Our Civilization's Status Report

My report begins with us; all of us, all six – almost seven billion of us. That's a lot of people. Ask any biologist; this is what overpopulation looks like. Even common sense would conclude that there are more than enough of us to consume most everything on the planet. But common sense is not so common amongst our “leaders.” In fact, some of our major religions' “leaders” have selfishly admitted to being in a population race with each other. Consequently, God's little bunnies have been fruitful and multiplied right beyond the planet's capacity to sustain us all.

So... what are we going to do?

…So far, not much.

I remember back in the 70's, when pretty much all of us (everyone I knew, and everyone I knew of) agreed that if we didn't do something dramatic soon about the environment, life would be very rough for our grandchildren.

…and what have we done since then? Well, we've recycled our beer cans. Obviously that's not enough. It's over 30 years later now. The grandchildren are here – and it's time to face the frightening consequences.

What are the consequences? At the top of the list is the very real and immediate threat of total environmental collapse. We knew of the risk back in the 70's. We tried to do something about it. We thought we were winning. And then we relaxed.

Abolitionist Wendell Phillips once said; “Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty.” We stopped paying attention. We had lives to live. And somehow, in the process of living our lives, we lost our lives' purpose – to save the earth – from us.

We lived our lives like we had been raised. And we were raised on television – with its entertaining distractions, half-truth news, and religious propaganda channels. Somehow, television became more real to us than the reality of our life experiences.

But apparently, maybe because of television, those lives weren't all that satisfying. And somehow a number of Americans turned to prescription psycho-drugs.

We now have adults who've been on prescription mood altering drugs since they were children... And we wonder why there isn't a viable counter-culture any more. It's simple, they've been neutralized. And if that didn't work, somehow we've ended up with the largest prison system America has ever seen.

The rest of us – we somehow just became too afraid to speak up. For some of us, speaking up might risk our job – or our job prospects. For others, somehow it just didn't seem like the risking of our boring little comfort zones would make any difference.

Personally, I just got tired of it all and decided to move as far away from it I could. But that didn't work. Even in the most remote place I could find, I couldn't get away from it all. It was then that I realized that I was cornered – that we've all been cornered. And that I couldn't run, I couldn't hide, I had to fight.

But what was I fighting? In a word; exploitation. In a phrase; exploitation to the point of self destruction.

We have allowed the few to rule the many. And guess what? Somehow they cared more about their own personal issues more than they cared about the fate of humanity.

Our system is out of control - because we have so little control. What this world needs is more democracy.

What our civilization needs is to pay more attention to common sense.

What the powers-that-be need is to realize that by somehow controlling us for their own immediate personal or organizational swindles, there is a cost that is far too high - for everyone. No empire, no matter how close to God, will prosper during a total environmental collapse.

Democracy or FAIL!

This isn't working...

They're dismantling everything.

...But we'll still have to pay taxes.

America should just give up on pretending to be a democracy.

You may recall that the Soviet Union had elections too. But the elections didn't matter. The nation's decisions were made in back rooms before the elections. Doesn't that sound familiar?

We've been distracted from the truth. The truth is that the U.S. government cares less and less about its citizens.

While you were being distracted by the U.S. (B.S.) budget debate:

• The Obama administration returned to oil drilling business as usual in the Gulf – even though no significant technical changes have been made to the drilling process and the damages continue to devastate the Gulf.

  …the American people wouldn't have voted for that.

• The Obama administration continues to guarantee 32 billion dollars in loans to the nuclear power industry – in spite of the fact that the (General Electric made) Fukishima power plant is likely to emit as much radiation as the Chernobyl disaster – and the fact that the nuclear industry has made no significant technical changes to avert another disaster – and, of course, solar power is cheaper.

  …the American people wouldn't have voted for that.

• The Obama administration has just given the go ahead to the first tar sands petroleum mines in America. These hideously polluting mines have devastated areas in Canada.

  …the American people wouldn't have voted for that.

• The U.S. Congress has just declared the Endangered Species Act not really law anymore. By declaring Rocky Mountain wolves expendable, they have established a precedent for political influence to gut the Endangered Species Act.

  …the American people wouldn't have voted for that.

• Rich speculators are drastically raising our oil prices again (like in 2008) with impunity.

  …the American people wouldn't have voted for that.

Washington is for sale.

What we have is legislation for the highest bidder. And the bidding is high.

In the past ten years, just 12 companies have spent a billion dollars... think about it; a billion dollars influencing Washington. And guess who gets their way... at your expense.

What America needs is more democracy. We should be voting on issues, not people. Our elected officials should be carrying out our priorities, not dictating them.

That's right, they're dictating our country.

We the people are not making the decisions.

When you actually weigh the characteristics, we're closer to a proto-facsist oligarchy than we are to a democracy. Don't just trust my opinion. Check for yourself.

Besides; how can they accurately know what we really want? Polls? Now that's official. It makes one wonder how much they really care what your opinion is.

And if you have been paying attention to the budget debate, you would know:

• The American people wouldn't vote to give away our Medicare money to enrich private insurance companies.

• The American people wouldn't vote to privatize our schools – and leave the poor without an adequate education.

• The American people wouldn't vote to raise “Defense” spending another 5 billion dollars while gutting our social safety nets.

• And the American people wouldn't slash green jobs in a time of recession either.

The time to act was 30 years ago.

But if we don't act now, America will be no more.

Oh, and by the way; there are powerful (un-American) people in this country who want our economy to fail. Face it; desperate people will work for lower wages. Desperate people will sell off their assets for yard-sale prices... Those with money in hard times can take advantage of those without. This has happened before.

But, our time is different.

If we allow this to continue, the consequences will be unthinkable.

Let's extrapolate from current conditions:

Much of the middle class is becoming poor.

The poor are losing their social safety net.

The remaining middle class are being burdened with the cost of supporting the nation – because the rich aren't being taxed fairly.

Eventually, most of us will have no use for America. There will be no benefit for supporting a system that has no benefits.

This is what happened to the Soviet Union.

And if we the people get so unhappy that we force America to change for the better, it will cost money. That money would have to come from the rich.

If the powerful decide there is no benefit in supporting America, and the rest of us haven't had any benefits in years; who will fight for America? We cant' let things get to that point.

One of the scariest things I can think of is;

there are likely powerful Americans who are envious of Vladimir Putin.

…

Is this our fate? Or worse?

What if the recently poor aren't happy with their condition?

What if they join some corrupt political party intent on taking over Washington and trashing everything?

Oh yeah... that already happened... and we're not going to be happy with the results.

Only America's future Vladimir Putin will have the opportunity to be happy.

But he won't be.

Because without sustainability, everything falls apart – and quickly; when you burn the environment at both ends.