Lullabies from La-La-Land

On the whole, I'm a pretty easy-going guy. In general, I don't get too upset about too many things. But, like everyone else, I have things that can just set me off and having to deal with things that could have been easily avoided is right up there at the top of the list.

OK, I'll admit it: what irks me is that fact that most of the folks I know would rather sit on their well-padded backsides and tell themselves that everything's OK instead of recognizing that we're all being taken to the cleaners. We're being duped, and dumbed down to boot. I'm not saying there is a conspiracy. Power doesn't need a conspiracy, it only needs to take things as they come. We've been deluded, and most of it has been our own doing. Because we love to be deluded ... it takes so much responsibility off our own shoulders.

We like to think that life is so much easier these days, that we've somehow progressed as a species, that we've overcome so many limitations that our forebears suffered under. This is largely untrue. Some societies have suffered long and hard, and have suffered more because others, allegedly more civilized societies, have made life miserable for them. Just ask the Africans or Native Americans. They both enjoyed more freedom, health, and natural wealth than we like to admit. And for all the comforts of modern living, like indoor plumbing and the Internet, we're not really all the better off for it. We've got gene-modified food and we have no idea if it's good for us or not; we have industry processed food and we know it's bad for us. We have artificial light and no more natural routines, be they daily or yearly. We have bad air, bad water, and a whole lot of bad ideas. Our life expectancy is longer, yes, but that's simply an actuarial bet, not a fact. And who would want to live in Hell for 80 years?

No, life is a struggle. It was very early on in our history as a species, and the one thing we really haven't changed -- but could have -- was our struggle for life. Yes, we are barraged by stimuli our ancestors couldn't imagine in their wildest nightmares. Yes, we are faced with food and environment that makes us sick instead of nourishing us. Yes, we devote inordinate amounts of time and energy trying to "get ahead" only to realize we are slowly sliding behind. Oh yes, we've come such a long, long way and life isn't any easier today than it was 100,000 years ago. The specifics have changed, but the big picture really hasn't. Oh, don't we have so much to be proud of?

And you see, all of this was avoidable. It doesn't have to be this way. Again and again throughout our history people have tried to get others to see that we weren't doing all of us a favor. But, we haven't been smart enough, and lord knows, not wise enough to stop and listen.

All of the ills of modern society are the result of rules we have made for ourselves. Yes, we made it up. It is, in the truest sense of the word, a fiction. We are in a position to make the world into just about anything we want, and we can do it to the benefit of all or the benefit of the few. Why we have chosen the latter path is incomprehensible to me.

The clock is ticking however. It is precisely all those things that we thought had brought us further that will be the seeds of our undoing. We simply believe it is otherwise. But, we love to be deceived.

Why do only catastrophes motivate us?

Exaggeration? Hyperbole? The title sort of sounds like it, doesn't it? Unfortunately, I don't think it's all that far off the mark.

Think about it: most of us "have ours" (whatever that really means) ... we've got a job or a decent retirement, a house, a nice car, decent prospects. If nothing really bad happens, we'll continue doing OK. Life can be tricky, we all know that, so purposefully rocking the boat may not be Option #1. Admit it. That's how most of us think.

What most of us don't think about, however, is that we make up a rather small minority of the world's population. Oh sure, we'd like to think that just about everybody in America or Europe is getting along pretty much like we are, but we know -- at least in the back of our minds -- that this is not the case. So, there's only 6% unemployment in the US these days; in Germany it's around the same; but, we all know that the way the statistics are counted is for the sole purpose of making things not appear as bad as they really are. We all also know -- whether we like to admit it or not -- that wages have been stagnating, that inflation is still making itself known, that the disparity between rich and poor is still growing steadily in the entire developed world. In other words, economically, we tend to put on our rose-colored glasses whenever we think about these kinds of things. After all, acknowledging that so many others aren't doing so well doesn't really do much for us when we're trying to be satisfied with ourselves.

And, in the back of those same minds, we know that the planet is warming, the climate is changing, and it doesn't really matter whether we humans are behind it or not. Any change, any significant change, is going to disrupt our peaceful, and rather oblivious, way of life. We know that we've got infrastructure problems, energy problems, that the housing and banking industries are still shaky, that the US, at least, as a massive crime problem ... in other words, the future is not exactly set on a positive trajectory. We know all of this, but still we act if there weren't any real problems at all.

Don't get me wrong, I know full well that many people are living paycheck-to-paycheck, that others are saddled with crushing debt (and not just students), that taxes keep going up for the most of us and that we are too often just busy dealing with the squeeze that all of us are feeling. And that's my point.

Let's be honest: as long as we're busy keeping our heads above water, we're not all that "worried" about the big picture. I, for one, can understand that, but it doesn't help. You don't have to be either a genius nor a conspiracy theorist to recognize that the more I have to deal with the details, the less I can deal with the big picture, and those who allegedly represent us have done so much to allow that big picture to fade, to ensure that we have more than enough details to deal with that things will most likely just keep going on as they are till they finally go down the chute.

I'm not exaggerating when I say that it will most likely take a catastrophe -- environmental, social, economic -- to get us motivated. I'm not talking about a scare like happened in 2008. That was a wake-up call, and guess what? we're still sleeping. Pleasant dreams.

Not everything you can count counts, but ...

Numbers can be fascinating and for many they are simply painful (when they remember all those torturous hours in math classes). Other find them to effective tools, some use them as weapons. There have been and still are those who think that they hold the key to life and the universe. Regardless of where you stand and what you think, sometimes they are simply interesting in their own right.

Numbers can take many forms: formulas, facts, accounting figures, statistics, and more. Each of these can be used in any number of ways, some for good and some to the detriment of others. We're confronted with them all the time, and a lot of us simply feel that we are somehow powerless against them. Still, I find them interesting nevertheless. Of course, my engagement with numbers always remain on a small scale. For example, Google (which hosts this blog) provides statistics (or analytics, as they like to call them ... sounds much more impressive) and I like to check them out from time to time, just for fun.

For example, Google shows me how many times a blog post has been viewed. Notice I didn't say "read". There is no information how long any individual remains on a page, only that the page was called up; that is, viewed. It seems to me not all that far-fetched to compare how often a blog is viewed with its topic. People who write are always interested in what interests their audience and one possible indicator would be how often a given post on a given topic is viewed. If you make the effort to look at these over a period of time, it is also not surprising that trends can appear. We have to be careful with trends because we can see what they are, but there is nothing in the numbers to actually say why they are that way. Still, patterns arise, and I've noticed one lately.

It would appear that posts I write which deal with general, broad, encompassing topics, be they historical, political or such generally get more views that those posts which deal with us as individual human beings. In other words, when speaking to "you" plural there is more attention than when speaking to "you" singular. I simply find that interesting. When I'm suggesting we clean up the planet, there is more of a "yeah" than when I suggest we clean up our own acts. There could be any number of reasons for this, and as I said, the numbers don't really provide a clue. Still, I can tell you what I am thinking:

To me, there are two possible, and I believe equally probable, "explanations". First, we simply don't feel spoken to. Even though the point is always that even though you may think you've got your act together, it never hurts to double check, perhaps against other, more broadly based criteria. Second, people don't like to think they're part of the problem. I can understand that, for I often feel that way myself. But a simple point remains: we are all part of the problem, if not the problem itself.

The world is as it is because we -- all of us -- allow it to be that way. The only sure way to change it, even minimally, is to change ourselves. The moment we think it is "the others" who are the problem, we become the problem. Think about it.

Why it matters, why you matter

All of the big issues -- war, prolific criminality, wealth inequality, economic instability, pollution, climate change, diminishing resources, animal extinctions -- affect all of us. The world has become small enough that none of us can escape the effects of these. Other than "war", (which has always been a scourge that we've never learned to deal with) the rest of these issues simply started small and were allowed to grow unchecked. Yes, the rollback is going to be more challenging that it perhaps needed to be, but the rollback can still be done. Still. At the moment. The window of opportunity is closing on a number of these, to be sure.

As I said last time, though, we don't have to try and save the world ourselves, and even these big-ticket issues have deep, but tender, roots that can be dealt with. Quite a few of them are the result of other factors: lack of quality education and training, narrow perspectives, isolation, and more. In other words, we don't have to start at the top and work our way down, rather, the most effective strategy would be to get together and work from the bottom up. There is strength in numbers, so we need to generate the numbers that can make a difference.

Your piece of the solution puzzle is small and it is local. It can (and should) be found in your own house, your neighborhood, or community. Those of you who think big and aim high can do so, but they need to recognize that most of us don't think or act that way. But again, we all should be building on our own strengths, not solely on the strengths of others.

Broad-based support for local and community activities matters, be it improving the public schools, helping the needy, supporting local businesses and organizations, bringing your own ideas into making your own little world a better place, not only for yourself, but for those around you. The point is that by finding something you can do and doing it will inspire others who are more hesitant about taking that first step. Succeeding at solving even small, non-complex problems is a motivator to expand one's horizons and scope of activity. Nothing succeeds like success.

Yes, some things are being done, but they're being done by too few people in too many uncoordinated ways. The vast majority of us are waiting for the others to get started, but if we all wait, nothing will ever get done. This is why you matter. You can't wait for the others, you have to do what you can, if for no other reason than it is the right thing to do. All of have friends and family whom we care about and for whom we are willing to act. Then do that, and then find the others like you who are of the same mind.

Start the snowball rolling. From then on, it will gain size and momentum on its own. But someone has to start. Why shouldn't it be you?