But one episode revealed a horrible problem. All our flitting around at warp speed was weakening the fabric of space, forming dreaded rips in the space-time continuum. I have forgotten what we did about it, but for awhile, it looked like the rest of the episodes would have to be shot in locations that could be reached without the use of warp drive. Dullsville. But by the end of the hour, something was figured out.
My crew and I did not have to make changes. We warped around the universe for several more seasons.
But we the crew of the spaceship earth do not have the luxury of writing in a solution deus ex machina to the problems we have created .
This energy crisis for instance. We have been riding the petroleum based economy train willy nilly for 100 years or so. It would be comical if it weren't so sad, how we simply refuse to accept that we have a problem. This week there have been more proposals for opening up new oil fields. At best that might hold us a couple hundred years. At worst it will eontinue global warming, pose other disastrous consequences for the environment, and, worst of all, cause us to hesitate seeking and investing in real solutions. And even worse than worst of all, it could be the efforts of a lame duck administration to give one last windfall to buddies in the oil business before the window of opportunity at long last slams shut. That's what I believe. Nothing else really makes sense.
Or there's the consumer economy. We in the U.S.A. have been involved in this Ponzi scheme for a century or so, accelerating since WWII. To sustain our economy we work more so that we can spend more on things we don't really need and that we don't have time to enjoy, depleting the world's resources to sustain this ridiculous runaway ride. Now we are told if we try to pull back, if we refuse to spend and consume, our economy will fail and the results will be disastrous. We cannot afford to jump off. The fall would kill us. So, we pass this curse along to the next generation, selling it as prosperity and a better way of life.
Or there's the environment. For a century or so in this country those who suggested that protection of the environment was critical to our well-being were effectively characterized as kooky tree-huggers. Somehow even the American church was generally opposed to those who attempted to protect the environment. The dust bowl was an obvious environmental wake up call. The affect of DDT on wildlife and the environment was proven by the results of its banning. The damming of free-flowing rivers created disastrous results downstream. The stripping of the tops of mountains in the Appalachia coal fields is creating floods, destroying wildlife habitat, and causing health problems for children who must drink the water contaminated with high concentrations of minerals washed from the stripped mountains into the valley rivers. And then there's the depletion of the ozone by the over production of CO2. It's all real. It's not rocket science.
What's the deal? We are smarter than this. What is the common denominator?
Money. Greed. Power.
These problems seem to have grown to crisis proportion in the past century. What happened? There is another thing that has grown to crisis proportion in the past century. The power of corporate America, especially its power over our government.
Don't believe it? Of course you don't. Billions of dollars have been spent to make sure you feel otherwise. But corporations have no conscious. And they have no children. All those people on the advertisements are just actors, or maybe even animated birds. But with mergers and takeovers and the demonization of regulation, big business now has more control than government. And its only conscience is profit.
The answer is not to destroy corporations or to rebel against the government (at least not yet).
The answer is to think. To speak. To act. We can figure this out. But we may be in our final season.
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