Ted

In an article in the Atlantic in 2018, John Richardson wrote about the acolytes of Ted Kaczynski who are alive and kicking across the world planning to bring our whole world toppling down to return to a place of “natural” balance. That’s simplifying it but, nevertheless, it kinda sums up the situation.

They would bring our world down with a series of “cascading catastrophic effects.” Without electricity, running water, TV, computers, man would revert back to his natural state. The earth would be saved. These effects would be engineered by the acolytes and their followers

Well, guess what guys? Good old mother earth has done it for you. She didn’t need acolytes. The cascading events—plague, fires, melting glaciers—they’re happening without your intervention.

For all the glamour (for some) of radical action, what is needed is reflection and concerted effort over the long haul. There are people out there who aren’t into the razzle-dazzle of fireworks, and crazy rhetoric, and bombs, because it’s going to take years of work to right our course.

Even Ted who resorted to bombs knows this now (maybe, I don’t know him). “Take measures to exclude all leftists, as well as the assorted neurotics, lazies, incompetents, charlatans, and persons deficient in self-control who are drawn to resistance movements in America today…” Ted Kaczynski.

This applies to all legitimate groups who are bogged down by their crazy fringes rendering them incapable of being effective spokespeople for their causes. A good example— the Black Lives Matter movement that is often tainted by fringe groups or people who use the movement for their own purposes(antifa, looters, white supremacists etc).

Kingsnorth, a retired radical environmentalist, puts it best. He said the movement’s followers need to mourn, reflect and go to the “hope beyond hope.” I take that to mean the long slog, patience, never giving up hope, simply working toward the greater good. It’s all we got.

There must be a place between radical action and paralysis. Work and then work more.

Smoke gets in your eyes

It’s dark outside from the smoke that’s hanging over our island and all over the west coast. The corona virus is still with us, Trump is still President, black men get shot in the back, and on and on. Riots and mayhem and Qanon.

I was raised in the 50’s and, except for an occasional storm, grew up in a bubble. Pre-women’s rights, pre-black lives matter, pre-enlightenment. Ignorance is bliss only for the bubble dwellers.

We’re living in the real world now. A lot of folks don’t want to be real, they want to go back, back to the way things were. Except for the climate crisis, however, things weren’t great then for a lot of people. We were not exposed.

We’re exposed now and quite a few Americans don’t want to see it. No, no, no, they yell. No—take me back. Better to live in an old dystopia, rather than the current one.

We don’t get to do that. Time to open your eyes and see. What do you see? Fires burning, riots, violence, financial disparity, illness, and political ugliness.

And through it all, Trump provides the entertainment. He’s a reality denier, a liar.

What do I want for my children and their children? This is their world that they will have to fix. They will need to design their own future.

Impatience has always defined the American character. A strange naivete, enthusiasm and a can do anything spirit. Those qualities, if kept in check can lead to great things. If left in the hands of the greedy, immoral few who only want to fill their own pockets, it leads to a mess.

Do you remember the movie Elmer Gantry? He peddled religion like a snake oil salesman peddles fake remedies. He was very successful until, like the Wizard of Oz, he was exposed as a fake. America has always had a love affair with stories about exposing the “bad” guys. Upton Sinclair, John Steinbeck and in recent times the movies– The Big Short, and Wolf of Wall Street. We love it and yet look who’s running our country.

It’s not only the Americans. This kind of thinking has spread all over the world. Grab what you can and win at any cost. Lie, steal, fuck your way to the top. It is a two year old mentality—me first. We teach our kids to share and then we unteach them in the real world.

The word greed comes from old English meaning voracious; always hungry for more. More money, more food, more sex, more, more, more. We celebrate more. Winners get more.

This is not just us and it’s not just recent. Jesus pulled down the temples, Saint Francis lived in a cave to escape the Church’s greed for power and glory and money. I am not arguing for us all to go live in caves, but, not to condemn people to live in tenements or out in the streets so that others can live in palaces. Equitable is the word I’m looking for. Fairness. Balance.

We can continue our crazy manner of living, or change. But that presupposes an educated electorate who can discern their best interest through the clouds of lies and fantasies spun by the folks in charge. When I use the word “their” I mean it in a collective, communal sense. “Their best interest” is not individualistic. It is not mine, but ours.

I looked out the window on this orange miasma and thought will the powerful hunker down in their air filtered universe and let the world burn down around them. Will they with their pots of gold, republican, democrat, old, young, brilliant and stupid simply let it burn while they hold on to their wealth.

This is the mandate for our children. Make this world work better. Base the change on mutuality. Make the world good enough for all.

This turtle breathes through his genitals. I’m not sure if that’s whats turned his hair green. Maybe he’s Irish.