Empathy vs. Pathology

Now that we have seen the beginning of the end of cheap oil, we can take pause. Last time oil blew past $100 per barrel, gas prices went up, food costs went up, businesses, dependent on energy, were shuttered, global economic catastrophe was imminent. Food riots took place in six countries. This is the tip of the iceberg. Passing peak oil means every gallon of crude oil that we bring within reach of refineries will cost more, as will the refining itself, transport of ensuing products, and ecological damage caused by the entire process will increase as well. Billions have been placed into the hands of those who had the most to lose as the shock wave went through our fragile economy. The facade got a good paint job, but flaws remain. In some cases, cracks have developed that extend through the entire basic structure of our energy hungry culture.

This current situation, to use a gardening metaphor, has been planned, planted, cultivated and is setting an inevitable fruit. When we begin from a place that theorizes that we are all competitive, brutish and self-serving, the tragedy of the commons is unavoidable. Cooperation has been cast as a hippie thing, for "pansies and flakes". Our "seed", purchased long ago, was the belief that people are inherently nasty, "sinful", greedy or at least selfish. Neuro-biology is finding that these inhumane traits only develop if our human organism is denied love and affection. From our recent past we have received bad ideas about ourselves which can only lead in bad directions. Think for a moment of the cover that this provided to individuals who had been hurt or neglected planet wide. In this context, if you were unlike the least among us, you were considered uppity, a know-it-all, "sensitive" (which was a code word for gay) or soft. The implication that only the strong survive aided those who were damaged, requiring massive financial rewards for dubious behavior.

The quantum shift required to understand this new reality puts group allegiances to the test. Rather than relationships based on financial benefit, social class or education, we are on the brink of creating world-wide community. Just look at the compassion that poured forth over the internet, measured in dollars, after the earthquakes in Haiti. The sugar industry has utilized the Haitian population as a ready source of labor for cane cutting. They may not be slaves in the way we might remember from colonial times, but one look at the poverty that lives there tells you that cutting cane cannot help one out of poverty, especially if they care about the welfare of their family, tribe or community. The pittance paid for risking life and limb only goes so far. Now, with the power of the internet, anyone, nearly anywhere in the world can read this passage. Our family has increased to the Nth degree.

Research that proves that we are loving, caring creatures is being squelched by the powers that be so that hostility and angst can rule the day. This easy out from responsibility only leads humans to strife and depraved narcissism. When we take a more caring tack, the welfare of our self is bound to the success of others, cohesive families and community. My own grandmothers passed away. One when I was a curious child, the other when I was trying to become a respectable young man. Both were taken by Cancer, both were a result of environmental contamination. I asked then, with my immature mind, why are my loving, loved ones being killed in such a way? I could see it clearly as sacrificially, to the God of profit. Unbridled capitalism created the the means to have money, and lives, flow away from the poor and into the hands of the rich who did not care who they hurt.

Many understand that we have a choice between love and fear. Oddly enough, this is the state of affairs that we find ourselves in today. We can fear the coming collapse of the world as we know it, pray for the end times, or make preparations for when we have to fight our neighbors for survival. These would be the obvious choices if we didn't understand the other side of the coin. That, my friends, is the part that we have exhibited so many times across the globe, and throughout time. The instinct to love one another, aid whenever possible, struggle together to beat insurmountable odds with style and grace. If you are out of practice, you may be a bit rusty, but through a series of tiny steps, we can find a way to grace. Tolerance, empathy, openness, understanding and sincere love and affection have the power to heal all wounds. we all need to become shanti-sena, peace warriors, we can no longer stay silent in the face of injustice. We must not abide abuse of any kind, or accept corruption and outdated thinking. Calvin was wrong when he said that good things, including wealth, come to good people and that the poor somehow deserve their fate.

At the dawn of the new age, we thought all of these things were new. After all, the word new was in the name. We are standing on the shoulders of giants. Every one of these thoughts are older than the hills. I'm just able to elucidate them here for you because of a fluke of electron processing, again, the result of standing on the shoulders of still more giants. Special thanks, and appreciation go out to my English teachers and the authors of the books I read as well. We have been cooperative since the dawn of time, and competitive for just a few thousand years. wildly so for only the last hundred or two, and unabashedly so for the past twenty to thirty years. We have the power to change. It truly is time for the people to lead and the leaders to follow.
Into the Light!