Before you know it, the government might start spying on American citizens and detaining prisoners without charges while corporations ravage the earth in pursuit of profit, wiping out entire eco-systems in the process. Oops, sorry…they’re already doing all that without being stopped.
Take a look at your watch. Since yesterday at this hour, 13 million tons of toxic chemicals were released across the globe; two hundred thousand acres of rainforest were destroyed; more than 100 plant or animal species went extinct; and 45,000 human beings died of starvation (most of them children).
What will we say in 20-30 years when we’re asked why we didn’t do more to challenge all this? What will we say when we’re asked why cared more about Gwen Stefani’s tattoos than how our tax dollars are spent? What will we say when we’re asked why we focused on imaginary evildoers instead of the corporate pirates raping the planet and controlling our minds?
It’s not as if we don’t have choices. Ask yourself this: Which do you prefer, a consumer culture or an ozone layer? SUVs or forests? Cell phones or Eastern Lowland Gorillas? Would you give up the ability to text ttyl to your BFF in order to save a species from going extinct? In 2008, it’s not an unreasonable question.
The precarious state of things is not the result of some preordained theology or unstoppable force of nature. We’re in this mess thanks to human decisions. If different decisions had been made in the past, it’s likely that we would’ve had different outcomes. If different decisions are made now, perhaps we’ll have better outcomes in the future.
Speaking of the future, the humans (all living things) that come after us won’t care if we gave talks like this or marched in protests or held open doors for old ladies…if they have no clean air to breathe.
It won’t matter to them if we ate organic or drove a hybrid or switched to recycled toilet paper…if they have no clean water to use.
You can be damn sure they won’t care if we voted for Obama or McCain…if they end up stuck on a toxic, uninhabitable planet.
They’d probably just want to ask us this: Why did you stand by and allow everything to be consumed or poisoned or destroyed?
But before that question is asked of us, we still have time to ask this of ourselves: Will we ever disrupt our seemingly comfortable lives and dedicate ourselves to stopping—by any means necessary—global warming, US military interventionism, economic exploitation, factory farming, environmental devastation, etc. or will we continue preserving and defending our way of life?
The US constitutes 5% of the earth’s population but consumes more than 25% of the earth’s resources. Another news flash: Our way of life is the issue.
Besides, if our way of life is so worthy of being defended at any cost, why do we need so many homeless shelters, alcohol and drug rehab centers, rape crisis hotlines, battered women's shelters, and suicide hotlines? Why does a sexual assault occur every 2 1/2 minutes?
If America is the world's shining light, why are its citizens left with no choice but to organize to protect human, environmental, civil, & animal rights? Why can't we drink the water or breathe the air without the risk of becoming ill from corporate-produced toxins?
If America is the zenith of human social order, why does our vaunted "way of life" provoke terror both as a tactic and an emotion?
Whether we want to admit it or not, our “way of life” was built on a nearly exterminated indigenous population, the African slave trade, and all those killed in places like Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Southeast Asia, Central America, the Middle East, etc. It was built on stolen land with stolen oil. Our way of life was built on terror.
For an example of such terror, I’ll look back to the “good war” (a phrase in which Studs Terkel said the noun and adjective don’t match): In early 1945, US General Curtis LeMay and his 21st Bomber Command laid siege on the poorer areas of Japan’s large cities. On March 9-10, the target was Tokyo, where tightly packed wooden buildings took the brunt of 1665 tons of incendiary bombs. By design, the attack area was 87% residential. By May 1945, LeMay’s campaign had killed an estimated 672,000 Japanese civilians. An aide to MacArthur called the raids “one of the most ruthless and barbaric killings of non-combatants in all history.” Secretary of War Henry Stimson worried that US would “get the reputation for outdoing Hitler in atrocities.” LeMay himself said: “I suppose if I had lost the war, I would have tried as a war criminal. Fortunately, I was on the winning side.”
Take a look at your watch. Since yesterday at this hour, 13 million tons of toxic chemicals were released across the globe; two hundred thousand acres of rainforest were destroyed; more than 100 plant or animal species went extinct; and 45,000 human beings died of starvation (most of them children).
What will we say in 20-30 years when we’re asked why we didn’t do more to challenge all this? What will we say when we’re asked why cared more about Gwen Stefani’s tattoos than how our tax dollars are spent? What will we say when we’re asked why we focused on imaginary evildoers instead of the corporate pirates raping the planet and controlling our minds?
It’s not as if we don’t have choices. Ask yourself this: Which do you prefer, a consumer culture or an ozone layer? SUVs or forests? Cell phones or Eastern Lowland Gorillas? Would you give up the ability to text ttyl to your BFF in order to save a species from going extinct? In 2008, it’s not an unreasonable question.
Speaking of the future, the humans (all living things) that come after us won’t care if we gave talks like this or marched in protests or held open doors for old ladies…if they have no clean air to breathe.
It won’t matter to them if we ate organic or drove a hybrid or switched to recycled toilet paper…if they have no clean water to use.
You can be damn sure they won’t care if we voted for Obama or McCain…if they end up stuck on a toxic, uninhabitable planet.
They’d probably just want to ask us this: Why did you stand by and allow everything to be consumed or poisoned or destroyed?
But before that question is asked of us, we still have time to ask this of ourselves: Will we ever disrupt our seemingly comfortable lives and dedicate ourselves to stopping—by any means necessary—global warming, US military interventionism, economic exploitation, factory farming, environmental devastation, etc. or will we continue preserving and defending our way of life?
The US constitutes 5% of the earth’s population but consumes more than 25% of the earth’s resources. Another news flash: Our way of life is the issue.
Besides, if our way of life is so worthy of being defended at any cost, why do we need so many homeless shelters, alcohol and drug rehab centers, rape crisis hotlines, battered women's shelters, and suicide hotlines? Why does a sexual assault occur every 2 1/2 minutes?
If America is the world's shining light, why are its citizens left with no choice but to organize to protect human, environmental, civil, & animal rights? Why can't we drink the water or breathe the air without the risk of becoming ill from corporate-produced toxins?
If America is the zenith of human social order, why does our vaunted "way of life" provoke terror both as a tactic and an emotion?
Whether we want to admit it or not, our “way of life” was built on a nearly exterminated indigenous population, the African slave trade, and all those killed in places like Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Southeast Asia, Central America, the Middle East, etc. It was built on stolen land with stolen oil. Our way of life was built on terror.
For an example of such terror, I’ll look back to the “good war” (a phrase in which Studs Terkel said the noun and adjective don’t match): In early 1945, US General Curtis LeMay and his 21st Bomber Command laid siege on the poorer areas of Japan’s large cities. On March 9-10, the target was Tokyo, where tightly packed wooden buildings took the brunt of 1665 tons of incendiary bombs. By design, the attack area was 87% residential. By May 1945, LeMay’s campaign had killed an estimated 672,000 Japanese civilians. An aide to MacArthur called the raids “one of the most ruthless and barbaric killings of non-combatants in all history.” Secretary of War Henry Stimson worried that US would “get the reputation for outdoing Hitler in atrocities.” LeMay himself said: “I suppose if I had lost the war, I would have tried as a war criminal. Fortunately, I was on the winning side.”
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