The REAL Eco-terrorism ...

Thank goodness, 200 more trees and I can clock out and have a beer at the lodge.

ECO-TERRORISM....

You want eco-terrorism? I'll show you eco-terrorism. Look at the picture above. What a great legacy we are leaving behind — the systematic and total destruction of our environment so that we can have pretty wooden doorknobs or pretty little wood knickknacks that we can place on our over-crowded shelves.

For the record, I do not support eco-terrorism. I believe that if we can't save the world without hurting people, then maybe the world is not worth saving. As an extension of that, I don't think we should harm people's property either.

But look at the guy with the chainsaw — he's engaging in the LEGAL rape, pillage, and destruction of the Planet. Yes, the one-in-a-billion Planet that sustains an incredible assortment of life. We HAVE to destroy it so that we can make money and satisfy our immediate needs. WE HAVE to multiply our human numbers to ungodly proportions, and then we have to RAPE the Earth even more to support all the added people. WE HAVE TO because that's the way we've always done it. The Earth is a giant, eternal resource, and it's ours for the RAPING, and TAKING, and ABUSING, and NEGLECT.

AND NOW FOR A "DEEP THOUGHT" BREAK....

People who cling to paradigms (just about all of us) take one look at the spacious possiblity that everything they think is guaranteed to be nonsense and pedal rapidly in the opposite direction. Surely there is no power, no control, no understanding, not even a reason for being, much less acting, in the notion or experience that there is no certainty in any worldview. But, in fact, everyone who has managed to entertain that idea, for a moment or for a lifetime, has found it to be the basis for radical empowerment. If no paradigm is right, you can choose whatever one will help to achieve your purpose. If you have no idea where to get a purpose, you can listen to the Universe (or put in the name of your favorite deity here) and do his, her, its will - which is probably a lot better informed than your will.

—An excerpt from Donella Meadows' classic essay, "Leverage Points: Places to Intervene in a System."

What? Donella Meadows is one of my great heros. In 2001, she died an untimely death from bacterial meningitis at age 59. What is she trying to say here? WHAT is she trying to tell the world?

Hmmm, to me this says that people are stuck on traditions, or "the way it's always been" and there's little momentum or energy to change things. And when you do try to change things, even if they are crazy wrong, you get great resistance from other people because: a) People don't like change and b) That's the way we've always done it, thus it is a TRADITION.

Allow me to give two examples:

• Holiday Cards - It's Christmas time and I get all these cards in the mail, often from vendors or people I hardly know. Okay, if you are going to send a photo of your kids or a nice end-of-year note, that's fine, but most of the cards I get simply say, "Merry Christmas, Jim and Terry." First of all, who the hell are Jim and Terry? Secondly, what a waste of a stamp, paper, and the Postal Service's energy. I mean, people spend lots of money and time sending off these Christmas cards, maybe because they've ALWAYS DONE IT or their PARENTS HAVE DONE IT, but what's the point? The recipient opens it, says "nice," and puts it in the pile with all the other cards. And there is no way the recipient can remember who sent what card — it just becomes a big blur. So, really, what is the point of this wasteful tradition?

• Smoking in Public Places - My God, we go to restaurants and suck in all this collective cigarette smoke and inhale numerous toxins. Why are so few cities and counties doing something about this? First of all, it amazes me that people are rude enough to smoke in a public building, but why isn't anyone stopping them? "Well, we keep the smokers in the smoking section," the restaurant manager says. My GOD, the smoking area is just an open area around the bar — do you think the smoke just hits some kind of invisible air wall and stays there? No way, you are poisoning every patron in the restaurant with that crap. WHY ISN'T ANYONE DOING SOMETHING ABOUT IT? So you call your local state representative, and they just kind of hem and holler that the restaurant owners and smokers might get mad. I mean, few politicians really want to take the lead on this, and they really don't want to stick their neck out, and they really don't want to piss off any potential voters. BUT MY GOD, THEY ARE POISONING US WITH THEIR SECOND HAND SMOKE!!!!!

So, the point is, people really don't like to change, even if their habits are wasteful, pointless, and even harmful. What Donella is saying above is that no one has a monopoly on "right." So, if you are trying to accomplish something, you can choose the "worldview" that works best. We shouldn't lock ourselves into an "it's always done this way" or "people might get mad" paradigm. Rather, we need to do what's right in our hearts.

After much deliberation, I cancelled my subscription to the newspaper. It has really reduced my supply of blogging material, but I got to thinking: A newspaper is a wasteful and inefficient way of disseminating information. Think of the trees, the energy used for the presses, and the gasoline used to deliver it. Crazy.

I challenge everyone who reads this blog to ask: "Why the hell am I really doing this? Does this make sense? Is what I'm doing helping to reduce my impact on the Earth? Is what I'm doing sustainable over the course of many generations?"

"Don't listen to that Canary, he's sick. "
— Dick Cheney