Many idealists, by their very nature, aren't very practical. This should not be an excuse for some of the gibber I have heard come out of my corner and I'm not set out to defend some of the remarks my friends have made (you know what they are). Some of them are so bad they make me want to hide and say I don't know these people! I'm not with them! except no one would ever buy it.
Here's my example of the day. Believe it or not, this is an actual argument someone made:
The universe is full of abundance: trillions (or more) galaxies full of trillions (or more!) stars. There's over six billion people on the planet. Obviously, with so much abundance, there is no shortage of anything, it's the nature of life and existence to have abundance. So why is there poverty.
Well, it's probably because those starving, ungrateful African's wont eat stars. Don't look at me, I think they're delicious, if a little hot.
There is a limit to how much one can ignore the world at large and still affect it. A common thing to ignore is the over-population plague that has infected the entire epidermis of this poor planet. Probably because its so big it's gotten hard to see, like trying to see the forest through the leaf jammed in your eye. It's too painful to look at and there is no good solution for this huge problem. The easiest way to stay sane is to ignore it by claiming it doesn't exist.
Without offending too much, let me say I see some of the truth in the philosophy that "abundance is natural"; sometimes it is. Maybe. However, telling the average human that a resource is abundant is akin to saying: "Look! It's a pit of infinite gold! Go nuts and start printing money 'cuz you'll never run out!" The end is too far off for most people to care very much. Insisting that a resource is scarce, on the other hand, promotes responsible planing and thought.
"Abundance is Natural" philosophy also gently assures people that their level of consumption isn't the problem. Instead, poverty is because of money or greed or a poor wealth redistribution system. It would be more acurate to say that there is poverty because of the "Abundance is Natural" philosophy. Only nothing is infinite.
Starvation is sad and stuff. No one likes it. But it has been happening since the Paleozoic. A species will uncontrollably grow past its resource availability, then it will die off. The sad thing about people is that we should be able to do better. We should be able to say, "you know what... we're, um, a little low on food. Perhaps we should stop reproducing, huh?" and then hold off a little while.
We do insist that we are real smart so often, after all.
No comments:
Post a Comment