry muffin-ing' for clarity in finding and following the path to healing ourselves, and the planet, is what is needed. Whether you change your personal demands on the resources of Mother Earth, participate with groups making changes, or choose to run for political office yourself - DO SOMETHING.
PLEASE, DO SOMETHING. None of us can afford to continue as whining spectators of life, or the destruction thereof.
People are "doing something" Lily. They're increasing traffic congestion and oil chugging because we're a nation of fucking morons. Let's just elect Sarah Palin and end this empire already. We want real leaders tough like Hugo Chavez, not corporate scumbags like Obama, Pelosi, Waxman, Reid, McConnell, et al. To hell with praying. Either you're ready to put those oligarchs on ice or you're a traitor. It's time to take a stand pal !
Non-violent civil disobedience is the path I choose. That hardly makes me a traitor.
I will agree that the US is a nation of morons. Sarah Palin is one of them.
I do not agree that the US is a nation of morons. We are a nation of unwise people - people who choose not to wake up and use their powers of reason.
"We are a nation of unwise people - people who choose not to wake up and use their powers of reason."
Speak for yourself.
Funny (in a strictly Slaughterhouse FUNF kinda way)...PRAY is exactly what Obama exhorted America to do in that Oval Office speech he gave days back...oh, the power of prayer.
He also exhorted us to get off our asses and work for change.
I work in retail. This country just went through a massive financial crisis and people were pinching every penny and all nervous. Now, the news is on to something else, even though the aftermath of the financial heist is still reverberating through our lives. Yet, most people still pay with credit, even for nickel and dime stuff. And, many people don't even care to save their receipts. They don't care. They're out to lunch. Disconnected.
This is not the bankers' fault that Americans are disconnected and dysfunctional - it's OUR fault. When we grow up (God, please let us grow up!) and start taking responsibility for our own lives and actions, things will change.
"Pray, but move your feet."
blame: to find fault with
responsibility: the quality or state of being responsible: as a : moral, legal, or mental accountability
"He also exhorted us to get off our asses and work for change."
People are already doing that. Quit defending criminals damn it !
"I work in retail."
That means you have to drive to work unless you live in a city that has a good metro system near you and work.
"This country just went through a massive financial crisis and people were pinching every penny and all nervous. Now, the news is on to something else, even though the aftermath of the financial heist is still reverberating through our lives. Yet, most people still pay with credit, even for nickel and dime stuff. And, many people don't even care to save their receipts. They don't care. They're out to lunch. Disconnected."
Leaders are supposed to help the people, not the corporate crooks but in a nation of morons, party idiots tell us to support the scumbag and blame ourselves.
The reason the financial crisis is still happening is the leaders batted for the corporate bastards and they're counting on people like you to blame everyone but the perpetrators at the top who are the culprits.
"This is not the bankers' fault that Americans are disconnected and dysfunctional - it's OUR fault. When we grow up (God, please let us grow up!) and start taking responsibility for our own lives and actions, things will change."
Now this is FUCKING STUPID ! A banker screws up on purpose and people like Ted Markow choose to be losers and say "It's our fault" ? Does it ever occur to you that no matter how clean you are, the bankers will do everything in the power to screw you? They are counting on people like you to spout moronic statements like that. There are millions of people just as responsible as you but they're not lucky as you are to come here and shill for the bankers. We're a nation of morons but that doesn't excuse the bankers for their crimes !
"blame: to find fault with
responsibility: the quality or state of being responsible: as a : moral, legal, or mental accountability"
Shifting blame: to try to shift the blame from bad leaders to people and frame them as irresponsible: the quality or state of being reckless scumbags: as a : amoral, immoral, illegal, psychopath accountability.
Thank you for reinforcing all that I believe. It has been a most enlightening presentation.
Back to your wrecking ball.
"Back to your wrecking ball."
Hey, you want to blame yourself for oil tycoons choosing to build defective rigs on purpose so you can keep it ! Tony Hayward is proud of you while I'm pissed off at moronic thinking of blaming the little guy for everything !
As long as you are buying what Big Oil, like BP is selling, YOU ARE responsible. You are feeding the monster.
By making everyone responsible, though, you end up making nobody responsible. There's a huge difference between feeding the monster and holding the monster's reins while it eats a bunch of people.
Again:
BP is not only responsible, they are to blame for the oil spill.
We are not to blame for the oil spill, but we are responsible for our oil usage that creates demand for the oil in the first place. The difference is not that subtle - I'm not sure why it's so hard to grasp.
All I'm saying is that if we look at the whole picture, we will find ourselves in there and we can take whatever action in our own lives to decrease our dependence on oil. This in no way excuses or absolves BP - they should be held liable in every way possible.
"We are not to blame for the oil spill, but we are responsible for our oil usage that creates demand for the oil in the first place. "
You're talking two different things. Demanding oil usage is a separate issue from building the oil rigs properly. Get it straight and stop being a moron.
"All I'm saying is that if we look at the whole picture, we will find ourselves in there and we can take whatever action in our own lives to decrease our dependence on oil."
That's not even a fraction of the whole picture. Again, you're not taking into account the CEOs and the politicians who made building defective oil rigs possible. Demand for oil has nothing to do with corporate thieves who choose to build defective oil rigs on purpose.
"This in no way excuses or absolves BP - they should be held liable in every way possible."
What took you so long to figure that out or is that just another one of those fake talks to pretend that you're not some corporate shill? Holding BP accountable involves leaders who will do their job, not your shit talk on "reducing demand for oil".
I'm not blaming myself, I'm blaming you. I've woken up to my power to do something - you're too chicken-shit to do anything other than point your finger at others and make a lot of hot noise.
By the way, tough guy, when you gonna go down there and kick some corporate ass! Ice dem folks! Hoooah, big man!
You're nothing.
"I'm not blaming myself, I'm blaming you."
You don't even know me liar so how can you assign blame. You post more than enough to be a great candidate worthy of taking blame, rightwinger.
" I've woken up to my power to do something - you're too chicken-shit to do anything other than point your finger at others and make a lot of hot noise."
Bullshit, you support BP and the bankers but you're too chickshit to admit it. Ted the Retail Moron is more like it. You and Joe Plumber make great brothers. I know you Obama/Bush scumbags who are screwing this country. You and your blame the little guy shit. It's morons like you who are taking this country to hell.
"By the way, tough guy, when you gonna go down there and kick some corporate ass! Ice dem folks! Hoooah, big man!"
You just find a place to meet and I'll clean your corporate clock, rightwinger.
"You're nothing."
You don't know me very well, corporate lackey.
What wrecking ball? I think he's totally wrong when he says that the US is a nation of morons. In fact, one of the great unanswered questions about the misanthropic tradition in certain strains of leftism is how they expect people as stupid as they often claim everyone else to be will change anything-and it is always everyone else, isn't it? That said, I think it's wrong to basically blame everyone for what Hayward and his ilk had meaningful control over.
I'm not a praying sort, Lily, but I do like blueberry muffins, so thanks for the analogy.
As you can see, Koehler's call for us to start looking to ourselves for answers goes over so many heads, as they are caught in the limbo of looking for others to point to. It's hard work, changing one's self, and the more we struggle, the further back we fall. That will go over many heads as well.
I blueberry muffin we learn soon.
It isn't 'limbo' to actually look at people who have power in the real world, demand that they change when they harm everyone else and the world at large, and do what it takes to make sure that isn't just a bunch of hot air. It's what people who gave a damn USED to do before the notion got drowned under the twin ideas of focusing on 'inner work' to the exclusion of near everything else and giving up on the idea that they could affect anything but themselves.
It is limbo if that is all you do.
I'm not against direct civil disobedience at all. The fact that I didn't stress that should not have been construed as such.
Again, I ask, what are YOU doing?
See, it's so easy to say we SHOULD do this, or they SHOULD do that, but we so rarely hear about what people are actually doing.
If you believe that demonstrating or yelling at politicians (which was done yesterday by a brave woman) or any number of other things will help change things, then by all means, do it!
However, if you do that, and your own shit is hanging out and you're doing it while sucking down the oil, then YOU are part of the problem. And that is what Koehler wrote to.
Taking responsibility for our actions does not mean the oil spill was our fault, it means we are part of the problem so must be part of the solution. Oil companies will not stop drilling and politicians will not stop BSing until we stop demanding it. It won't happen because demand drives supply. WE demand it. THEY supply it.
As the old Quaker saying goes: "I can't hear what you are saying - your actions are speaking louder than your words."
"Again, I ask, what are YOU doing?"
Typical rightwing bullshit talk. When a leader screws up, you don't go blaming other people either.
"However, if you do that, and your own shit is hanging out and you're doing it while sucking down the oil, then YOU are part of the problem."
If you're so into telling people to ween off oil even though we all agree on it, then tell us your plans for everyone to follow and let's how many think you have such great ideas oh big guy.
"Taking responsibility for our actions does not mean the oil spill was our fault, it means we are part of the problem so must be part of the solution. "
Typical rightwing oil cartel talk. You contradict yourself there.
"Oil companies will not stop drilling and politicians will not stop BSing until we stop demanding it. It won't happen because demand drives supply. WE demand it. THEY supply it."
That has nothing to do with building defective rigs on purpose. Tony is laughing at you because he can count on you to stand up for his criminal activities and shift the blame to the little guys. Thanks for showing us why we're a nation of morons.
"OK, let's get serious. What are YOU doing?"
He's doing a good deed of being honest about this kumbaya garbage. Try meditating and praying in the middle of a swimming pool when gallons of oil get dumped in.
You don't go blaming people for oil tycoons purposely using defective parts for their oil rigs all in the name of capitalism.
The reason the corporate oligarchs are winning with Obama's help is
A - Obama knows that he can't control the CEOs who have all their legal ammo at their disposal just like Exxon.
B - Obama's afraid to speak out because his campaign funding comes from slick oily tycoons too.
C - Obama doesn't give a shit about the disasters because he's a scumbag.
If I were president, I would be a tough leader like Hugo Chavez and put the oil tycoons in behind bars even if I have to break laws, abuse power, and change the god damned system. I'd carry a few guns too just like Arafat.
If you abandon all issues of external power to the people who are completely satisfied with the status quo by just saying that they won and retreating from those issues entirely, then how will things ever meaningfully change in the way that you want them to do so?
"See, my problem with all the "either/or" solutions is that they are the wrong approach, IMO. We need EVERY approach, and every method we can summons up."
This is from my response to Visiting Prof. Please tell me where I advocate abandoning all issues of external power.
No, what I am saying is to abandon the single issue of external power. To be sure, power needs to be confronted. But if we show up at the rally in our SUVs with bellies full of Chilean grapes and Mediterranean olive oil, we are being a bit hypocritical.
Of course, I'm stretching the analogy a bit for show. The point is that we know we are driving the system of supply and demand. We need to find a way off the wheel that is driving us all into oblivion.
Isn't control a lot more fundamental to issues of supply and demand, though-in that those who control the means of production and the allocation of resources in a society determine the elements of supply and demand?
Look at it this way: let's say that upwards of 80% of the population did just like you're advocating. It wouldn't really change the fact that people who don't care about environmental costs would still control the oil wells. It'd just mean that they have more of the oil for them to use.
Wow Ted, very well said and in a direct and polite way that I pray will move more than just the Professor.
OK--let's get real and talk about how this countervailing influence will look like. What are we going to do? What is this going to look like? Let's begin.
What I have done is to look at my finances, and my consumption, and have gone from there. I also am growing more of my own food (not much yet, but it's increasing). These are two huge leverage points when we stop to consider exactly where the system has us by the short and curlies (to be gender neutral).
Food and money. That's what we spend our precious and irretrievable life energies on. Start growing and conserving both and you will be on your way.
I agree Ted.
I have made similar changes in how I live. It is possible to live on less. Example: what else could a person do with the $ amount of just the monthly interest on each of their credit cards? I function well without a credit card. I gave up driving a car, which was a challenge, not living in a metropolitan area. I can hire an awful lot of transportation with what I save on car insurance, license & car maintenance annually. I didn't have car payments. I shop for groceries monthly and have them delivered ONCE for a charge of $3. I schedule my trips to town in advance, to get all my errands done in as few trips as possible. I rarely use a clothes drier. I hang my laundry on a clothesline and indoors in winter. I don't run an air conditioner. I open the windows. I will admit that extreme summer heat is not an issue here. The cold of winter is an issue. What I save on air conditioning provides my winter heat. I am moving toward solar panels in the near future. My neighbour is 'off the grid' and functions quite well. He bought the 10 acres next to me when he saw how I was able to function alone in the boonies. We are both well over 60 yrs of age. I allow myself the luxury of the Internet, rather than take-out food and consuming alcohol. The only CD player I have is in my computer & I don't have a cell phone or other such gizmo's.
What I describe isn't for everyone. I know that. The point is that we can make choices in how we live, to reduce our need for oil.
The Gulf oil tragedy has moved me to become involved in local environmental issues. I write letters, make phone calls & attend meetings to protect my environment.
Yes, I am outraged by the irresponsibility of Big Oil companies and their enablers. I am outraged over the development of the Tar Sands in Canada and work toward stopping it.
We all have something to contribute, whether it is in what we do, or refuse to do.
"People should know what you stand for. They should also know what you won't stand for." - unknown source
"I rarely use a clothes drier. I hang my laundry on a clothesline and indoors in winter."
You can't do that if you live in an apartment in most cases.
"I shop for groceries monthly and have them delivered ONCE for a charge of $3."
What grocery store gives you healthy food that cheap? Organic food usually costs more than regular food.
"I gave up driving a car, which was a challenge, not living in a metropolitan area. I can hire an awful lot of transportation with what I save on car insurance, license & car maintenance annually."
You aren't cutting down or being environmentally friendly if you are hiring someone else to drive for you personally. Aren't you being hypocritical?
"I am moving toward solar panels in the near future. My neighbour is 'off the grid' and functions quite well. He bought the 10 acres next to me when he saw how I was able to function alone in the boonies."
How many people do you expect to follow your lead? Most neighborhoods don't have your luxury of buying land off.
Dear Professor; let me try to explain it this way. Those BP executives are driven by the left part of their brains; that a few CD blogers have descripted as REPTILE.
So I submit to you that these reptile brains see the world from a belief system sometimes called 'The survival of the fittest'
More specifically most seriously Greedy people have made a choice whereby they see that the Rich throughout history get richer and the poor stay poorer.
'Of course smart people choose to be Rich, saying Piss on those who don't make it to the Top"
The advent of the Middle class was just a anomaly that recently provided the rich with another source to loot.
These elites believe that they are smarter and thereby the chosen ones.
And so the throngs of ACTION of NOT REALLY INTELLEGENT People controlling the actions of powerful Government seeking PROFIT
have brought us to a Existential Cross road, Ie. the Oil blob of Death just might help to awaken enough of the masses:
WHEREBY many more people may make a sublime choice that could save the blue green Earth. This Ecological minded road just might be supported by the Power Elite!
WHY? Because their really is NO OTHER CHOICE. As far as electing third party candates go - maybe baby! Better to focus on a contestutional admendment first.
So MR. Professor: You ask for the solution?
THE SOLUTION IS IN THE EVOLUTION: How do we help raise the Consciousness of enough people to suppress the Reptile mind
and let the Right side of the Brain bloom.
When we let EMPATHY flower, the Cowards will cower! And the solution takes time, probably lots of time.
And yet just may be around the corner. Keep talking and keep trying; What else can we do?
I agree, Visiting Professor. Koehler has some good points but they are at a personal level. BP represents a collective problem, and collective problems demand collective solutions. Corporations have inordinate influence on all aspects of our lives -- that is a common theme of this website and, for those paying attention to the news, of our times. Corporate personhood must be abolished, elections must be publicly financed, media monopolies must be broken up, public broadcasting must be returned to its charter to provide a diversion of viewpoints rather than being a purveyor of propaganda. Of course, how many big paper columnists are going seriously critique capitalism? It is because his "remedy" is limited to the personal level only that he is permitted to continue on at the paper there.
"The greatest achievement of humanity is not its works of art, science or technology, but the recognition of its own dysfunction, its own madness". ....Eckhardt Tolle
Ya and it seems almost everyone recognizes dysfunction. But it seems that there is little agreement as to what exactly that dysfunction is. And virtually no one wants to take responsibility for it. Or be the first to give up their personal lifestyle to change it. It seems most want to blame someone else and in these articles and posts you see lots of blame being spread around.
Right now "OIL" is taking the blame for the problems of the world. I haven't seen a single new electric car out in the parking lot. I haven't seen a single new solar panel on any roof. In fact I've never seen one at all around here on any roof but my own.
Fact is, very few understand the madness of humanity. There is one underlying cause for all of this. Literally everything. And most won't even consider it as changeable.
There are too many people in the world. By ten times or more. And we, as a species, have no intention whatsoever of doing anything about it. And yet it's the only variable in the equation that when reduced to 10% or less of it's current value, reduces all the others to insignificant.
And as I've said before many times, we can find a way to do it, or mother nature will do it for us. And it won't be pretty.
I wish to add that some CD posters have accused Eckhart Tolle as being a flake of new age thinking. He is no flake, he gets the big picture. It's capitalism, stupid. Allow me to quote him further:
"Ego-identification with things creates attachment to things, obsession with things, which in turn creates our consumer society and economic structures where the only measure of progress is always more. The unchecked striving for more, for endless growth, is a dysfunction and a disease. It is the same dysfunction the cancerous cell manifests, whose only goal is to multiply itself, unaware that it is bringing about its own destruction by destroying the organism of which it is part".
Yes, at least we can view Western humanity as a cancer. We know there have been societies that knew how to live with nature and also in peace. One example are the Pygmies of Africa who are being destroyed.
Corporations today are inhuman monsters stalking the Planet for one thing profit and lots of it. The people that work for these monsters are just cells and parts of this beast like our liver or kidney's cells are part of our body. They have no more to do or say about the direction of these beasts then our organs do about where we go or what we do. If we can't get these monsters under better control they will consume what's left of this Planets resources and move on to others as soon as they're available. In fact they are already staking their claims to the rest of the Universe.
Leaving you and I as collateral damage.
Yes, SEAGLASS, the corporations (and the concept of 'corporatism', which Mussolini himself called 'fascism' when merged with government) now constitutes a hidden tumor of EMPIRE cancer --- hidden like the deadly mixture of oil and water that CorExit creates at 1000 feet under the oceans --- and which is the actual CAUSE of all the surface tumors like; imperialist wars, financial looting and chaos, environmental disaster, civil injustice, domestic 'police-state' tyranny, drone-targeted assassinations, torture in the oil territories, and economic oppression at home!
However, this unprecedented new 21st century global EMPIRE is more than the traditional 'fascism' and overt totalitarianism of the 20th century Nazi and Soviet Empires. It represents a completely novel, guileful, and integrated ruling-elite Global corporate/financial/political/militarist EMPIRE --- which controls 'our' former country by hiding behind the facade of a TWO-Party 'Vichy' sham of faux democratic government (and equally 'Vichy' propagandist media) ---- which would put Hitler to shame in its sophisticated "Inverted Totalitarianism" [Sheldon Wolin's brilliant term].
Yes, SEAGLASS; the oil wars in the Middle East and Central Asia, the global financial looting crisis of 9/15 (08), and this latest existential environmental disaster, along with the precipitating "Shock Doctrine" 'false flagged' attack of 9/11 (01) are all only 'symptom tumors' of the hidden and under-lying metastasizing global cancerous EMPIRE.
Alan MacDonald
Sanford, Maine
How can BP possibly pay for their ‘negative externality costs’ which may destroy all our world’s oceans?
CorExit is real life “Ice-Nine” from Kurt Vonnegut’s existential, ‘black-comedy’ novel “Cat’s Cradle” (1963).
And this video of a U.S. Air Force crew flying ‘on the deck’ and spraying CorExit for BP corporation looks exactly and eerily like the B-52 cockpit scenes with ‘Major Kong’ (Slim Pickens) approaching their nuclear target ‘on the deck’ in Stanley Kubrick’s 1964 ‘black comedy’ anti-war film “Dr. Strangelove”.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/ybenjamin/detail??blogid=150&entry_id=65552
The only difference between the film and the video is that one is ‘fictional’ and supposedly dropping a 30 megaton nuclear bomb on the Soviet Empire and being done by the American Empire, while the other is ‘factual’ and actually dropping tons of CorExit on our own earth and being done by the global corporatist EMPIRE.
Here’s a great article, from a trusted Maine marine toxicologist about this truly ‘existential’ damage being done by CorExit, BP, and the entire ruling-elite Global corporate/financial/militarist EMPIRE—which is killing us, the US, our democracy, our fragile blue earth, and our species.
http://www.examiner.com/x-10438-Human-Rights-Examiner~y2010m6d15-Gulf-residents-gassed-Fl-prepares-evacuation
You may enjoy reading Kurt Vonnegut’s prescient ‘back-humor’ novel “Cat’s Cradle” in which he envisions a former atomic bomb scientist working at GE Research labs inventing an isotope of natural water with surface chemistry altered to make it solid at 114 degrees—- and which causes the ‘fictional’ end of the world, when it accidentally falls into the ocean during the death of a ‘fictional’ dictator’s funeral in San Palo. Quite a story. Quite an ending! (as Vonnegut might have said).
Anyway, you may also enjoy Googling and checking out the real life ‘Surface Chemist’ Nobel laureate at GE (Irving Langmuir) who Vonnegut used as a model for his fictional Dr. Hoenikker in “Cat’s Cradle”.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cat%27s_Cradle
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irving_Langmuir
The book is a great read, the analogy between fictional “Ice-Nine” and real ‘CorExit’ shows that truth is stranger than fiction, and Vonnegut’s mastery and miracle of what Berkeley’s leading cognitive scientist, George Lakoff, describes as ‘analogy-thinking’ will blow your mind.
Best,
Alan MacDonald
Sanford, Maine
Thank you amacd.
I thought I was the only Vonnegut fan around here.
I can't find the line, right now, but Vonnegut has his airbrush painter in 'Bluebeard' say something about only being free of God's grip on him twice in his life...the two times he did heroin...
interesting...
"Quite an ending!" -- Alan MacDonald
Hilarious! Several months ago, I re-read 'Cat's Cradle' while sitting on the floor at Barnes & Noble, and I had forgotten the ending. I laughed out loud! A truly great ending.
And, a rather fine beginning, too:
"Don't be a fool! Close this book at once! It is nothing but foma!"
Ah yes. I remember “Ice-Nine”. Thanks to Vonnegut for - well - many insights.
Villains and bullies may taint their tribes, but by definition they do have the power (for a time), meaning it's difficult to stop them, and it's tiresome for the rest of us to be continually blamed and maligned for their gross misconduct.
I don't agree with all these 'it's our fault, we're addicted to oil, humanity is dysfunctional' articles, but I do like that we are exploring what it means to be human and how we can (hopefully) save the home planet, live in peace, and progress as a species.
Yes--and "progress" is indeed the pagan god who devours its children.
The transformation we are about to experience will likely be as monumental as the transition that comprised the Agricultural Revolution. (I'm speaking quantitatively. The quality of the Agricultural Revolution is another discussion.)
I suspect the vast majority of people who experienced the earlier transformation changed their consciousnesses as a way of coming to terms with events and changed conditions and did not change "a priori". I think it will be the case now, too.
I've said it before. Don't be afraid to lead. Not everyone in the world has to reach a certain uniform threshold of consciousness in order for necessary change to come about. Much creative adjustment and insight will occur in the *process*.
I hope those of us who aren't numbly floating in the corporate fish tank will use the unprecedented environmental catastrophe to assert ourselves politically and intellectually and get out of the virtual ghetto.
If this ongoing disaster doesn't dislodge us, what will?
A phycologist told me recently that a catostrophic situation often serves as a catalyst of great change....'great'