Have we entered the dreamless age? At least as far as dreams of a better world go? Have we become so cynical or despairing that we have given up on the idea of ALL humans living peacefully, abundantly, happily, creatively?
I haven't. And I challenge anyone to name an unchangeable reason that dreams of a world more just, more fulfilling, more celebratory of human differences, more respectful of our environment and just plain more fun are impossible now that we have more knowledge than any human generation in history.
It seems to me that it's all the human misery in the world that requires a lot of explanation. How is it that we have advanced so far and yet so many live in misery? Is it their fault somehow? Is the farmer in India, who works dawn to dusk and beyond, somehow guilty because he can't "compete" with the massive agri-corp who owns tens upon tens of thousands of acres of prime Midwest farmland that it bought at great prices from the American farmers who have been forced out of farming over the past 50 years? Was the American farmer, who worked an outside job, went into debt and plowed his fields by light of his tractor's lights a lazy person, a stupid person, a worthless person?
The destruction of American agriculture, the backbone of American democracy as far as Jefferson was concerned, all took place with scarcely a whimper from the rest of America. "Free enterprise at work," they all said. "Creative destruction with lower prices and better quality on the way," they all claimed.
So what do we really have? I'm poor. I notice food prices. And I'm a meat eater, at least for now. Every week, something goes UP. Things are occasionally on sale, but I do not see anything going down.
And the quality? If you can afford to go to the doctor over the last 10 years, you'll notice how concerned they've become about antibiotic use. You can't go in and claim a cough and get some antibios. And the reasons are sound. The wider the antibiotic use, the less effective they become.
But the big agri-corps are using antibiotics on a scale that we can hardly imagine. They pack the animals in their own shit, and to make a profit, they feed them antibiotics in mass quantities. All the while, they're creating not only profits for themselves, but also new pathogens that don't respond to antibiotics. You like your hamburger medium rare, something doesn't get cooked thoroughly, you imbibe some live antibiotic-resistant bacteria, and whoops. Let's add that you've eaten that hyper-bacteria laden meat at a fast food place because you're poor (and have no health insurance), and you're essentially dead.
So from a theoretical standpoint, human beings have moved from worshiping gods in trees to Newtonian physics to Einsteinian relativity to the Heisenberg uncertainty principle to a quest for the TOE, but huge numbers of people still die from easily curable diseases? Would Gene Roddenberry have dared to portray such a crazy world?
Have you seen the stars tonight? Don't quit dreaming and demanding a better world.
Credit to Paul Kantner of Jefferson Airplane/Starship:
Have You Seen The Stars Tonight?
Would you like to go up on 'A' Deck and look at them with me?
Have You Seen The Stars Tonight?
Would you like to go up for a stroll and keep me company?
Do you know
We could go?
We are free
Anyplace you can think of
Wow. We're humans. We once learned we had to band together to kill mastodons so that we could get enough protein to procreate. Do you think we could figure out the current issues with all that we have at our disposal? Is it us, or is it the system under which we lived that threatens to doom us?
Listen to it raw:
http://www.youtube.com/...