Good! Yes there are some good people1 in this old world. Yes, good music2 and art does make life worth living. Yes, “I love you grandpa!” from the likes of Owen; the energy and upbeat joy of Amelia, Lane, Landon and all of the grandkids, and their amazing intelligence, are injections of very much good in my own life. And Nature is “always solace.” And how could I have been so lucky to have a wife like Elizabeth “Betsy” Florence (Hoffmann) Martin, a Mom like Lousie Katherine (Kneuper) Martin, and a mother-in-law like Florence Mae (Sachtleben) Hoffmann, and had wonderful folk like Dad Alton, John Alton, Angie, & Jeremy Bain, Robert, Joseph, Pete, David, Lanier, William, Ruth, Peggy, Jim, Darryl, Marvel, Hilario, Alphonso, Helene & Waylon, Stick & Bob et al. around me and influencing me in my life? … and on and on?
On the one hand, it is a good world.
Bad and Ugly. On the other hand, currently there are eight billion humans and there were an estimated one hundred and seventeen billion over all time. That in and of itself is a serious problems since it has been (humorously, satirically) estimated that 90% of us are pendejos3. Moreover, I am personally trying to mill around and help us make the best of this inconvenient apocalpse4 This is despite the fact that I am quite certain that I am one of the more than seven billion pendejos currently living, and moreover, with reason great friends like Dr. Luis Campos da Silva5 and Dr. Miguel Altieri6 labeled me “burrão” and “huevon” respectively.
I will also add that at going on seventy-seven years of age … knees, ears, eyes, & muscles and the nervous, intestinal, cardiovascualr systems don’t function nearly as well as they did back ten to fifty years ago. Also, I continue to daily make and attack impossible lists of mundane gardening- and tidying up-duties, reading, writing, volunteer activities, and exercising to do.
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This situation concerning self is indeed somewhat ugly. But let’s get on to briefly mention some of the very bad & ugly aspects of the immoral society7:
o The real problem in the process of solving problems … which must involve pacifism & anti-War activity, abolishing nuclear weapons, banning of guns and other weapons … is self-imposed ignorance in society; greed & a lust for power and stuff; and denial, apathy, and complacency. We don’t really practice the Golden Rule, and Moses, Jesus of Nazareth, St. Francis of Assisi, Rumi, Gandhi, Mother Teresa, MLK, Jr., Mandela, Dorothy Day didn’t really change us … and this serious problem will continue.
o As an immoral and unethical populace we kill each other and destroy dynamic homeostatic symbioses (nature). We don’t really practice the Golden Rule, and Moses, Jesus of Nazareth, St. Francis of Assisi, Rumi, Gandhi, Mother Teresa, MLK, Jr., Mandela, Dorothy Day didn’t really change us … and this serious problem will continue.
o Parents & businesses & governments & schools & even churches & so-called health care entities teach, practice, support, exemplify socio-ecologically destructive neoliberal capitalism/militarism/growth, encourage bad bidness & inappropriate entrepreneuership, and increase our propensity to being apathetical and complacent about our lack of knowledge/wisdom and values of positively ethical applied community ecology. We don’t really practice the Golden Rule, and Moses, Jesus of Nazareth, St. Francis of Assisi, Rumi, Gandhi, Mother Teresa, MLK, Jr., Mandela, Dorothy Day didn’t really change us … and this serious problem will continue.
o We accept agrilogistics8 and nonsustainable high input industrial agriculture which is necessarily addicted to ecologically-destructive synthetic chemicals and fossil energy. We don’t really practice the Golden Rule, and Moses, Jesus of Nazareth, St. Francis of Assisi, Rumi, Gandhi, Mother Teresa, MLK, Jr., Mandela, Dorothy Day didn’t really change us … and this serious problem will continue.
o More and more, lucky and powerful capitalists control the Land and the “Commons” and we largely and increasingly view water and other basic/essential natural resources as commodities rather than rights. We don’t really practice the Golden Rule, and Moses, Jesus of Nazareth, St. Francis of Assisi, Rumi, Gandhi, Mother Teresa, MLK, Jr., Mandela, Dorothy Day didn’t really change us … and this serious problem will continue.
o We view guns as a man-made right rather than an instrument in violating the Sixth Commandment.
We don’t really practice the Golden Rule, and Moses, Jesus of Nazareth, St. Francis of Assisi, Rumi, Gandhi, Mother Teresa, MLK, Jr., Mandela, Dorothy Day didn’t really change us … and this serious problem will continue.
o Plastics kill and destroy dynamic homeostatic symbioses (nature) and have really been around in common use for only about eighty years. Yet we deem them as a need!?! We don’t really practice the Golden Rule, and Moses, Jesus of Nazareth, St. Francis of Assisi, Rumi, Gandhi, Mother Teresa, MLK, Jr., Mandela, Dorothy Day didn’t really change us … and this serious problem will continue.
o Automobiles, air travel and cruise liners are major destroyers of ecological systems and we continue to use them despite the existence of alternatives, or potential alternatives. We don’t really practice the Golden Rule and Moses, Jesus of Nazareth, St. Francis of Assisi, Rumi, Gandhi, Mother Teresa, MLK, Jr., Mandela, Dorothy Day didn’t really change us … and this serious problem will continue.
o Exotic, artificial lawns, and even PLASTIC turf, which displace dynamic homeostatic symbioses & sustainable climax ecological communities … are prevalent. We don’t really practice the Golden Rule, and Moses, Jesus of Nazareth, St. Francis of Assisi, Rumi, Gandhi, Mother Teresa, MLK, Jr., Mandela, Dorothy Day didn’t really change us … and this serious problem will continue.
o I could go on with this list of destructive rampant artificialization (“Bad and Ugly”) which itself continues to “go on!” and on and on and on … . We don’t really practice the Golden Rule, and Moses, Jesus of Nazareth, St. Francis of Assisi, Rumi, Gandhi, Mother Teresa, MLK, Jr., Mandela, Dorothy Day didn’t really change us … and this serious problem will continue.
“christians?” Bullshit! … Humanitarians? ¡ Pura caca! … Stewards of ecological systems? Besteira!
We don’t really practice the Golden Rule, and Moses, Jesus of Nazareth, St. Francis of Assisi, Rumi, Gandhi, Mother Teresa, Mandela, Dorothy Day didn’t really change us … and this serious problem will continue.
Bad & ugly? Yes! But despite my “Bad and Ugly” pessimism, we can not give up. What makes life truly worth living is battling to deal with these unsurmountable challenges. We must be idealistic pragmatists rather than realistic pragmatists? Get your head out … !!! Fight toward equity and protection of the natural resources base. Curb human and domesticated species growth … and the unsustainable consumption of resources. Practice LISA/Low Input Sustainable Agricutlure and help move us toward matriarchal/campesino agroecological systems across the Eaarth (transforming to a neo-Earth). Realize that “Less Is More.” Care and Share!
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Good! Yes there are some good people1 in this old world. Yes, good music2 and art does make life worth living. Yes, “I love you grandpa!” from the likes of Owen; the energy and upbeat joy of Amelia, Lane, Landon and all of the grandkids and their amazing intelligence are injections of very much good. And Nature is “always solace.” And how could I have been so lucky to have a wife like Elizabeth “Betsy” Florence (Hoffmann) Martin, a Mom like Lousie Katherine (Kneuper) Martin, and a mother-in-law like Florence Mae (Sachtleben) Hoffmann, and had wonderful folk like Dad Alton, John Alton, Angie, & Jeremy Bain, Robert, Joseph, Pete, David, Lanier, William, Ruth, Peggy, Jim, Darryl, Marvel, Hilario, Alphonso, Helene & Waylon, Stick & Bob et al. around me and influencing me in my life? … and on and on?
It is a good world!
(Even though I have several potential “Bad and Ugly”-type posts scratched out here in our office, I will try to post more “Good” ones in the future.)
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1(64) Josh Grider – Good People (Official Music Video) 4k – YouTube
2(64) Tommy Edwards – It’s All In The Game – YouTube
3 ” … research studies claim that up to 90% of the world population are pendejos.” “If you did not find yourself in any [of these] pendejo groups, congratulations! This means you’re either a genius, unemployed or mentally unstable. For those on the list, there is no known cure, but you are not to blame. ¡Naces pendejo, mueres pendejo!” Humorous satire, from Drink Cultura: Chicanismo (1993) written by El Paso-raised Jose Antonio Burciaga.
4 ‘We’re going to pay in a big way’: a shocking new book on the climate crisis | Books | The Guardian
5 Melhorista Luiz Otávio falece em Campo Grande (MS) – Portal Embrapa
6 Miguel Altieri – Agroecology in Action
7 Moral Man and Immoral Society – Wikipedia
8 ECOLOGY WITHOUT NATURE: What Is Agrilogistics?
