I feel an overwhelming sense of gloom as the holiday season gears up and we all ready ourselves for whatever Thanksgiving and Christmas are likely to bring. It seems churlish but I see many lumps of coal ahead, and I wish to goodness I were wrong. They tell us the economy is on the mend but I wonder how that can be as unemployment worsens, the health care bill weakens and Peak Oil bears down upon us all. Through it tourism in Key West still seems to be strong, albeit with lower prices for rooms. And yet, and yet this nagging feeling of all not being well won't leave me.
The recent revelation by the International Energy Agency that it's numbers for projected oil output are rubbish, at the behest of the US government, gives weight to forecasters of doom like J H Kunstler and his ilk who have long predicted a steadily declining standard of living as oil gets harder and harder to find, and thus more expensive. Cheap oil has under pinned everything about modern first world living and the end of cheap oil means...? Well, it doesn't seem like it has to mean an end to civilization as we know it but we have lost the art of the sensible debate in this country so we seemed to have doomed ourselves to march up to the edge of the cliff and will have to fall over it just on principle.
The national health care debate, that is supposed to move onto the Senate floor this weekend is just the latest and nastiest example of our need to ignore the glaringly obvious. Heath care coverage is deficient and expensive in the US, but instead of debating how best to make meaningful changes available to our citizens in need, half the debating team crossed their arms, shouted insults and left the sand box.
The war in Afghanistan that was needed a decade ago to respond forcefully to the 9-11 attacks got diluted by a crazy scheme to invade Iraq at vast expense on the flimsiest of excuses and lies and now the word quagmire rears it's ugly head. And we can't debate our way out of this one because no one knows why we are there in the first place. Are we bringing corruption and democracy to Afghanistan as an alternative to the Taliban whack jobs? At our expense? Why?
Climate change, now there's a subject that needs intelligent debate and all we get is denial on one side and no coherent plan from the other. If the climate is changing and scientists tell us it is we need to plan. If the climate is changing because of human actions we need to figure out how to change and what to change about how we live. instead we get people getting angry over the very possibility that anything may be wrong with the climate that gives us life.
I have no children and I see no point in my worrying about the next generation's problems if the parents of that generation are sticking their own heads in the sand. I just can't for the life of me escape the sense of unease that keeps prodding me. The economy is an immediate issue and while it acknowledges the unemployment problem the White House shows no plans to start a Works Progress Administration, preferring to keep on funding banks over people. State budgets are imploding all over the country, Florida is facing a 20% deficit and heaven knows where that will lead us.
And as we make our holiday plans a sense of unreality fills my active mind. Cheap oil is running out, unemployment is up. Wells Fargo Bank keeps retreating from refinancing my home, even though I have yet to be late with a payment, and they have calmly pocketed 25 billion in public funds. And one looks out of the window and life rolls on, apparently without a glitch. Am I dreaming or is there a giant glitch over the horizon?
The recent revelation by the International Energy Agency that it's numbers for projected oil output are rubbish, at the behest of the US government, gives weight to forecasters of doom like J H Kunstler and his ilk who have long predicted a steadily declining standard of living as oil gets harder and harder to find, and thus more expensive. Cheap oil has under pinned everything about modern first world living and the end of cheap oil means...? Well, it doesn't seem like it has to mean an end to civilization as we know it but we have lost the art of the sensible debate in this country so we seemed to have doomed ourselves to march up to the edge of the cliff and will have to fall over it just on principle.
The national health care debate, that is supposed to move onto the Senate floor this weekend is just the latest and nastiest example of our need to ignore the glaringly obvious. Heath care coverage is deficient and expensive in the US, but instead of debating how best to make meaningful changes available to our citizens in need, half the debating team crossed their arms, shouted insults and left the sand box.
The war in Afghanistan that was needed a decade ago to respond forcefully to the 9-11 attacks got diluted by a crazy scheme to invade Iraq at vast expense on the flimsiest of excuses and lies and now the word quagmire rears it's ugly head. And we can't debate our way out of this one because no one knows why we are there in the first place. Are we bringing corruption and democracy to Afghanistan as an alternative to the Taliban whack jobs? At our expense? Why?
Climate change, now there's a subject that needs intelligent debate and all we get is denial on one side and no coherent plan from the other. If the climate is changing and scientists tell us it is we need to plan. If the climate is changing because of human actions we need to figure out how to change and what to change about how we live. instead we get people getting angry over the very possibility that anything may be wrong with the climate that gives us life.
I have no children and I see no point in my worrying about the next generation's problems if the parents of that generation are sticking their own heads in the sand. I just can't for the life of me escape the sense of unease that keeps prodding me. The economy is an immediate issue and while it acknowledges the unemployment problem the White House shows no plans to start a Works Progress Administration, preferring to keep on funding banks over people. State budgets are imploding all over the country, Florida is facing a 20% deficit and heaven knows where that will lead us.
And as we make our holiday plans a sense of unreality fills my active mind. Cheap oil is running out, unemployment is up. Wells Fargo Bank keeps retreating from refinancing my home, even though I have yet to be late with a payment, and they have calmly pocketed 25 billion in public funds. And one looks out of the window and life rolls on, apparently without a glitch. Am I dreaming or is there a giant glitch over the horizon?
10 comments:
I started reading your blog because of it was local interest. Thought provoking posts like this one keep me coming back. Much to ponder as our country muddles through the biggest crisis of my lifetime. We are blessed to live here and have been insulated in some ways by the local economy. Hopefully initiatives like this one will help lead the way out of the energy / oil morass ===> Gas 2.0 http://ff.im/-bHkD1
I hope it helps.
Man, you have me thinking awful hard today. Damned If I can find any disagreement with anything you said.
Now you're worried too. Result!
Dear Conch:
Thank you for posting this today. It gave me a reason to finish the last of the rum before I had coffee this morning.
Fondest regards,
Jack • reep • Toad
Twisted Roads
I share your sense of unease. When this all started I figured we would be in for a hard 18 months and then we would be come back slowly. It hasn't turned out that way and I've seen too many hard working, responsible people lose jobs and homes. It's unsettling.
I have to take exception with the blanket comment "... I see no point in my worrying about the next generation's problems if the parents of that generation are sticking their own heads in the sand ..."
Granted, you are speaking of yourself, but those of us with children - both fully grown and independent, and others still tiny tots - aren't so much sticking our heads in the sand, as we are being held down by the neck in said sand. Unless you are wealthy or connected, you have no say in anything. I looked into a run for the State House, and the idiocy and abandonment of principle that I would have had to do just to even be a viable candidate was enough to make it clear that what we want and what we're made to take are significantly different.
Yes, we homeschool.
And, no, I don't vote anymore. What's the point?
I'm glad I provoked you enough to coment, my "blanket statement " was intended to do just that. However choosing not to vote is a bad choice because that means you are giving up and that reaffirms my suggestion that it's up to you PARENTS to secure your children's future. I'll be dead in twenty years if I'm average.
Running for office involves more than throwing your name out there. getting elected require sgrass roots organizing, planning and strategy.
Remember that coporations you cannot affect- government you can and it takes speaking up and voting.
Whether or not voting matters needs to be weighed against the cost of voting. It's free and takes less time than filling out my NetFlix queue. Sifting through candidates isn't always as fun as picking movies but sometimes it is.
In the keys picking candidates is a headache.I had no idea who to vote for Sheriff last time, and Perryam clearly was the better candidate than my choice (Davis). Picking movies in Netflix is reminder of how pleasant it is to live in the Keys and not, say, the USVI or Mexico. Or Canada even. I wonder if they still trudge down to the video store?
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