There are a lot of things we could do to improve our energy situation. For the most part solutions lie all around us to reducing our need for oil and such. Paths like making better use of electronics communications, solar energy, hybrid cars, recycling, etceteras... have been around for years. And everything that we do has both demonstrated costs and demonstrated benefits. And yet at ever turn one sees people afraid to do what it takes to make these things reality? Why?
Promoters focus on the benefits of a new technology and try to minimize costs. Those who fear a technology focus on the dangers and risks. And there are always side effects to consider. Batteries are immensely useful, for hybrid cars for one example, but are full of poisonous materials that can pollute the environment once they are discarded. Solar Panels are still costly and often involve pollution creating manufacturing processes. Tele-commuting and Tele-Medicine are wonderful notions -- but who will pay for them? Our cars are safer, but at the cost of throwaway design where every repair is extremely costly. Nuclear power has it's advantages, but all of us have memories of the disasters in Chernobyl and Three Mile Island. Risks seem to threaten us at every turn. It is easy to grow fearful and nix all change.
Well this is nothing new either. In ancient times the Chinese once had a thriving Merchant Marine and an awesome Navy, but they had a problem with Pirates on the seas on one ocean and bigger problems on their other borders, so they built a "bypass" -- a canal linking North and South. Commerce moved to the Canal, they walled off their ports in the East, and they used their Naval Funds to build palaces instead. Because of those decisions China was left out of the rise of the "Modern" world until the Modern World came in and nearly turned China into multiple colonies of the "Great Powers" who woke up in time.
Going back still further, the Roman Empire solved it's unity problems by accepting Christianity as a National Religion. Christians soon burned libraries and librarians world-wide and turned the people away from science, logic, and such antique notions as Freedom or Democracy. The Church determined what was true or not, and the people were instructed to "believe" without question what the Church Fathers taught. It was for that reason that the Roman Empire fell apart, not the Barbarians invading from all sides. The population plummetted and people died of plagues exacerbated by superstition and poor sanitation; all representing a decline in the civilization of the people living in the Empire and it's successor states. Progress is not inevitable.
At the same time just 40 years ago a lot of us were sure that we were going to die from a Nuclear Exchange. It didn't happen. Maybe we have no need to fear the Arabs so.
I'm not offering any solutions, but I am talking about fear versus courage. Courage requires people summoning something from the heart and deciding to make an effort, take a measured risk, for the future. Maybe just maybe, the world isn't falling apart and won't fall apart -- if we don't fall apart. Maybe Nuclear Energy can be made safe, maybe solar power can be made cheap, maybe we can start using Methane instead of filling the air with it. Maybe we'll muddle through after all. Let us hope. Let us work. Let us talk together, let us pray.
Chris :-)
Posted by cholte at May 1, 2005 09:50 AMI like what you're saying. I am not so optimistic anymore. I used to think maybe our leaders were stupid but now I think they are evil. I'm not afraid of arabs not because I don't think they would kill us but because I think if they do we had it coming. I prefer not to be burned alive but what will be will be. I suppose when it all comes down I'll see how advanced I am by my ability to be "happy and at ease" while it burns all around me. I guess things could take a rapid change for the better, but it would be wise to prepare for things to get worse.
Posted by: Philip Brett at May 5, 2005 05:26 PMI take comfort in the words of the Lotus Sutra. If we are centered then we see that even if the world around us in on fire we need not be.
I do believe that some people behave evilly and with "wrong ideas." But I don't believe that people are evil or are good. Rather folks get way too attached to the wrong things, can't see things the way they are, and aren't willing to acknowledge that and let go of their illusions/delusions. Hence, "evil" folks are mostly confused folks who are attached too tightly to delusional ideas. Since that is a common battle, fighting "evil" is thus a common effort. There is no need to get worked up at the fact that folks have different illusions/delusions than I/you do.
I believe that the most dangerous people are those who think that others are "evil" -- that gives folks a license to do evil themselves. I firmly believe that some folks are incredibly selfish and misguided -- but that is not taking it personally.
Posted by: chris Holte at May 6, 2005 01:44 PMI will admit that yours is a better way of looking at it, and if I scratch beneath the surface I think I see it that way too but I still find myself looking for somebody to blame.
Posted by: Philip Brett at May 6, 2005 05:24 PM