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Global Warning - May 4, 2008 - Printable Version
- Evil Monkeys
by Robin Buckallew
Sometimes as I survey the world around me, as I stop, look, and listen, I find it very difficult to believe what I am seeing and hearing. Strange images and strange noises assault my senses, sending my moral equilibrium into a total tailspin as I become aware of the surreal nature of the world around me. I have lately developed the urge to clamp my eyes fast shut, slam my hands tightly over my ears, and live in sensory isolation, much like the “evil monkeys” – I wish to see no evil, hear no evil, and speak no evil. I want to move into a Brady Bunch world, where the biggest problems are the bad case of acne before the big date, and everything gets resolved within the half hour time slot allotted to it. I am acutely aware, however, that when I opened my eyes and ears again, I would be opening them on a world that is about the same as before. In fact, if I take no action to improve the world, I would have only myself to blame if it was even worse than before. In a country consumed with vacillation between what could easily be the most disturbingly empty Presidential race ever and what could easily be the most vacuous and inane celebrity news of all time, it becomes difficult at times to find an island of sanity in the midst of all the nonsense. In between political cheerleaders shouting unfinished sentences like “YES, WE CAN!” and “YES, WE WILL!”, I find myself taking a brief pause to wonder “Can WHAT?” “Will WHAT?”. The potential answers to those questions, based on the few substantive tidbits that have fallen teasingly from the candidates’ mouths during unguarded moments of forthright honesty, are not comforting.
So, I turn to the national news media, where I find myself assaulted with a seemingly endless parade of drunken celebrities, sexually inappropriate celebrities, abusive celebrities, celebrities who jump on couches, celebrities who punch photographers, and celebrities who eschew underwear – none of which is my business or in the universe of my interest. In despair, I turn quickly to the alternative media, looking, like Demosthenes, for an honest man – or at least, one that is coherent and marginally relevant. Alas, to my dismay, what I find is an endless stream of platitudes and pontification, and the knowledge that many of the people writing in these media are unaware of the true state of the world around them. The internet is no better. Supposedly the great equalizer, that will bring information right to the fingertips of the populace who have had to suffer along in silence with the lameness of the mainstream media, the internet is fulfilling its destiny in exactly the same way as the television before it – the television that was once predicted to become the great font of information for the masses. The internet is mostly a source of entertainment, coupled with a huge dose of self-aggrandizement, where everyone can demand their fifteen minutes of fame, and can insist that it go on indefinitely, as they lay themselves out in full view for everyone to look at, and then whine because people are looking at them the wrong way.
We are facing a world full of problems that need to be solved. Many of them, in fact I dare say most of them, are solvable, if we just take a little time and apply a little ingenuity. Number one on the list of critical issues needing to be solved is the environmental degradation that threatens to leave our world much more barren, and generate a future that won’t support life in all its diversity. Following after the environment, and not totally unrelated, are the Iraq war, sweatshop labor, unemployment, health, education, bigotry of all kinds, economic roller coasters, domestic violence, animal abuse, and, of course, the heartbreak of psoriasis.
None of the problems facing us is beyond our ability to find a solution for – except, of course, that we’re not looking very hard. We’re mostly just bitching and moaning, then heading off to the internet to see what’s new on YouTube or MySpace. We can’t solve global warming, extinction, pollution, or ozone depletion if we ignore them. This is not a case of some schoolyard bullies who just want attention. These are global problems that cause global disasters, and require global solutions. In the past, local environmental problems have led to extinction of local cultures. It seems reasonable to consider the possibility that global environmental problems could lead to extinction of global cultures. Yet we still regard this problem as secondary to “more important” things. Judging from the top searches on Google and Yahoo, those “more important things” would appear to be Britney Spears, Lindsey Lohan, Paris Hilton, and American Idol.
For years, I have hungrily turned to the alternative media, searching for a substantive meal that would satiate my information appetite. For a time, this seemed to be satisfactory, but after years of reading these sources, I’ve come to realize that, most of the time, I am reading the exact same things over and over and over again, ad nauseam, until I can almost recite the articles from memory even before ever reading them! The names change a little – the writers, the characters – but the settings and the plots are always the same. The same tired rehashing of the same tired dialogues, even though there are many other things going on in the world. Occasionally, I find an article referencing global warming (some magazines are better than others, and I can give Kudos to Mother Jones and the Progressive Populist for addressing these topics in nearly every issue in some depth). Most of the time, these things are shunted aside. And even the important issues they do talk about, such as the war in Iraq and the problems of labor unions, have been discussed in the same tired way for years, without any really new, substantive information or biting, insightful analyses.
Worst of all, however, is not the lack of information. Information is available, if you take the time to search for it. The platitudes are not nearly as disturbing as the attitudes. I have routinely been shocked by the total amorality of much of our discourse. Oh, we shout and scream about morals in issues of teenage sexuality, pregnancy and abortion issues, and “dirty” movies. We cringe at all the casual cursing that takes place in our society today, and frown prudishly on those who wear clothes that reveal more skin than we feel is appropriate. We have a huge investment in “moral values”, but we lack a true moral sense of our responsibility and our role in the world. I’ve raved and ranted before about students who feel themselves superior to me because they don’t care. I’ve shouted myself hoarse about the lack of awareness of our actions and their consequences. I’ve discoursed at length about our sense of entitlement to the consumption of manufactured goods. The noise of the consumer culture is so loud, none of the other voices can get heard above the din. Still, I go on spitting in the wind, hoping someday a small voice will get heard, much as the tiny Who in Horton Hears a Who.
In hopes of further weakening the edifice of selfish hedonism that we have erected in this country, I would like to present one further example, this one culled from the pages of a once socialist magazine that now spends most of its time catering to the new left, the left that is even more ardently capitalist than the right, the left that believes capitalism will operate compassionately and ethically if only it is turned over to the right people – them. This fellow was writing about a site that was going to determine the worst company ever. He was putting in his bid – Comcast. Why Comcast? Why not? OK, he acknowledged, Comcast hasn’t been found to use sweatshop labor. They haven’t been discovered to violate environmental regulations or cause significant environmental degradation. But, Comcast doesn’t give very good service to its customers. Waiting for hours on a Saturday morning for a hook up so you can watch the big game…now, THAT’s worthy of making you the worst company ever. Not companies like Wal-Mart that engage in unfair labor practices, that bust unions, that use sweatshop labor so they can sell crappy goods at a discount price, or that violate laws against gender discrimination. Not companies that dump toxic chemicals into drinking water, or foul the air we breathe with lethal emissions. Not companies that level rainforests for profit, or work immigrants long shifts in unsafe, unclean conditions for very little pay. Not companies that move their factories overseas to take advantage of lax labor and environmental protections, not to mention avoiding the taxes that could help pay for our schools and public facilities. Not companies that encourage or abet brutality by foreign dictators to achieve economic advantage in a country suffering from poverty and disease. Not companies which withhold vital information that consumers need to make informed choices about products that might be toxic or otherwise dangerous. Not companies that knowingly produce products that are hazardous, such as cigarettes, and encourage young children to get hooked on them. No, with all these choices out there in the global economy, the worst thing a company can do is to make someone wait for their entertainment.
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again. In this country, which fought a war against seemingly impossible odds to establish democracy and freedom, which offers itself as a shining example for other countries to emulate, we have lost our moral compass. Or perhaps it’s just broken, with the needle pointing aimlessly in every direction at once. Once more I will say it: we simply have lost the moral authority necessary to govern ourselves.
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