We’re creatures of nature, too

“So, what if nature itself decided for them to take notice of global climate change challenges? Would that be possible?”

Which kind of question is that?

“Never mind.”

Okay. — I think there’s really no saying what’s possible and what’s not. The only development that seems to absolutely impossible to achieve is that of getting hold of sociological and anthropological reports on the urgency of social changes taking place around here. It seems as if these people with those titles have already reached the consensual agreement that proposing that any form of social change must be considered, is a non-starter. It’s as if the social and cultural life academics have already concluded that people are not going to make any real lifestyle choices, and since it’s not going to happen anyway: why bother even to think about it?

“You know, that’s interesting. And I just heard a bird singing a song about the need to look into enviromental devastation on a more local level, and pointing to the simple fact that smog, water pollution and bloated landfills can be more clearly seen without graphs and charts and addressed regionally. Less abstract, in a sense. It’s a good point.”

It’s excellent.

“It’s all knit neatly together, of course. If only humankind would dare to consider the fact that they are not only creatures of society and culture, but indeed also creatures of nature. — It is difficult to them, now isn’t it?!”

It sure is. They like to think of themselves as creatures of society, first and foremost, and not at all as creatures of nature, unless they deliberately go trekking into the woods of the planet in order to do some actual hunting, shooting and fishing.

“But that’s the key! If they were to accept that they’re creatures of nature living in big cities, like ant-hills or bee-hives, and affecting nature in such a lot of ways, I think there would be a glimmer of hope to be spotted. But they’re so involved with the metaphors, the symbols, and the logos of theirs. It’s just fabulous.”

Yes, sir! It’s all about the money. And what’s more: it’s all about the nation-states, the big business corporations, and the ins-and-outs of the corridors of power. — The banks, the insurance companies, the hotels, the shopping malls, and the football stadiums. And then it’s all about the diplomatic envoys, the beaurocratic ways and ends, the powers that be, and the need to go to war on other powers that be, from other parts of the world. I just can’t get my head around this one. The military spending is awesome. It’s up, up, up, all over the planet. It may seem as if some very few of them are about to reach the decision to just bomb the whole place back into the stone age.

“And what a pity that would be.”

So let’s assume that they’re simply being very afraid of each other, and let that be the reason why the military spending is soaring. I mean: think about it — even though they’ve had access to nuclear weapons for more than fifty years, and wars have been taking place throughout this period they still haven’t made use of the technology more often than a very few times. It’s like they dread the possibility of destroying everything while at the same time they invent and produce even more new weapons and new war technologies, just in case.

“In case of what?”

I don’t know. In case of the Russians, the Americans, the Chinese, the British, the French, the Israelis, the Indians, or the Pakistanis. You know. Just in case.

“Okay. In case something happened, you mean. Newclearly.” –

That’s right.

“And this would probably be the reason why it is impossible for these people to agree on the emissions levels of CO2 and other toxic gases as well, don’t you think? Just in case of one local economy made this thing or that start to happen over there. — I hear they are going to meet in Bangkok soon. Where they are probably going to continue talking about how to stress the importance of the Kyoto agreement and the IPCC’s climate science, but not do something significant about it.”

Oh yes. There’s a meeting in Bangkok coming up. I wonder what is going to come of the final meeting, in 2009, in Copenhagen, Denmark, where (and when) they are supposed to reach some kind of a final agreement as to what they are going to do about the CO2 emissions. The meeting in Bangkok is nothing but a preparatory measure to that end. They’re buying time. In a year or so you’ll probably never be hearing about that 2005 augmented 10-year-window of opportunity no more, as they’re going to decide to start pushing and shoving at it until it finally cracks and breaks.

“Another great opportunity lost. Another great idea turned to waste. That would be such a shame, you know.”

Yes, I know. But the population of this world keeps growing at an exponential rate. The world economy is also expected to grow at an exponential rate. The International Energy Agency (IEA) expects the fossil fuels consumption of this world to keep growing very fast. And the people, well, they are all news consumers. They won’t be doing nothing while they’re reading the latest newspaper articles on how the atmosphere and the ecosystems of this planet is being destroyed. They’ll just buy another cup of coffee and look forward to reading the next newspaper of the next day and the next magazine of the next week, and think: what a wonderful world, it’s amazing. –

“You’re growing tired down there. I can see that. It means that you’ve got to work harder, you know. Get a change on. And then a little fix it. You know.”

I wish you didn’t steal my flying saucer.

“You wish!”

Which kind of question is this..?

“How are we going to save the world, so long as our overlords insist on creating conflicts amongst ourselves, waging war, and investing in space?”

This is a question which has been bothering me ever since I wrote it down in a note book back in the summer of 2004, and actually managed to pose it to Madeleine Albright, as she visited Oslo in order to advertise her biography. She didn’t respond to my question, though. And the security guards protecting the woman on the podium had me thrown out of the bookstore in quite a forceful manner. All I did was ask a difficult question, and then hand an envelope to the woman on the podium, but okay: this was back in 2004, and the terrorist scare was all around, so. –

Nevermind.

My dream can’t be real, I suppose

Spadlet: Maybe you could write something that was informative as well as interesting. Stuff that’s too moralistic or alegorical can get a text sidelided or into cult teritory, but if you could write something that got people thinking……..

– – — -

I don’t know. I don’t think it’s about moralism, it’s about addiction. Fossil-fuels addiction. Not until the majority of the world population recognize that the consumption of oil, gas, and coal is at the heart of the matter as concerns our common future, will stories about the madness of fossil-fuels addiction be received as something other than moralistic and aggressively political pieces of prose. Now, the future is all about continued oil, gas, and coal consumption. Greenhouse gas emissions are going to keep increasing. It’s a sad fact, and not a sad fact that debutants in the art of novel writing can get away with thinking too much about, I guess.

My fucked-up world view works to make me become the greatest loser of all time; that’s what I think. I can feel how all the things that are on my mind make for stories that the sensitive dollar souls of the people belonging to the political, economic, social, and cultural elites of our times are finding too hard to swallow. The fact that authors of prose and plays are dealing with people whose souls are dollaring and hearts are pounding, is simply a given. You are supposed to write a story that can make its way to the market and create some profits to the companies that are involved in the in-house financial record making concerned with the publication of novels. The book you’ve written is not only a piece of art, it is also a commodity: a product that is supposed to be sold to consumers of such products. So you can’t be too angry at the market system, now can you? But of course you can! — If your name is already well-known, that is, and you’ve been writing about and against the consumerist culture for more than just a handful of years already. –

This is the kind of thing that most readers don’t think about. The profit-making aspect of writing. It’s as boring as it gets, I suppose.

It’s a pecuiliar situation, really. In the world of book publishing, Norway ought to be well known for it’s relatively high number of socialist and communist authors. People like Solstad, Michelet, Nygaardshaug, Økland, Wold, Lund, Køltzow (to mention just a few) who have never been in favour of the capitalist system, but still get their novels, plays and poems published. They’ve become money-makers for their publishers, that’s all. –

Now, it’s like a long gone friend of mine said: “Life is research.” And I find that my life turns out to be all about figuring out why it is impossible for people to connect with my simple world view. Or rather: connect in such a way that it’s making it absolutely impossible to relate to me and my world view. ‘Cause I can easily see reasons why some of the older folks are finding it opportuned to associating me with what might be said to be “the end of the world.” While all I’m saying that the world civilization should move to rid itself of its age old addiction to fossil-fuels. And that the people of this world (informed humanity) should start rewriting history in such a way that made it possible top move on from here to a greener future, and that: as soon as possible. I mean: while the window of opportunity is still open, and lifestyle changes might have an effect at all. This is my dream. It’s the strangest dream, of course. All about peace and love. My dream can’t be real then, but all fake, I suppose.

And here I am: pondering the impossibility of dreaming about becoming an author of fiction. Simply because I’m at total odds with the capitalist consumerist system that all of the above mentioned authors have written long stories about and against repeatedly.

My life’s too strange, really. Honestly! It’s an important factor, I know. Too many spiritual things keep occurring around and about my person, I know. And it’s making it impossible for proper book salesmen to buy me. I’m the thing that shouldn’t be. I’m cursed. My personal future could easily involve that of being accused of witchcraft, I suppose? There is nothing new under the sun, of course. I mean: why not? Life’s too social, and people get frightened, so. Oh God. Here I am entering cult territory, am I right?

Better get a lawyer

Yay, yay, yay: a rational response to the problems concerned with the groaning spirit of a human and a not-so-human nature would certainly have to entail a large scale reduction of consumption (the logical side effects of which would have to be a decrease in both factory production and transport of goods, spare parts, and other material and natural resources, and that would come as good news to the planetary natural systems which are, as of today, pressured to the limits of what it can possibly take, and it is all due to human overgrowth activities), the introduction of education programs aimed at reaching a general understanding of the population connection (ie. the population explosion), the saving and protection of forests (especially the remaining rainforests of Africa, South America, and South-East Asia), the clean-up of extremely polluted city harbours, bays and fjords, cleaning up rivers that have gone green, purple and gray with toxic waste, implementing new international laws to stop overfishing, banning shark fisheries (simply for moral reasons: why on Earth are these shark fishermen only after the fins, cutting them off inside the boat and dumping the rest of these oceans’ beasts’ bodies straight back into the sea?! don’t they have any ethical qualms about that?! well, shame on them, and it had better be my lawyer’s personal opinion as well, as if it isn’t I will break his nose, just like that), moving away from industrial agriculture and towards ecologically sound methods of food production, and issuing all human beings with a light blue UN passport and grant us all complete and uninfringed freedom of movement, if not exclusively for that reason (we’re all human beings, first and foremost, and these days, with internet communication being the order of the day, it should be absolutely possible for anyone from anywhere to take on a global or planetary sense of identity, and especially so now that the whole wide world is reeling with the common-to-all problems of global warming and climate change), but also in preparation for an expected tsunami of climate refugees on rather a short notice, first of all from Africa, and later again from Asian countries like Sri lanka, India, Bangladesh, Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia, The Philippines, and what have you? The island states of the Pacific Ocean? As a matter of fact, I would not be seen crying over the demise of the nation state system, and the fall of all national borders! And how about issuing each and everyone of us with a personal climate certificate which could, in the next phase, turn into a brand new monetary system which would, in effect, make way for a wholesale reduction of all forms of inequality measures? And so on and so forth. There are so many things that could be done, which would make life easier in these otherwise troubled climate times; if only we achieved the political will to do it. So much more than recycling, reusing, reducing, and changing lightbulbs, I mean. Oh dear: there seems to be such a lot of possible (yet still, because of the powers that be, impossible) rational responses here, available to us. Goal oriented responses that would be perfectly rational, reasonable, and – from a strictly humanistic viewpoint — very sound indeed. So why?! C’mon! Tell me why??!

City life, of course. I mean: just to mention one case in point. ‘Cause here we are, more than 50 percent of the world’s population will soon be living in towns, cities and metropolises, all thoroughly detatched from Mother Nature (I like this kind of spiritual notion of a Mother, which is the Earth, and a Man on the Moon, which must be Buzz Aldrin, whose steps were not the short ones of a simple man but the silly jumping about the place, right in front of Neil Armstrong’s camera lens), many of whom are fantasizing freely of a future of eternal youth, to be bought in the health clinic and worked out in the gym, as they are very interested in green issues like organic foodstuffs and perfectly fair trade 500 gram bags of coffee. Ordinary people like you and me, seriously troubled by the urban smog but still hating smokers like they were all spawns of the devil, and all of them being careful not to look the people they meet in their faces, because that might be dangerous: the perfect stranger could easily be a thug in disguise or a pickpocket, even a murderer or a rapist; you can never be too careful. Some people are terribly mean, like real beasts, but you won’t know that until all of a sudden you do, and that would be the point at which you have turned into a victim. Which would also be a moment too late.

It’s a jungle out there.

“Livin’ in the back of my mind, there’s a wild idea. I just took a look around at all the shit in here. My mind is clutted like someone’s attic. Before I burn this house down, I better fix it up quick. I think I need a brain wash. It needs a clean. My mind must be filthy after what it has seen. I need to throw my thoughts out. Out into the rain. I need to purify my wooden legged brain. I need a wash. I need to clean my mind. Sometimes I get lost in here and I don’t like what I find. I think I need a brain wash. I need a brain wash. Brain, Brain, Brain, Brain, Brain, Brain.” — The Cruel Sea: “Brain Wash”

– – — – — -

Now, travelling to the countryside, what are people doing there? They are all cars, tractors and all sorts of agricultural machineries, I know that much. They are a 100 percent in need of a car, because there is seldom any such thing as a functional public transport system around out there, in the wilderness. And they are equally electricity crazy as the people who live in big cities. As a matter of fact some sociology report I heard about established as a simple fact that the homes of people in the countryside consume much more electricity than homes in towns and cities do. And another thing: how many relatively small communities do you have any knowledge of, that are almost totally dependent on the local garbage factory, in terms of jobs to the menfolk? Quite a few, I can imagine. Not only because it is imaginable but because it very often is the case. Oh dear. Am I in need of a lawyer now? As I am just about ready to take millions of jobs away from people who need these jobs, simply in order to put food on the table, and on the floor as well: animal feed for the dogs, the cats, the hamsters, the rats they are keeping because of the father’s hobbies of hunt’n, shootin’ and fishin’, and of course, also, for the amusement of three pretty children. While the mother’s main interest is going to the local mall shopping. Oh yes. To the local mall. Because with the building and construction boom in place all over the disaster area, even little villages get to have big shopping malls stashed away down there, up front or somewhere in the background. Consumers, you see: that’s what we are. And if we want to travel to some other place on on vacation sometimes, we no longer feel that the neighbouring country is anywhere near far enough away. Nope! We buy cheap air flights to the Maldives, the Bahamas, Thailand, or Brazil, places like that. Yes. That’s what we do, and we do so because we are modern and fairly well kept in terms of salaries and pension funds, not to worry. The economy is booming and you’ve got to celebrate the good times when they are here, because none of us can know what the future might bring. Well, anyway: not for certain. But hey. Let’s not think about the future. All of a sudden, you see, a range of rather depressing thoughts spring to mind, and you don’t want that. –

Oh dear! Am I in need of a lawyer?! —

“I wasn’t doing nothin’ — anyway, just what is it that I’m supposed to have done?

With blood shot eyes and bleedin’ hands, I put my new suit in the cleaners again. Took the first buss, I didn’t look back. Lungs long blowin’ like a smoke stack. Hair fallin’ out as the wind blows through it, my horse ran second just like I knew it would. Overflowin’ ashtray. Yay.

And the Officer said: Better get a lawyer, son. Better get a real good one. Get yourself a suit and tie. Get your hair cut way up high. Get yourself a lawyer, son. Better get a real good one.

I got legs I can walk. All the way down the dirt track. I fell down. I got up. I turned around then I walked back. I walked to the sea. I stood there, looked for a sign. It took time. But it came. I added up and took what was mine.

Better get a lawyer. Better get a real good one. Don’t drop the soap. Don’t smoke no dope. Get yourself a lawyer, son. Your gonna need a good one to getcha outa this one.”

– – — – — -

Okay, so I’ve got my lawyer here. His name is Darras, and he sits in the left half of my brain, which is the head centre of creativity. This is the extraterrestrial being which entered my mind and spiritual systems some time during the year 2004, at about the same time as I was extremely busy writing big chunks of prose which no publishing house would be associated with, and then another chunk of philosophical and political essays which none of the existing political elites found particularly attractive, — to my own astonishment I found myself pondering the idea of making myself known to The Club of Rome as the God of Prose. But I didn’t do that. I didn’t. Darras was extremely disappointed with me about that, but I was thinking to myself: “for goodness sake! this would surely be a bit too poetic, now wouldn’t it? people like Mikhail Gorbachew, Prince El Hassan Bin Talal, Richard von Weizsäcker, Emeka Anyaoku, and Ruud Lubbers are members of that Club, so I’d better be good and introduce myself as an ordinary human being, although I ain’t, but then: who’s more worried about that? me or them?” (as you can see, I was mad as a vroon at the time, but I was actually thinking straight enough, I believe, when I thought that Insane Insight might be the solution to all our problems?) — So I introduced myself as an unemployed social anthropologist and a seriously irritated author of novels and plays, that’s what I did. But I think I can still stand by most of the things I said in that wretchered essay which was written in response to that ugly question! — Up to and including my idea of a global vacation on the part of mankind, simply as a major security measure, as humanity would take a time-out, dance just a little but remain sober enough to come up with a rational and reasonable decision as to what we are going to do to this planet, if anything in particular? It sure seems to me — and my good friend and bad lawyer Darras agrees, wholeheartedly — that humanity as a whole has already reached the conclusion that the time finally has come to party like there’s no tomorrow; starting yesterday.

The main reason why I wanted to call myself the God of Prose, had to do with the sheer magnitude of the question posed by the Club of Rome: a question that I quickly decided to process and respond to, one way or another. And as I saw myself (and still see myself) as not only an unemployed social scientist and sustainability philosopher, but indeed also as an author of SAMTIDSLITTERATUR; ie. “literary fiction descriptive of our own times and days.” I mean: having given up on the idea of finding work as a social scientist, I had made the decision to invest a couple of years doing everything that was in my power to become an author of novels and plays. As I most of all was interested in the current times and also, of course, in the immediate future as seen from where we stand today — a future that sure is looking bleak (a topic which I had written a couple of angry political-philosophical essays on, and published on the Le Monde Diplomatique’s Norwegian website (they were quickly erased from the internet, however: illustrative of the gravity of the situation, I might even suggest — I found that the question posed by the Club of Rome had arrived like an answer to my literary plight. I mean: “Limits to Ignorance: The Challenge of Informed Humanity.” Which kind of a fucked-up situation is that?! No wonder I needed to think of myself as the God of Prose, as I started working on my long essay informed by this riddle: “The course of humanity has not changed, even though an increasing number of people have all the informational resources needed for responding to the situation. The crucial question for the future of humanity is whether we learn to understand the challenge of sustainable development implicit in this issue in time. What are the thingsis needed for changing ignorance and the lack of vision into global responsibility and awareness?” And also this other riddle: “The Club of Rome will focus on this the contradictory development: On the one hand we recognise an increasing flow of information that may potentially provide us with more knowledge about the world around us. On the other hand we also identify a growing information overload causing confusion and disorientation and an increasing tendency on misuse of information and information channels, obscuring the premises of the public and private decision-making and increasing to public ignorance.”

It’s like: “Tell me what the fuck is wrong with us?” And the answer would be: “Everything is. As a matter of fact, what we’re dealing with here is a whole species gone collectively insane. So call me what you will: call me the God of Prose if you wish to; I’ve got dirty feet, I don’t give a damn.”

Darras tend to be very, very clear about his points of view, and as the most sensitive person around, he feels there is every reason for humanity to start recognizing the fact that the human race, as an undivided whole, could be a paracitic species of crazy, lunatic mammals which, from the top of the foodchain, is just about ready to embark on the saddest undertaking known to all experienced research loons of an extraterrestrial background: the destruction, demonization, and ultimate desolation phase. Time is of the essence here, time is relative, and in the mind of extraterrestrial research loons and human physicists there really is no saying whether a hundred years or even a thousand years is a long period of time or a short one. As I said: nothing at all is more relative than time. But okay: Darras, who sometimes protests that he is not my lawyer at all, but to the contrary, my prosecutor: the strange little man with gypsy eyes, who is constantly worked up about the possible swift and final demolishion of all of the life support systems of this planet: all at the hands of one species: a species that had better start relearning a thing or two or three about how creatures of nature ought to be treating the very nature they are positively depending on in order to sustain a life of normalcy. He keeps nagging me with this foreign theory that unless we started to listen more often to the ghosts of Sitting Bull, Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr., and Albert Einstein, among many others, who all seemed to believe that we shall require a substantially new manner of thinking if mankind is to survive. Or like Dalai Lama — who, by the way, is not yet a ghost — is reported to have said: “I believe that to meet the challenges of our times, human beings will have to develop a greater sense of universal responsibility. Each of us must learn to work not just for oneself, one’s own family or nation, but for the benefit of all humankind. Universal responsibility is the key to human survival. It is the best foundation for world peace.”

But how can we achieve World Peace? Can it only be achieved by the murderous political program of New World Order thinkers? Or would that most probably be a peace at gunpoint? And is that the best peace we can found? Darras seems to think that this is the case. I hate him for that, but see no good reason for firing the man. Not that he seems to be fireable. As a person of an extraterrestrial footing and a little voice in his own right, he just sits there, stuck inside of the left half of my brain, and calling great many of the shots here. I’m just this helpless man whose fingers are dancing the tango on top of the keyboard here. Raving mad, I might add. And a person who is all hopes but no energy to put into any attempt at making a goal oriented effort. And I am quite aware of the fact that my sorry excuse for a lawyer really isn’t good enough. He is all so Bob, Bob in a sense. I don’t think he cares too much about whatever would be best for me. I mean: to him, I am nothing more than one simple human being, just this tiny one in a congregation of more than six-and-a-half billion. And here I am, blowing all the fuses. Smart ass!

They do it over there but we don’t do it here

“There’s a brand new dance, but I don’t know its name. That people from bad homes do again and again. It’s big and it’s bland, full of tension and fear. They do it over there but we don’t do it here. Fashion! Turn to the left. Fashion! Turn to the right. Oooh, fashion! We are the goon squad and we’re coming to town. Beep-beep. Beep-beep. … Listen to me – don’t listen to me. Talk to me – don’t talk to me. Dance with me – don’t dance with me, no. Beep-beep. Beep-beep.” — David Bowie: “Fashion”

Isms. I’m terribly tired of isms. Communism, socialism, liberalism, conservatism, and all other freaking isms. Including totalitarianism, islamism, anarchy, and fa fa fa fa … I mean: what’s in an ism? I mean: what is the ism for? I mean: aren’t all isms social and communal constructs, put in place in order to create and maintain division among and between people who share the same culture but, unfortunately (because this is the way it works, it has worked in this way for centuries, so there is nothing anyone can do about it, and especially so these days when the weapons at our disposal are so indescribably potent and cruel, the end result being that we cannot do without this potentially murderous ruling class of ours, the military-industrial complex, ’cause some of us need to exert complete and unrestricted control of the weapons and ammunitions belonging to the state), do not enjoy the same good standard of living. Some inequality measures — call them small or know tham as enormous — are only the end result of centuries of social history, it’s only natural, and if you should think otherwise, we’ll tag you with an ism and treat you accordingly, forever and ever, ever and ever again, until you give in, give up, and get out of here at your own chosen speed, so bye-bye, off you go, and in case you wonder: the answer is “No. It’s not that we hate you, it’s only that we can’t tolerate much more of your bullshit.”

Fas(chm)sm is a political term which is hardly ever in use these days. Come to think about it, I think I can say that it is most often in use among potential suicide bombers, as they are doing some oral thinking about the state of thing over there, in the United States of America, and, to a certain degree, within the EU, but then some other speeches come to arrest my mind, as I’m thinking of the language used by some of the leaders of “the free world” — the brand new term of “Islamo-Fascism” comes forth. The fact that this term is basically used in order to tag about 600 million people — the number of muslims around the world — as potential serial killers, well … that would be my personal opinion and point of view …

Now, in the automn of 2005, I a Swedish social worker employed in the county of Oslo, Norway, told me, straight out: “we just can’t help you; I suggest you read up on the works of Michel Foucault, who states that ‘the system is fascist, and works to protect and preserve itself.’” That was about the time when I should have given up and started to crawl from here to the faraway fringe of the world. That was about the time when I — the little David that I am, with my little catapult — should have given in to the enormous strengths of Goliath, which would be the social democratic government and social system of Norway and the rest of the Scandinavian peninsula. But still — the foolish idiot that I am — as I am thinking of this social worker, I feel pity for her, poor soul: a typical socialist voter who can do little or nothing about the fact that she is working every day under the strict rules and routines of a system that is fascist. It’s like Michel Foucault said it was (and now I’m thinking of the proverbial chains of Jean-Jacques Rousseau (I can’t help myself, they are stuck in my head and sit like glued to the top of my mind)): “The strategic adversary is fascism… the fascism in us all, in our heads and our everyday behaviour, the fascism that causes us to love power, to desire the very thing that dominates and exploits us.”

But don’t quote me on this! You’ll only be making a fool of yourself, of course. Norway is not a fascist country. The Norwegian political system has nothing to do with fascism. This is a very good country, it is among the best countries in the world to live in, and it is a quiet and peaceful democracy (at war in the Middle East), it is a country in which the idea of freedom rings true in the minds of the masses, it is just lovely. Fascism, dear friend, is something we do not do here. They do it over there, and that is why we’re on numerous peace-keeping missions and operations over there. In Iraq, in Afghanistan, and in the future maybe in Somalia too, and in Sudan (you know, Darfur, you know) as soon as we possibly can. We are ready to embark on peace keeping missions all over the place, wherever fascism seems to be the order of the day, and nothing, absolutely nothing, is just lovely. But most of all, and most frequently of all, in countries well known for their abundance of natural resources (Iraq), or in countries that are, as seen on any world political map, strategically useful geographical areas to control (look up on the whereabouts of Afghanistan, so neatly stuck in there, in-between Iran, Pakistan, and Kasakhstan: such a lovely place; always a warzone).

I wonder. How are these people — the political, economic, cultural and social elites of our times, and the ruthless powers that be — likely to go about the saving the world from all sorts of unwise human acts of environmental destruction and daily human routines of an ecologically degradable nature?

Oh gee!

I have no way of knowing just that.

Time takes a cigarette

“Once upon a time there was a novel. A novel so ambitious in scope it required a major research project just to define its boundaries: the ultimate limits of technology and human potential. This illustrated speculative timeline of future technology and social change is the result of that research project. — J.R. Mooneyham.

– – — – — – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oGhL_1tdWmE

Dear reader.

Once upon a time there was a whole lot of novel manuscripts. There was also a couple of plays. And there was a number of short poems. All these items were written by me, posted to some Norwegian publishing houses, and rejected. I last piece of prose was written, and rejected, in 2005. This was the year I finally accepted that I would never become an author of fiction anyway. It was simultaneously the year in which I reached the conclusion that I’d wasted a few too many years believing that I’d make it as an author of fiction, eventually. Today, I wonder, as my personal CV has taken on the appearance of a black hole, what my excuse for a living is ever going to be? I don’t know. Only time can tell that tale, I guess.

As it is, I am still a little anxious about what I seem to be doing here. For example: am I about to shoot myself in the foot? Well, it wouldn’t be the first time if I did. I’ve done just that repeatedly ever since I wrote an essay in response to this question from The Club of Rome which was posed to the world in 2004, but is still, until this date, openly ignored by all media channels of this world; … quite possibly because the question itself is more revealing than any attempt at responding to it could ever be. Now, I responded to it. I did so several times. First, I did so in the form of an extremely angry but also rather scared essay, which was mailed to the Club of Rome. — No response. Secondly, I responded in the form of a book manuscript — a novel — which received some press time, I remember, but was rejected, without a word, by the publishing houses it was sent to. Now, this jolly fact still makes me think that the question posed, and all possible answers to it, would have to be understood as too revolting to allow for an audience of ordinary book club members to examine. It sure seems that way, anyway.

Thirdly, fourthly, and fifthly, I’ve responded to this question in the form of letters to political and social authorities, and a very big network of equally concerned world citizens on quite a lot of internet forums, but not many people seem ready to sit themselves down and really think about the question in question, and do so through and through. I don’t know why this is the case, but I think it has something to do with the general tone of it.

And here I am, once believing that the world would be interested in a social scientist’s and ecology philosopher’s take on a question such as this one: “The crucial question for the future of humanity is whether we learn to understand the challenge of sustainable development implicit in this issue in time.” — The problem with this question, as it turns out today, is that short phrase the future of humanity. It is too much to ask for, I guess. As we are prophets and visionaries, all of us, and equally acquainted with the Zeitgeist.

Anyway, I guess it was my destiny to get myself overly involved with the question of what the “thingsis” might be which, according to The Club of Rome, would be required in order to “changing ignorance and the lack of vision into global responsibility and awareness?” It must have been my destiny to start digging out the root causes that must lay dormant in the minds of individual persons and in the structures of human societies; root causes that are joining forces and making it possible even to ignore the fossil fuels connection to global warming and climate change. Like all others, I should have reached the happy conclusion that growing consumption of fossil fules was only natural and one of those things, and nothing worth working oneself up about. Yes, I should have come to conclude that the enhanced greenhouse effect is not worth wasting other people’s time thinking and writing about. But I can’t help myself. It’s just too stupid. I’ve still got to wonder why.

Returning to The Club of Rome’s “crucial question for the future of humanity” — as for the question of what the “thingsis” might be, my answer was “a mental revolution”. Now, as I believe all sincere adults of this world are just about ready to accept the idea that fossil fuels consumption is bad for the environment, I say the mental revolution has, quite possibly, already taken place. — So what is needed now is a social revolution. One which is aimed at putting an end to all wars, giving way for a solution to great many inequality issues, and allowing for humanity to take a giant step in the general direction of wisdom. We urgently need to develop enough wisdom between ourselves which is necessary in order to start taking good care of the very same environments and ecosystems which humanity, as of today, seems more eager to destroy as quickly as possible. I mean, the ADHD Civilization must be brought to an end. We need to steal the time which is needed in order to adjusting ourselves to a future of serious climate change action. If we do not do that, we will probably end up destroying the future of all our children. Knowingly and willingly, we might equally end up doing all that it takes to destroy this planet, its ecosystems and its atmosphere, as fast as we possibly can. The question of how time consuming this most unfortunate process will be, is certainly going to drive everyone insane.

My answer to that question is very simple, and screamingly unscientific. — Imaginary Time is the Key.

Concerning our fear of confronting the environmental crisis

I’m an internet idiot, just like you. But I’m not going to treat you as an ignorant fool. — Because it’s not that we have never heard about the environment. All sincere adults are well aware of it. It’s just that we are too afraid to talk about it, and dread the idea of actually trying to do something about it. No social undertaking would ever be more scary than this one. So, consequently, we tend to act as if the environment simply doesn’t exist. We don’t think about it, we don’t talk about it, we carry on with business as usual, and certainly don’t do anything about it. We block it out as no part of our everyday reality. It’s paradoxical psychology of sorts, but hey: it’s much better that way. — More convenient. 

After several years of broad press coverage of the global ecological or environmental crisis, and especially so in terms of global warming and manmade climate change, extreme weather events, the melt down of polar ice caps and glaciers, the deforestation of rainforests (“the lungs of the planet”) due to logging and other economic activities, and the over-fishing of the world’s seas and oceans — only to mention some of the more pressing issues of which the media world has consistently published an ever growing number of documentation about — I believe adult humans in general are all but totally aware of the fact that the ecosystems of this planet are in pretty bad shape, and that the sorry fact of the matter is that we’re in the midst of an environmental crisis which cannot and should not be underestimated.

This is my working hypothesis: nothing more, nothing less. I appreciate the fact that most of the people with whom I spend a great deal of time on the internet discussing the ins-and-outs of the environmental crisis the human race is faced with, still believe it is a basic lack of awareness among people in general we are up against here. However, I think this may have been the case, but that it is now a thing largely of the past. What we got on our hands (or rather stuck between our ears), is a psychological melodrama of the vastest and widest kind possible; complete with the state of blind denial and that other state of equally useless open-minded acceptance. Among so many other spiritual and emotional side effects or simple gut reactions, a whole set of which is available to each and every one of us; a fact which ought to go without saying.

Anyway. –

Granted that nothing much is happening in the field of climate change mitigation efforts, it is fair to say that the people with whom I am so often discussing the state of things in the natural world — as well as the artificial one (we’re a very civilized, cultured, and socialized lot, now aren’t we?) — may have a point. Because who would believe that a human race that is fully aware of the apparent fact that we are about to destroy this planet, knowingly and willingly, and ever so slowly or even at the highest speed possible (please remember: there’s not a thing that is more relative than the notion of time, and that some people have actually come to conclude that time can be both circular and imaginary), would just keep on doing it? Like a six-and-a-half billion strong bunch of patent morons, deliberately ignoring all facts of science while just getting on with their business-as-usual and easily explainable unsustainable lifestyles. It’s not reasonable, it’s not wise, and it’s totally unbelieveable. But there must be a reason — or a massive set of complex reasons — why it is so.

I say the reason is fear. We are — as a whole and undivided species — so fearful of what is in actual fact going on with the climate these days, that we just don’t know how to react in a way more proper than cashing in on the situation and allow whatever is going to happen to happen, business as usual and status quo style. I say we’re all stiff with fear, and that a few of our political, financial, military, social, cultural, religious, and other scum leaders are about to start panicking here, so beware of the crazy witlings who have the power to push the red button of the electronic devise which is hidden inside that black suitcase, if you know which one I mean? — As the situation can turn very dangerous very fast now, I guess. But then: I do not know much about the realities of international policy making. All I know is that we are, most definitely, not in need of a NATO which is looking into how a planned U.S. missile shield in Poland and the Czech Republic could relate to the alliance, on both technical and political levels, as stated by its secretary general on February 8, 2008.

What the whole wide world, with all of its people, cats, dogs, chickens, rats, snakes, whales, and pandas, along with all of the other living species which may be endangered by human overgrowth activities of a tremendously large — and escalating – scale (not forgetting about the sharks, the wolves, the parrots, the otters, the ice bears, the tigers, and the harts) intact, is in urgent need of, is PEACE. Now, of course, I’m talking about the short term here. WORLD PEACE is what is needed around here. Nothing more, nothing less, and I say that in recognition of the statements made by Al Gore (who everyone has heard of), the IPCC (The United Nation’s Climate Scientists’ Club or whatever), and a whole lot of other climate diplomats, all talking about a so-called “window of opportunity” which is, supposedly, of no wider breadth than eight years. I repeat: what the world is in need of, is not a U.S. missile shield in Poland and the Czech Republic, but a very long period of peace. So that we can get our act together here, so to speak. All aligned to one another and really up to the task of saving Mother Nature for the benefit of future generations or something. I’m quite something of a dreamer don’t you think? World Peace. –

But we are not going to get that, now are we? We are going to start being disturbed by a crazy lot of stupefying visions, now aren’t we? As we’re coming to conclude that the entire civilization (which all of a sudden went global and ultra capitalistic some time between 11/9 1989 and 9/11 2001) is perfectly safe-guarded against any and every form of change to the better on the part of the entire species and all of the other goddamn species as well? — Because George Orwell was right. He wrote “1984″, and only missed the target by a matter of some twenty lousy years. So well done.

Okay, yeah, I’m angry. I’ll promptly go and light myself a cigarette, just in order to calm down just a little, and relax at least some of my nerves.

That’ll be just fine by me, don’t you think?