People are again freaking out over an election. I didn’t like it in 2016 and don’t like it now. Thankfully, I’m not the kind to sit and watch. Good or bad, I’m probably going to say something. I won’t pick a side because I don’t believe a creative should dabble in politics. Art is about the human spirit and real things; politics are emphatically part of the illusion.
My family is deeply involved in Fundamentalism and mental illness. When I announced I was sitting this election out, there was all kind of screaming about my “not fighting communism.” I wanted to focus on hardening and developing my infrastructure. I didn’t want to root for a side like the election was the Super Bowl or something. I refer to it as the USSA since 2008. Socially, the average American is extremely worried about what others think. As a result, we might as well be a congealed mass at ground level.
I feel no connection to the hivemind. Yet, I can’t shake the empathy of seeing humans screaming in the street. They are upset over something that does not concern them. I’ve heard the meme that every election is the most important in our lifetime. However, I reject that idea. A government only matters if I recognize the authority of its laws. Since I decided I was ignoring all governments, elections are irrelevant.
I ignore which party sits at the top of the feces sundae. I ignore them because I ignore the whole steaming pile. I stay out of prison because 99.9% of my ethical code aligns with the laws of the land. I’m going to do what I’m going to do; laws and norms are just things I must work around. My chief concern in politics is trying to keep the bad idea from upstairs leaking here. Upstairs can have all the theocracy or communism it wants, and the hairless monkeys can scream for either option. None of it matters because all of that is for other humanoid things. My definition of reality stops at the town line, or my front door, if I’m grumpy. Beyond that is the concern of the drones and those born into better situations than I.
Collective action is a myth. Thus, any solution that involves it is fatally flawed. Take the Green movement. None of its goals will ever see fruition because it advocates forced, collective changes. Waving a magic wand and making everyone drive electric toy cars will only weaken the world economy. A dangerous moment does not need a species fighting with one hand behind its back.
In the public sphere, this happens too often. Merely pointing out a topic’s logical flaws will get the speaker labeled an “ist” or denier. I’ll be blunt. If I oppose something like breaking the world economy to save the planet, I usually have issues with the method. I do not object to the goals.
Tolkien nailed the best solution for the Green movement with the Ents in LOTR. Saruman (I just noticed how Arabic that name sounds) went evil. This happened when he started trying to dominate nature. He abandoned living in harmony with it. The line in the movies about Saruman having a mind made of metal and wheels is the whole idea. I don’t know if that’s in the books because Tolkien is so clunky that I forgot them right after reading. Still, the point stands. The problem isn’t carbon emissions. The problem is that most of the industrialized world uses a fictive instruction manual. This manual claims that man is to have dominion over the earth. This single line caused the entirety of the climate change question. We are part of the lifesphere. We should live in harmony with it, not just suck what we need from it without replacing anything.
The solution to the climate crisis requires encouraging people to think differently. This change means re-evaluating their relation to the natural world. This change in perspective is crucial. Good old boys out in the sticks know this. They blast Bambi’s mom but know not to dump motor oil in the fishing hole. I’m dismissive of solutions to the climate issue that sound like the urge to dominate nature in a different outfit.
[There are a hundred things we could discuss this point on, so I might do that in the coming entries. I plan to develop these entries into a book. The focus will be on navigating the utter insanity of the first quarter of the 2000s.]
Damon Kadam Unmasked 