Pt. 15, BALANCING ACT / MOVING PAST
THE PAST
The standard notion of regarding
oneself as “an other” from the rest of the biosphere is an antiquated myth.
Rather than the previous base knowledge from living in such proximity to the
rest of the biosphere as in preindustrial times,[i]
now we are armed with the knowledge of biology, genetics, nuclear physics,
modern industrial chemical manufacture, etc. and that allows the illusion of
being separate and elevated above the rest of existence to a degree of
aloofness that is a luxury only gods could have from being so immune
from such limitations brought about by mortality.
An idea to keep in mind is that there
is a finite amount if matter and energy that can be withdrawn from the
biosphere.[ii]
There is no credit. Earth is a closed system, so there is a limit. Not only is
there a finite amount but also at any one given moment, of all the matter and
energy available, but some is needed to but back into the system in order for
it to keep perpetuating itself. It’s like the species of fish, the cod; we can
take as many as we can, as fast as we can, out of the sea, but if there are not
enough codfish left to life long enough to make more codfish, and we keep
taking the codfish from the sea, the codfish disappear forever.[iii]
If you think of all the planet's resources, living and non-, as finite when
frozen in time, yet with the movement of time are self-perpetuating; you can
start to see that there exists an equation, it is called Maximum Sustainable
Yield.[iv]
Humanity as a whole can only take a
certain amount out of the biosphere at any one time so that the biosphere can
continue to produce enough for itself so as to keep going as well as enough so
that we can continue to take some for ourselves. But, the nature of the matter
and energy we take will be transformed into one of two things. It either
becomes a “waste” product that can be re-entered into the biosphere as a source
of “fertilizer” or as a “toxin.” Naturally the “fertilizer” waste will feed the
biosphere, ultimately producing more matter and energy whereas the “toxins” not
only cannot be converted back into useful matter and energy but they further
inhibit otherwise productive areas of the biosphere. If humans could bring
themselves to both consume the biosphere’s matter and energy in a responsible
amount, as well as to use that matter and energy in a way where the most of the
remainder of that process could be used as fuel for the biosphere, from whence
it came, then as little as possible of that remainder would be left in a form
that would pollute, and inhibit further production, this would minimize our
impact and maximize the efficiency of our relationship with the rest of the
biosphere. Essentially, we have an allowance; it can either shrink or grow
depending on how we manage to spend or invest it. That little slice of the pie
has to get divvied up among all us people. Yes, there is more pie out there to
take, but if we take too much of it now there will be less pie tomorrow. So, we
have to illicit some self-control. We have to govern ourselves; in how much we
take, in how we use what we take, and in how we distribute what we take. This
is what balance is all about.
If this sounds similar to certain
political systems of the 20th century, that is understandable but it
is important to realize that just because one can see a few surface
similarities between two things that does not mean that they are identical. Communism and Socialism, in the West, have a stigma
attached to them due to the horrors associated with the repression of peoples
under various “communist” rules. The problem here is that communism ultimately
failed do to the manipulation wrought by power-hungry individuals and the lack
of technology needed to hear the voice of the people. Imagine if Lenin had a
Facebook page or a Twitter account. Or perhaps if the Bolsheviks had a comments
section on their web page, it would have been much easier to have a dialogue
with the peasants east of the Urals and in the Caucuses. And of course that is
assuming there was at least one computer or Smartphone per village. But these
are luxuries of economically and technologically developed countries not found
in 1917 Russia, 1948 North Korea, 1949 China, or 1961 Cuba. None of the major communist players of
the 20th century were a post-capitalist society (as Marx stated as a
prerequisite for this socio-political system); all of them were essentially
pre-industrial at the time of their communist conversion.
As it stands, there are only about ten countries
that are currently ripe for a post-capitalist revolution. Countries where due
to the eventual nature of capitalism the cord that bridges the battle cry
of “free enterprise” and the
disparity of wealth that inherently grows with market share control. But
especially in America, we are so close to the cliff that we’ve just shut our
eyes and started screaming in attempts to drown out the train of consequence
that is barreling down on us, when we should be leading the rebel yell of
dramatic and immediate change instead.[v]
Concerning the global economy, when the debt bubble soon bursts, the following
bubbles will not exist as they used to[vi],
and our markets will return to being based on the real-time availability of
food, water, and fuel and less on immaterial wagers. We will have entered into
combat with each other and everyone. Rather than running screaming as
individuals in all different directions, it would make much more sense in terms
of surviving the coming environmental crisis to reverse direction, hurry the
hell up and work together. Sure not everyone is going to be happy all the time
right away but no other system to date has been able to achieve that, plus
taking into account the current state of things not a one ever will. It might
be almost time for a different approach, like dispelling this illusion of the
individual.
However, this is not socialism,
communism or Marxism that I am endorsing despite it sounding awfully similar in
several ways. Rather, this is a plea for functional altruism – thought with
regards to everything else beyond oneself in order to most benefit oneself.
After all, “No man is an island.”[vii]
Given the knowledge and technology that is available today, there is no
rational argument to support the widely held social hallucination that the
mind, the body, or the synthesis of the two is in some way more independent and
less at the mercy of large and complex chains of interaction with “external”
environments. Not only is this orthodox viewpoint logically flawed, but it is
mortally dangerous too. As a result of these selfish and irreverent
institutions of behavior the state of the world is in peril, weather it be from
pollution, the ever-expanding global disparity of wealth, both compounded by
the unbridled overpopulation. Although it will be damned near impossible to
shed this illusion of the individual until the institutions that support it
such as those of religion and ownership are resolved, or at least relegated to
their proper place on the sidelines of political influence. These divisive and
ingrained aspects of society need to be limited, much like the concept of being
separate, in order to realize the true extent of how dependant we all are on
the “lesser” creatures that we share this planet with and the real fragility of
existence that comes with being an apex predator versus a single celled
photosynthetic organism. It is about time to put aside personal desires and
comfortable consumption as the driving forces in our decision making process
and refocus on our actual place in the grand scheme of things as well as living
sustainably.
[i] “Romanticism in Science, “
Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romanticism_in_science (accessed April 25, 2013).
[ii] “Exponential Growth in a Finite
Biosphere,” Real Economics, http://real-economics.blogspot.com/2012/04/exponential-growth-in-finite-biosphere.html (accessed April 25, 2013).
[iii] Katharine Q. Seelye and Jess
Bidgood, “Officials Back Deep Cuts in Atlantic Cod Harvest to Save Industry,”
New York Times, http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/31/us/officials-back-deep-cuts-in-atlantic-cod-harvest-to-save-industry.html?_r=0 (accessed April 25, 2013).
[iv] Karin Limburg, “MSY Lecture
Notes,” SUNY College of Environmental Science, http://www.esf.edu/efb/limburg/fisheries/MSY/Logistic_MSY.pdf (accessed April 25, 2013).
[v] Bill Blakemore, “America’s
Position on Climate ‘A Tragedy,’ Losing U.S. Prestige to China,” ABC News, http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/technology/2011/12/americas-position-on-climate-a-tragedy-losing-u-s-prestige-to-china/ (accessed April 19, 2013).
[vi] Kenneth Rapoza, “The World’s Bubble
Economy Getting Bigger,” Forbes, http://www.forbes.com/sites/kenrapoza/2013/01/18/the-worlds-bubble-economy-getting-bubblier/ (accessed April 19, 2013).
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