Sad for her people, sad for her country...

The end of winter brings the dregs of the psyche to the forefront for examination.  I am honored this February amidst the muck of the thaw to be engaged in home schooling a 15 year old ecologically concerned step daughter.  In an effort to suit our literary curriculum and her interests we have embarked on a reading list combining non-fiction and modern eco-fiction.  Starting with my old friend, a trip through utopia, Ecotopia by Ernest Callenbach. I gulped that up and downed his next book Ecotopia Emerging soon after.  Ralph Nader lends comment to both books that nothing in the text is beyond out technological reach.  This is all too true.  And depressing.  I will now embark, through this blog on a true act of inspired Carlinism, George Carlin, to be specific.  If I were president, queen of the country, elected by a desperate and devoted public and willing to make change and take change.  All movements start with a virus, a contagion that spreads cell to cell and host to host, I can only hope that I am both airborne and have a long incubation period and no hope for healing, but remain latent in the brain stem, until Ecotopia appears.

I start with the American, somewhat world wide, addiction to convenience and growth.  The only thing Americans fear is inconvenience.  This is a new fear, born of a rapidly industrializing nation and carried forth with fervor into the 21st century.  The other addiction, growth, is truly and definitively cancer.   How can we grasp a vision of life without electricity on demand, our own automobile, atm cards, cell phones, music anywhere, indoor plumbing (preferably tumbled Italian marble adorned)?  This is normal, our due, to be expected.  Since when?  This normal is not something handed down from our ancestors, this is new, 20 years ago and a bit more new.  70 years ago, a tv for every house a car for every person was laughable.  Where have we come from?  This addiction to petroleum, fossil fuels, and laziness are new, not even 100 years old, yet it is currently unimaginable to live without them.  How on earth would we survive?  Simply.  I really mean, simply.  If we are to survive on Earth, we will have to say goodbye, with great contrition and begging of pardon, to these ways.  If we have the means to negate our habitat and move on, perhaps we (some of us anyway) can keep eating our very limited ecosystem in this manner.  However, if we plan to remain on this planet, there will need to be change.  Our addiction to capitalism, consumerism and persistent growth GNP is a terminal cancer on the planet, one it is succumbing to currently.

I struggle to understand the 2700 square foot, 72 degree permaculture that is necessary to house the average 3.4 Americans.  It is nearly a declared habitat, made conveniently available to us by the likes of Toll Bros. Building and Design.  Unnatural by design and wasteful to an insane degree, if this is our ideal habitat what is with the rampant need for anti-depressants/stress/anger management?  I don't have to point out the lunacy much further in this post, I will dole it out in small samples over time.

The change starts here, electricity and gasoline rationing.  The end of job-related commuting.  Seeking peace with the economy at whatever growth rate keeps us truly nourished, not thriving as if we were melanoma greedily consuming our host protein by protein.  Americans, we will start our venture off the grid by providing you with 8 hours (kilowatt measured average for you geographical area) of electricity a day.  Time for some ciphering to see how much you are using and how much you need to save to keep that fridge running overnight.  You will receive 15 gallons of gas per driver's license in family.  No employer that has the ability to gain your services by telecommuting with be allowed to require you to appear in an office simply for time accounting.  Everyone knows this is better accomplished with software now anyway.  Teleconference, video conference, whatever you need, plenty of dark fiber exists to be awakened.  This will eliminate more than 80 percent of the gas stations, most Starbucks, Applebees, and other convenience foods and stores.  Gas rationing will put emphasis on location for business placement, all hail our locally owned establishments!!  Weekends are family time, 3 hours of power, find something else to do.  At any time power may be augmented with solar, wind, magnetic or pedal power.  This will operate on an inverter that feeds the grid and credits you for your contribution.  Kids, need a bit more tv time?  Hop on that old exercise bike, feed enough power in and you get a few more minutes of the boob tube, all it costs is calories.

What about those displaced workers from the convenience industries, malls, chain stores driven out of business.  Agriculture my friend, reconnect with the environment.  Agribusiness, thou hast been cut off.  No more petrochemical fertilizer or pesticides.  We are working on sustainable, local organic premise now.  No enormous combines, no 2000 acres of monoculture.  Here is your labor force, they are overweight and pasty, but sunshine and hard work will whip them right into shape.  They will hearken to their circadian rhythms and find a new peace.

Gone are the lawn mowers, gas powered weed whackers, chem lawn, edgers, trimmers and atv's.  There will be no ration for them.  If you have two acres in a subdivision, you have a micro farm.  Good thing too, the cost of food will be on the rise, but it will be worthy food, fair, just, nourishing fresh food.  If you choose not to farm your lawn, buy a scythe or watch it revert to native plantings.  This will help offset watershed and clean our streams.

To finish, I put forth one more thought.  An eye-opening discussion occurred with an 18 year old at my dinner table last night.  As a polite ask, I inquired as to plans for his car.  The car is rough, the young man in auto shop, it was a solid effort for communication.  He replied that he would denude it of it's catalytic converters and put straight pipes on for better loud sound quality.  I asked if he were planting a large organic garden to offset that particular carbon karmic nightmare.  He replied that he would be dead before any of this climate change nonsense came to bear.  I nodded.  I inquired as to the health of his children?  He has decided against kids at this point, so why not tear a new hole in the ozone?  This led me to inspiration.  If this man-child can now die for his country or kill the planet, should there not be a way or a choice that could make this more fair?  When signing up for the draft, you have one more choice, if you choose Petroleum Consumption Apathy, please step this way, we have a small surgical procedure for you.  If you choose not to leave a planet for children, then no children shall you leave.  Vasectomy, by choice, equals population decline. Beautiful, simple,those that continue to wreak ecological havoc shall no longer pass this opinion to their next generation.

Next up, health care, or maybe the prison systems/national trains, not sure...