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Another polemic against despair
Aug. 20th, 2006 01:40 pmSomewhere in my archive of college papers is an article I read for a course called "Race, Gender, and Science Fiction," which claims that as a culture, we (Americans) are tired of life. The reason we so enjoy reading about Apocalypses, watching them in the movies, and so forth, according to the article, is that we harbor a secret desire for it all to be over.
My thinking is that, if true, this is a temporary psychological phenomenon, a sort of defense mechanism in reaction to the slow but perceptible decline of American power. And we need to get over it, because whether or not we're still "the leader of the free world" in twenty years' time, we will still be causing massive damage to the environment unless we wake up and decide to do something about it.
Of course, one of the causes of this cultural suicidalism, if it exists, is the idea that we're already too deep in our own mess to pull ourselves out again. Part of this sense of futility stems from a paralyzing guilt that environmentalists have played a large role in shaping.
So allow me to opine that the actions of ordinary Americans are not to blame for the damage technology has done to both the environment and human societies. Certainly there are grand, abstract root causes to these problems, but the immediate cause lies in the shortsighted policies of a few hundred top leaders in business and government. Representative democracy has this to be said for it: we can take a big step toward solving our social, political, and environmental problems simply by replacing our leaders with new ones who are willing to make a concerted effort to plan for the long term, even when the systems they work within tend to conspire against that purpose. (See this entry for a way to extend representative democracy to corporations as well as governments.)
My thinking is that, if true, this is a temporary psychological phenomenon, a sort of defense mechanism in reaction to the slow but perceptible decline of American power. And we need to get over it, because whether or not we're still "the leader of the free world" in twenty years' time, we will still be causing massive damage to the environment unless we wake up and decide to do something about it.
Of course, one of the causes of this cultural suicidalism, if it exists, is the idea that we're already too deep in our own mess to pull ourselves out again. Part of this sense of futility stems from a paralyzing guilt that environmentalists have played a large role in shaping.
So allow me to opine that the actions of ordinary Americans are not to blame for the damage technology has done to both the environment and human societies. Certainly there are grand, abstract root causes to these problems, but the immediate cause lies in the shortsighted policies of a few hundred top leaders in business and government. Representative democracy has this to be said for it: we can take a big step toward solving our social, political, and environmental problems simply by replacing our leaders with new ones who are willing to make a concerted effort to plan for the long term, even when the systems they work within tend to conspire against that purpose. (See this entry for a way to extend representative democracy to corporations as well as governments.)
