I have always liked the slogan “Think globally, act locally”. Here is my contribution to it.
Think globally
This involves seeing things communally and radically, and also intensely.
Facing the future
I am running out of simple solutions for facing the future, but I do have some questions.
There is a storm brewing at the Experimental Farm. Plans are afoot to use 43 acres to build a world-class hospital there. It will be a massive structure, complete with 20 acres of parking, including a four-story parking garage. It will be a car driver’s paradise. No more tedious searching for that last limited parking space. To build this hospital, many trees will need to be sacrificed, about 600 by a recent count.
A good friend sent me a YouTube clip about a global quest to produce non-polluting energy.
I responded as follows...
---
Hi John,
Interesting indeed. A fine example of the hope that "technology will save us". Nuclear fusion is definitely the supreme hope of these attempts. In theory, it is very appealing, but in practice it is most likely not achievable.
As a technologist myself, it is not easy to say that technology will NOT save us here. Why?
Imagine that we are on the Titanic….
Life is good. The champagne flows freely. We are having a wonderful trip. We are enjoying ourselves in good company. We are happy. We are in a positive mood. And then…
The ship’s captain appears and says, “Ladies and Gentlemen, we have just received information that to the best of our knowledge we are heading into an iceberg. Our best scientific data tells us that with a high level of probability, if we do not change course immediately, we are heading into a disaster!”
The weather is changing. We now have increased flooding in Europe and China, increased wildfires in Australia, Canada and the USA, and increased droughts in the western USA and the Sahel region of Africa. Things are not normal.
Every once in a while one comes across something that gives hope in a troubled world. Here is one that I have found. You may be interested in some of the powerful short videos in www.syriankids.ca .
There is in the Western religious world, a school of thought called the Course in Miracles (CiM). This teaching stresses inner peace and comfort, to the disdain of outer events and circumstances. This religious philosophy has various variations, such as for example, Christian Science.
Versions of this inner mysticism have arisen in other cultures and religions. The main characteristics are the seeking of inner peace to the exclusion of external circumstances, which are de-emphasized. It is the spiritualizing of everything. It is not so much anti-science but the going beyond science by neglecting the reality of the material world in seeking to fathom the deeper meaning of existence. However, this trend of thought can lead to religious fantasy. It can lead into an uncertain future. Neglecting clear warnings about the degradation of the physical world is the ultimate flaw of extreme inner mysticism.
See below some of my thoughts on this recurring religious tendency.
