A Mass Murderer Finally Broke Down My Front Door……and I seriously don’t know if I should laugh or cry!
Last night I watched Seaspiracy on Netflix. Incredible and horrifying…..and real. Watch it, please.
The topic it plunges into is quite likely THE MOST IMPORTANT ISSUE EVER KNOWN TO HUMANITY. But I suppose I can see how it may not get much attention……….cuz there is also climate change, deforestation, racism, Trumpism, and on and on and on and on. And besides, we all have busy lives and stuff we need to go buy.
One of my “favorite” parts in the movie, is about the market for shark fin soup. Eating shark fin soup is a status symbol so compelling that people pay extravagant sums of money for it. Yet of course it has no value or justification whatsoever. A fact so completely absurd, that one is caught between laughter and tears.
As I write this, our planets oceans, forests, atmosphere, you name it, are under relentless assault from almost all corners. We are likely living during the final days of a healthy ecosystem existing almost anywhere. Yet if you watch or listen to the news, it is almost exclusively about race related issues! Yes, race is a long standing and serious problem. We live in such bizarre societal landscape that even today it seems that people cannot do something so simple as to treat ALL people consistently without regard to the color of ones skin. And so while we bicker about this non-stop, meanwhile we are busy absolutely destroying the foundation which allows people to luxuriate in civilization at all! In a sad way this situation is true comedy! I fear that it won’t be long till racism concerns are simply and brutally replaced with survival concerns.
We live in a world where we are in the midst of total environmental destruction, yet your average person looks at you like a deer caught in the headlights when you point out that the existence of a product like a plastic plug in air freshener might be an indication of a society in delusion. We churn out pointless bullshit pieces of plastic, headed almost straight for the landfill, or the ocean, and happily put them in our shopping cart right next to our can of dolphin safe tuna! Really, is this happening? Should I be laughing or crying?!
We have a seemingly sizeable community of environmental activists and well wishers. But my sense is that in reality almost none of them have any clue as to what real changes would need to be made in order to stave off the impending catastrophe. Massive, massive, massive cuts in consumption of EVERYTHING! Talking about reducing our carbon footprints doesn’t come anywhere REMOTELY close to what would need to happen for us to avert what is on the way. We need to be actively implementing new methods and mindsets based around long term sustainability. But we really just go on like usual while we put pretty green washing labels on our products. It is such a delusional mindset that I don’t know whether to laugh at it or cry about it.
Half the people in the US have their heads so buried in the sand that they won’t even admit that climate change is real. And I feel quite confident that if those people were asked about what impacts pollution, overfishing, plastics, deforestation, etc. were having, they would simply downplay it — mostly out of ignorance, but still. This is so very shockingly ignorant that it is hilarious and terrifying at once.
Long time Tonight Show host Jay Leno, used to go on “Jay Walks” where he would interview people on the street to showcase the disturbing level of ignorance of basic knowledge among so many of us. He would ask questions like, “what’s bigger, the sun or the moon?”, or, “can you point to California on this map?” It was horrifying to watch, and yes, meant to be funny. Jay might not be on the air any longer, but the situation remains. Should I be laughing or crying? Really.
As a species we are so woefully in over our heads from the standpoint of being unable to manage the the consequences of our ability to drastically alter our own habitat. We can go to space and build lasers, but we cannot keep from shitting in our own well. It’s a genuine tragicomedy.
If you go to youtube and watch The Third Industrial Revolution, a talk given by Jeremy Rifkin, he opens by talking about how climate change is no longer off in the future. It is not outside the door. It has opened the front door and is in the house.
So here we are. The mass murderer has entered my home, but so far is just staring at me. Did I mention that I live in a one room house with no other doors? Anyway, he is staring at me with a great deal of malice…….and I feel quite sure that, if he actually identifies as a her, and I address her as such, she still isn’t going to leave me be.
How many among us can comprehend what comes after we have collapsed the ocean ecosystem? The millions and millions of people who depend on the ocean for food will need to abandon it. And they will be on the move. It’s gonna be absolute chaos.
PS. To any of you who may misinterpret my mentioning of race and gender issues as callous, please, you have missed the point. My point is that, yes, we have lots of very important issues that need to be figured out, but every issue in the world absolutely pales in comparison to the deadly seriousness of the consequences of our destruction of the natural world. And it is this issue that deserves almost every bit of our attention, else this problem will simply cancel all other problems.
