“We are much better [off] than we were 250 years ago.”
from a friend I dearly love (in spite of his Eaarth*-denial).
…………………
“We … (are much better [off]”) …
Is ME!
“‘I’ am much better [off].” …
Not WE.
Not those of potentially-wonderful, life-teeming organic topsoil
Covered with asphalt and concrete
And massive edifices (of capitalism),
Smashed to chaos by billions of automobiles.
(And smashed/overwhelmed
By human beings/
By domesticated species.) …
Destroyed with exotic non-native species,
Steel, plastic, synthetic hydrocarbons;
Disrupted and poisoned by industrial agrilogistics*;
Virtually ignored by trans-local corporations,
IT, “the” internet, neo-liberal capitalistic algorithms.
Not oceans choking on plastic,
Poisoned (along with lipids of humans and other species)
With DDT, DDE, DDD, and
Other toxic and hormonic-mimic attackers
Of nature/
Of dynamic homeostatic symbioses.
Not the energetically-sound southern long-leaf pine
Climax-ecological communities …
Clear-cut and developed.
Not the dynamic homeostatic Oglala prairies,
Plowed out,
Treated with
Massive amounts of atrazine, 2,4-D,
Trifluralin, glysophate, chlorpyrifos,
And other biocides;
Mined for fossil carbon molecules
Laden with dangerous amounts
Of captured photosynthetic energy,
And potential pollutants.
Mined for rapid-transformation of energy,
To run dying high-input/-throughput systems of human consumerism.
Systems of morally-corrupt decision-making,
And void of True spirituality.
Systems ignoring Truths;
Releasing climate-changing CO2 & CH4
At chaotic rates …
“To keep the dirty lights on”*
And feed our enormous guts
And allow for our various stupid toys
And games of War …
In every sense of the word …
At many levels and
Amounts of intensity, social injustice, inhumaneness, ecological insanity;
“Developed” to keep non-sustainable
Urban and rural communities
On opiate-needles of destructive
Capitalistic “bidness”*.
Not steadfastly proud hunter-gatherers
Of indigenous reservations
And other locales
Across Eaarth.
Not many individuals, demes, populations
Of homeless and others marginalized
In various circumstances
Of socio-economic, political injustice,
In favelas , slums, prisons/
ICE detention and other impoverished areas
Often involving hate and discrimination and bigotry,
Against skin pigmentation, ethnicity, sexual orientation, etc., etc….
In various sectors of Eaarth.
Not the passenger pigeon, western black rhinoceros,
Tasmanian wolf, great auk,
And thousands and thousands
Of other species
Of all Domains and Kingdoms
Of the Anthropocene.
Not the poor creatures of True and real living-systems
Who have been chaotically-destroyed
With all this artificiality.
It’s a zero sum game.
We’re in this together.
All must live according to Wendell*:
“To live, we must daily break the body and shed the blood of Creation.
When we do this knowingly, lovingly, skillfully, reverently, it is a sacrament.
When we do it ignorantly, greedily, clumsily, destructively, it is a desecration.
In such desecration we condemn ourselves to spiritual and moral loneliness, and others to want.”
Ali* once spoke
A powerful piece of poetry: … …
“Me? … We!”
Not War on other biota of our and other species.
Not War on ecological communities.
Not War on dynamic homeostatic symbioses.
Think humility, …
Justice, empathy, … .
Live sabiamente, simply, smally, slowly,
Steadfastly, sharingly, sustainably.
Think/Rock** in solidarity and concert
With all of nature.
Yes!!! Yes!!!
Yes.
I too use the opiates of corporate industrial Eaarth*, …
… And abuse.
Still … in all my frailties and limitations
I seek to never cease to criticize …
And fight (hopefully somewhat intelligently and systematically)
For dynamic homeostatic symbioses.
And I AM SORRY. …
I do not appreciate self-inflicted ignorance.
Apathy, smug complacency,
Ignorant narcissistic arrogance,
Blessedness.
If We of Eaarth are not better off,
I am not better off.
WE are not better off.)
**************************
*Bill McKibben, Timothy Morton/(Jared Diamond), Tim O’Brien/Darrell Scott, Molly Ivins, Wendell Berry, Muhammed Ali, respectively.
**Timothy Morton.
pbm 5/30/2019
[ 7 Ss / VV->^^ ]
