stella41b
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Joined: 10/16/2007
From: SW London (UK)
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quote:
ORIGINAL: brainiacsub
Hiya Sugar! Nice to converse with you again.
For the record, I believe in being good stewards of our planet - conservation, preservation, moderation, etc. Americans...we are the greediest and most wasteful sons of bitches on the planet. But the world owes a debt of gratitude for all the innovation and advancement in science and technology introduced by this country in the last 300 yrs. We also have to accept our share of the responsibility when the fruits of our ambitions are realized at the great expense of others. It will take the best and worst this country has to offer in order to solve this problem. This is not a question of technology, policy, or morality - it is one of economics. Where there is money to be made, there you will find the solution. Policy and even morality will adapt. History bares this out. Nothing is free in this world, my friend. Democracy and capitalism will drive the innovation, but sadly someone somewhere will pay for it. You seem to greatly underestimate the costs - environmental, material, and human - of bringing alternative energy sources to mass market. If you have the answer, I promise you could quit your day job tomorrow. For those of us over 40, we may never see it in our lifetime. But we will be witnesses to the inevitable. I am not an apologist for war, but I believe it is in our nature. As the oil becomes scarce, the nations of the world will be like hyenas fighting over rotting carcasses in desert. I want to bet on the biggest, baddest, nastiest, mother fucker with GPS laser guided armour piercing bunker buster bombs strapped to his back to get my piece of maggot infested entrail. No matter what you think about war, it won't be an option not to fight when the time comes.
Too bad that so many people are already fighting the war and there's no end in sight.
Only here I'm not talking about soldiers, troops, bombs or weapons, but I'm talking here about people who are fighting and who have to fight just to get the things they need to live and survive, to feed their families, and to fight disease.
For over 20 years now in the West supported by advances in technology and developments in healthcare we have seen many great changes in the way we work and in our healthcare. We have been conditioned to live in a kind of 'rat race', to be competitive, healthy, independent, to put ourselves first, and many of us have been caught up in a cycle of work and consumerism and this is the reality for many people, a week at work, limited contact with family and friends and consumer pleasures.
The problem is with a rat race, as with any sort of race, that it produces very few winners and an awful lot of losers. What have we achieved? Can we look around ourselves and honestly say that society is better now than it was before? How have we used the advancements in technology and healthcare? What have we done to use this advancement in technology and healthcare and better ways of working to bring about benefits for everyone in society?
We've got to face facts. Sure, some people have benefitted from advances and changes over the past 20 years, but many people haven't and there are still as many people who are unable to keep up with the leaders.
Sure, there are alternative energy supplies but none have proved practical enough for mass usage, and the energy resources we have at our disposal are dwindling and running out. We cannot let our search for resources and ways of consuming energy blind us to the real enemies which face us - the human race - which are poverty, destitution, and crime. These are the real enemies which threaten not just some starving Africans in some faraway place but humanity or the entire human race as a whole - including me, you, and everyone else.
The way I see it at the moment there is a war, but it's poverty and destitution against humanity, and from what I can see poverty and destitution are winning and the numbers of human victims are growing every day.
You can keep your eyes shut to the truth and keep yourself safe in your cosy little world and keep alive your dreams of Armageddon - but is Armageddon really necessary to cause you to change your way of thinking?
War is not the answer, and when it comes to taking resources from other countries by force it can never be justified.
Nothing is free in this world, everything must be paid for, but we have got to face facts here and the fact is that along with our increased material comforts and better lifestyles that some of us have worked so hard for, we have also bought ourselves into an uncertain future. We also need to face up to the fact that the price we pay for something may not cover the whole cost of what we pay for, and the rest of the cost is made up at the expense of someone else against their wishes.
Feel free to continue advocating the fight and struggle for what remains of the world's resources but wouldn't it be much better to accept a greater degree of social responsibility and learn to share with others the resources left and actually work towards fighting poverty and crime?
Surely a better way forward would be to cut consumption and move towards fair trade?
We have lived through an entire century of mass warfare and party politics both left and right, we have seen 40 of the most innovative years in history, and yet the social problems of today still remain the same as they did 100 years ago.
We talk of democracy and freedom but yet are happy to vote for governments who are out of touch with the needs of the people they represent.
Armageddon isn't a prediction, but a warning. It shouldn't be a prophecy we would want to fulfill.
The chance for peace is there. For the sake of humanity it is in all our interests to take it.
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