Fear Not

Those of you that have read my column for some time remember that my primary subject has always been transitioning our society away from a fossil fuel-based economy bent on infinite growth.  One of the reasons for transition is that the ever-growing use of fossil fuels is creating a change in our climate that threatens the existence of the world we know.  Another reason is that infinite growth on a finite planet is a train wreck in the making.  In addition, we have done all this with a hubris that ignores the laws of nature:  laws billions of years in the making to which we will ultimately be held to account.  We are now all familiar with the idea that future warming of the atmosphere is already determined by the CO2 we are releasing now, and we have been unable to react with emergency measures to something that isn’t actually happening yet.  This has been unfortunate because a transition of this magnitude would normally take much more time than we now have:  the longer we take to react, the more drastic and difficult our effort will need to be.  

Here and across the country, we have begun to transition, localizing our economies, becoming more self-reliant, learning to live more simply, and to do for ourselves.  We still have a long way to go.   On the national and global level, the large and powerful corporations that now supply most of our needs, as well as most of our troubles, are proving to be our masters rather than our servants.  They are the status quo and have no interest in changing their ways.  

Although there is much we can do at the local level to build our resilience, there is little we can do locally to head off the worst effects of climate change.  For that we need to act at the national and international level.  A wonderful thing has started happening in the last few years:  people all over the world are finally waking up!  They are beginning to see that what the wealthy interests consider good for business is not necessarily good for us or the world.  In every area of the economy and the government, the people are pushing to regain their authority as arbiters of policy in the US.  Renewable energy, considered to be unviable not so very long ago, is not only outcompeting fossil energy, but proving viable at a small scale within reach of us small scale investors.  Sensing that they are about to lose control over the energy sector, the wealthy interests are doing all they can to forestall change.  The change we want will be at their expense, and they are not going down peacefully.  

It seemed that the wealthy oligarchs had our political system pretty well in control.  Their money controls the government, the issues, the candidates (until this year), and the media.  The left has been advocating for change for some time, but the call for change from the right caught everybody by surprise.  The right’s rejection of the status quo is so complete that they are willing to take a chance on Trump.  We are in for change, and it could go very well or very badly.  That is why I have focused on the coming election this year.

We are about to make some important decisions about who will lead the country, and we can not rely on any of our current leaders or mainstream media for advice.  They are all part of the status quo and, by and large, do not understand what is happening.  It is a time when all of us, I mean you and me, need to observe well, think clearly, and decide for ourselves what happens next.

We now have two likely candidates for or against whom voters will primarily be motivated by fear:  fear of foreigners, fear of incompetence, fear of the status quo, fear of fascism.  Questions of integrity shadow both Trump and Clinton, lessening the motivation of many to even vote at all.  The integrity and positive vision of Bernie Sanders has inspired an entire generation to once again participate as citizens.  It seems that either Sanders or the movement he harnessed will have to prevail if a wonderful opportunity is not to be lost.

I had an archetypal dream when I was a teenager that involved confronting a monster that became benign when, for some reason, I decided not to fear it.  You all know the scenario.  It is like Dorothy and the Wizard in The Wizard of Oz, or Scout and Boo Radley in To Kill A Mockingbird.  We need to decide for ourselves which fears are real and which are not.  Hint:  don’t buy into the mainstream media.  Are we going to make a decision to run away or to confront and move forward?

Unprecedented actions could take place at either or both nominating conventions.  Third parties could prevail.  Just because something has never happened before, don’t imagine that it can’t, and don’t automatically decide that it shouldn’t.  Don’t stand on the sidelines; this is our time!

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terry@vashonloop.com