Thank goodness! I thought I’d never
find something to write about again. I feel like I’ve been doing
something of a bad job living like I want the future to be. On one
level it is laziness; on another, an intellectual indecisiveness. I
think this stems from not finding enough stimulating or compelling
ideas than the ones I already hold. I’m starting to move a little
more into the philosophical underpinnings of economics and politics
though, and how these play into how I may start conducting my life is
worth exploring.
The illusion of my “peaking” comes
from my being relatively healthy, fed, socially integrated, and
basically educated with access to a litany of wants my forefathers
could not have imagined. I see pushing the limits of peaking by
taking an aspect of our shared and giant basin of knowledge and doing
something so resoundingly useful or gratifying, and at the same time
obvious, that presumably nobody could have done it like me. When you
set yourself such a lofty goal, learning things for the sake of
dinner conversation or making money for a new toy seems futile. As a
result I lay dormant, get impatient with the little inefficiencies or
inconsistencies. I get distant because the world around me starts to
look more impeding, or complacent, than helpful.
Manipulating information can serve an
infinite purpose. Whether you’re trying to feed the world or simply
keep it hobbling along, you need to know the numbers. Increasingly,
you need to know the feelings and opinions because a significant
portion of your playing field denies things like heat melting ice.
But how do we quantify them and turn them into a mere variable we can
work with? How do I take this demoralizing and cynical view of our
future and genuinely start to believe there is a place, which can
have the humblest beginnings, and move forward? Hint: make it
personal.
I seem to only ever feel motivated by
data. When I learn the actual numbers of plankton we’d need to
cultivate to maintain safe levels of oxygen. When I can say it will
take X amount of hours to build so many green houses with the
capacity to move X amount of food to the X amount of places that are
still in need. But even there, things can be deceiving. It’s just
as important to get the numbers behind how fucked everything is. The
money, the amount and financial impact of legislation, the momentum
of public opinion, the actual count and access to resources, and the
unregulated and unaccountable interests in keeping the status quo.
This daunting task of counting,
reporting, displaying, and formulating a way of teaching is entirely
doable, but also potentially dangerous and likely easily corruptible.
Therefore, any system that attempted to create something of such
gravitas would have to not only need to use ongoing real time
information to predict future fallout, but need to be prepared for a
number of potentially distasteful courses of action if met with
certain kinds of resistance. In fact I suspect this is the main form
of deterrent for any overhaul of a so-named “system.” It would
have to be fundamentally illusive and accessible.
“Common sense” only applies when it
is in fact, common. If everyone were to take place in drawing a
picture of the world on a single white board, they would all have a
specific and common centerpiece in their description of it. You only
have to go so far as to create a Christian and a Muslim board to
cripple something mutually progressive. Here you can try to give
people a common enemy or struggle to squeeze ideas together that
appease enough of the people some of the time, but this only shuffles
the burden around and is terribly inefficient.
My current semi-solution is to put them
to work in smaller intermingling factions. There are very few things
people understand like bringing home the bacon or taking care of
their families. People understand it sucks to get sick and it sucks
to be hungry. Also, people are getting used to be connected to
everything, at all times, which has any number of consequences. If
you can plug them into an economy that gets them everything they need
and informs if not humbles them to their wants, you can focus on how
to keep it sustainable and enduring. Let them grow their own food.
Let them share infrequently used resources, Enable them to pursue the
various end games of their ideas.
Here’s where “overthrowing the
system” becomes ludicrous. Surely communes, co-opts, exchanges,
etc. have proven to be helpful steps in the right direction. Show me
how a small group of do-gooders recreates an Indiana University. How
many of them are members of the volunteer fire department, police
force, and teacher’s union? To ignore the federal and statutory
role is a fool’s game. Start your movements or be an example of a
different way to live, but if you genuinely concern yourself with the
big picture, you need to tackle each layer in a way that makes sense
of the ones above and below it.
The data will win if I can make it
digestible to people. I’ll be able to live with people holding
simply horrifying, ridiculous, and destructive ideas as long as I can
make them data points. The forms of human manipulation take on an
entirely different form at this point. Much as relatively current
trends of thought permeate our economic and social structure already,
I want to hijack that structure and shift it onto things that
actually work. Not my opinion of how they work, just what counting
and measurement say.
I want the coldest and most deliberate
look at what people are actually good for. It would help in judging
my action or lack thereof, and it may reformulate what we think of as
moral or necessary. One thing I’m certainly tired of hearing
though, is excuses. Whether it’s from myself or, more likely, from
others over the pettiest of shit, it’s a wonder I find time to
escape and think about the future at all.
I want to be an electric car driving,
home grown food eating, social primate who works in a manner
reflective of my effort and understanding who doesn’t need to take
undue advantage and make excuses for my well-being over someone else
who’s just as capable and likely wants the freedom to express
themselves, be healthy, and pursue their interests as well. I
currently can’t afford it, waste my time, engage with illogic and
antithetical dribble, am constrained by monetary obligations in an
overall society that plays by anything goes rules. I don’t know how
to avoid dipping my foot into the corruption where that heinous word
“compromise” comes out to play. Didn’t my government teach me
not to negotiate with terrorists?
