Comments on: Engineering a longer view in politics http://blog.longnow.org/2008/04/14/engineering-a-longer-view-in-politics/ The Official Weblog of The Long Now Foundation and Friends Sun, 23 Nov 2008 18:46:26 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.2.3 By: Steven Earl Salmony http://blog.longnow.org/2008/04/14/engineering-a-longer-view-in-politics/#comment-3948 Steven Earl Salmony Fri, 18 Apr 2008 15:46:30 +0000 http://blog.longnow.org/2008/04/14/engineering-a-longer-view-in-politics/#comment-3948 Dear Friends, I am imagining that the following questions are rhetorical ones to many people in this community. “Why are politicians and skeptics so willing to risk their future and everyone else’s future on blindly clinging to a course of action that has a high probability of leading to a seriously crippled future? If you even suspect that global warming represents a serious risk to your survival (and we have far more than suspicion these days), why wouldn’t you do everything protect and conserve your planet?” It would please me to hear from others; but from my humble perspective the “answers” to these questions are all-too-obvious. The leaders in my generation of elders wish to live without having to accept limits to growth of seemingly endless economic globalization, of increasing per capita consumption and skyrocketing human population numbers; our desires are evidently insatiable. We choose to believe anything that is politically convenient, economically expedient and socially agreeable; our way of life is not negotiable. We dare anyone to question our values or behaviors. We religiously promote our shared fantasies of endless economic growth and soon to be unsustainable overconsumption, overproduction oand overpopulation activities, and in so doing deny that Earth has limited resources upon which the survival of life as we know it depends. My not-so-great generation appears to be doing a disservice to everything and everyone but ourselves. We are the “what’s in it for me?” generation. We demonstrate precious little regard for the maintenance of the integrity of Earth; shallow willingness to actually protect the environment from crippling degradation; lack of serious consideration for the preservation of biodiversity, wilderness, and a good enough future for our children and coming generations; and no appreciation of the understanding that we are no more or less than human beings with “feet of clay.” We live idolatrously in a soon to be unsustainable way in our planetary home and are proud of it, thank you very much. Certainly, we will “have our cake and eat it, too.” We will fly around in thousands of private jets, own fleets of cars, live in McMansions, exchange secret handshakes, go to our exclusive clubs and distant hideouts, and risk nothing of value to us. Please do not bother us with the problems of the world. We choose not to hear, see or speak of them. We are the economic powerbrokers, their bought-and-paid-for politicians and the many minions in the mass media. We hold most of the Earth's wealth and control the power it purchases. If left to our own devices, we will continue in the exercise of our ‘rights’ to ravenously consume Earth’s limited resources; to expand economic globalization unto every corner of our natural world and, guess what, beyond; to encourage the unbridled growth of the human species so that where there are now 6+ billion people, by 2050 we will have 9+ billion members of the human community and, guess what, even more people, perhaps billions more in the distant future, if that is what we desire. We are the reigning, self-proclaimed masters of the universe. We have no regard for human limits or Earth’s limitations, thank you very much. We are idolaters of the global political economy. Please understand that we do not want anyone to present us with scientific evidence that we could be living unsustainably in an artificially designed, temporary world of our own making…… a manmade world filling up with distinctly human enterprises which appear to be approaching a point in human history when global consumption, production and propagation activities of the human species become unsustainable on the tiny planet God has blessed us to inhabit........and not to overwhelm, I suppose. Sincerely, Steve Dear Friends,

I am imagining that the following questions are rhetorical ones to many people in this community.

“Why are politicians and skeptics so willing to risk their future and everyone else’s future on blindly clinging to a course of action that has a high probability of leading to a seriously crippled future? If you even suspect that global warming represents a serious risk to your survival (and we have far more than suspicion these days), why wouldn’t you do everything protect and conserve your planet?”

It would please me to hear from others; but from my humble perspective the “answers” to these questions are all-too-obvious.

The leaders in my generation of elders wish to live without having to accept limits to growth of seemingly endless economic globalization, of increasing per capita consumption and skyrocketing human population numbers; our desires are evidently insatiable. We choose to believe anything that is politically convenient, economically expedient and socially agreeable; our way of life is not negotiable. We dare anyone to question our values or behaviors.

We religiously promote our shared fantasies of endless economic growth and soon to be unsustainable overconsumption, overproduction oand overpopulation activities, and in so doing deny that Earth has limited resources upon which the survival of life as we know it depends.

My not-so-great generation appears to be doing a disservice to everything and everyone but ourselves. We are the “what’s in it for me?” generation. We demonstrate precious little regard for the maintenance of the integrity of Earth; shallow willingness to actually protect the environment from crippling degradation; lack of serious consideration for the preservation of biodiversity, wilderness, and a good enough future for our children and coming generations; and no appreciation of the understanding that we are no more or less than human beings with “feet of clay.”

We live idolatrously in a soon to be unsustainable way in our planetary home and are proud of it, thank you very much. Certainly, we will “have our cake and eat it, too.” We will fly around in thousands of private jets, own fleets of cars, live in McMansions, exchange secret handshakes, go to our exclusive clubs and distant hideouts, and risk nothing of value to us. Please do not bother us with the problems of the world. We choose not to hear, see or speak of them. We are the economic powerbrokers, their bought-and-paid-for politicians and the many minions in the mass media. We hold most of the Earth’s wealth and control the power it purchases. If left to our own devices, we will continue in the exercise of our ‘rights’ to ravenously consume Earth’s limited resources; to expand economic globalization unto every corner of our natural world and, guess what, beyond; to encourage the unbridled growth of the human species so that where there are now 6+ billion people, by 2050 we will have 9+ billion members of the human community and, guess what, even more people, perhaps billions more in the distant future, if that is what we desire.

We are the reigning, self-proclaimed masters of the universe. We have no regard for human limits or Earth’s limitations, thank you very much. We are idolaters of the global political economy. Please understand that we do not want anyone to present us with scientific evidence that we could be living unsustainably in an artificially designed, temporary world of our own making…… a manmade world filling up with distinctly human enterprises which appear to be approaching a point in human history when global consumption, production and propagation activities of the human species become unsustainable on the tiny planet God has blessed us to inhabit……..and not to overwhelm, I suppose.

Sincerely,

Steve

]]> By: Pepsoid http://blog.longnow.org/2008/04/14/engineering-a-longer-view-in-politics/#comment-3911 Pepsoid Tue, 15 Apr 2008 13:15:01 +0000 http://blog.longnow.org/2008/04/14/engineering-a-longer-view-in-politics/#comment-3911 I’ve just read an article in the latest Shortlist magazine (www.shortlist.com), entitled, “Britain’s Troubled Transport System,” in which Shortlist’s Ted Thornhill speaks to Stephen Glaister, professor of transport & infrastructure at Imperial College, London, about… well… Britain’s troubled transport system! Glaister gives his opinions on what can be done to improve the London Underground, the national rail system, the roads, buses and airports. And in a very generalised and all-encompassing nutshell, what they (Mr Glaister’s suggestions) seem to boil down to are (“is”?)… expansion! More roads! Longer trains! Bigger train stations! More buses! Etc! Which is all well and good, but… what about the long term? Like anything in life which involves accommodating an ever-increasing population (of people in general, transport users, etc), one can build a bigger receptacle, widen the lanes, roads, etc, but ultimately the receptacle will be filled, then overflow, and we’ll have to expand it further… how much longer can we apply this sticky-plaster mentality? Which is why we don’t just need engineers in politics, but engineers who work by the principles of The Long Now Foundation! I’ve just read an article in the latest Shortlist magazine (www.shortlist.com), entitled, “Britain’s Troubled Transport System,” in which Shortlist’s Ted Thornhill speaks to Stephen Glaister, professor of transport & infrastructure at Imperial College, London, about… well… Britain’s troubled transport system! Glaister gives his opinions on what can be done to improve the London Underground, the national rail system, the roads, buses and airports. And in a very generalised and all-encompassing nutshell, what they (Mr Glaister’s suggestions) seem to boil down to are (“is”?)… expansion! More roads! Longer trains! Bigger train stations! More buses! Etc! Which is all well and good, but… what about the long term? Like anything in life which involves accommodating an ever-increasing population (of people in general, transport users, etc), one can build a bigger receptacle, widen the lanes, roads, etc, but ultimately the receptacle will be filled, then overflow, and we’ll have to expand it further… how much longer can we apply this sticky-plaster mentality?

Which is why we don’t just need engineers in politics, but engineers who work by the principles of The Long Now Foundation!

]]> By: mudrock http://blog.longnow.org/2008/04/14/engineering-a-longer-view-in-politics/#comment-3905 mudrock Tue, 15 Apr 2008 04:47:36 +0000 http://blog.longnow.org/2008/04/14/engineering-a-longer-view-in-politics/#comment-3905 I was inspired by the appropriate technology trend back in the day. But the more I learned, the more I realized that politics is what stops most people on this planet from achieving their potential. Engineers design within parameters set by political forces. (Some might say the market plays a part but the market is a collective hallucination created by political forces. Check the many violations of law embedded in the Fed-managed Bear Sterns affair for an example.) I would be really surprised if plenty of engineers weren't enthusiastic supporters of Hitler and Mussolini. The US constitution has stood the test of time pretty well and I have no problem with US politicians having a legal background. I was inspired by the appropriate technology trend back in the day. But the more I learned, the more I realized that politics is what stops most people on this planet from achieving their potential.

Engineers design within parameters set by political forces. (Some might say the market plays a part but the market is a collective hallucination created by political forces. Check the many violations of law embedded in the Fed-managed Bear Sterns affair for an example.)

I would be really surprised if plenty of engineers weren’t enthusiastic supporters of Hitler and Mussolini. The US constitution has stood the test of time pretty well and I have no problem with US politicians having a legal background.

]]>