The Oil Spill is Only a Symptom

coberst

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The Oil Spill is Only a Symptom

The Gulf oil spill is a minor skin rash that is of great importance primarily because it signals us of the presence of a disease capable of destroying our civilization.

The herd is stampeding toward the cliffs and there is an unsophisticated horde of riders in the rear shooting and shouting in the attempt to drive the stampeding herd forward faster and faster. Only an intellectually sophisticated citizenry can comprehend and help cure the disease.

Caring is necessary for understanding; caring cannot begin until we first “feel” a necessity for caring. The skin rash of the oil spill can serve as that feeling.

I have for some time been interested in trying to understand what ‘understand’ means. I have reached the conclusion that ‘curiosity then caring’ is the first steps toward understanding. Without curiosity we care for nothing. Once curiosity is in place then caring becomes necessary for understanding. Understanding is a wok of art; it is a creation of meaning.

I suspect our first experience with ‘understanding’ may be our first friendship. I think that this first friendship may be an example of what Carl Sagan meant by “Understanding is a kind of ecstasy”.

I also suspect that the boy who falls in love with automobiles and learns everything he can about repairing the junk car he bought has discovered ‘understanding’.

I suspect many people go their complete life and never have an intellectual experience that culminates in the “ecstasy of understanding”. How can this be true? I think that our educational system is designed primarily for filling heads with knowledge and hasn’t time to waste on ‘understanding’.

Understanding an intellectual matter must come in the adult years if it is to ever come to many of us. I think that it is very important for an adult to find something intellectual that will excite his or her curiosity and concern sufficiently so as to motivate the effort necessary to understand.

Understanding does not come easily but it can be “a kind of ecstasy”.


I think of understanding as being a creation of meaning by the thinker. As one attempts to understand something that person will construct through imagination a model; like a papier-mâché of meaning.

Like an artist painting her understanding of something. As time goes by the model takes on what the person understands about that which is studied. The model is very subjective and you and I may study something for some time and we both have learned to understand it but if it were possible to project an image of our model they would be unidentifiable perhaps by the other. Knowledge has a universal quality but not always understanding.

Understanding is a tipping point, when water becomes ice, it is like a gestalt perception it may never happen no matter how hard we try. The unconscious is a major worker for understanding. Understanding is that rare occasion when there develops a conflation of emotion and intellection.

Often I find understanding waiting for me when I awaken one morning after months of searching and studying.
 
Far more than a minor skin rash coberst.

The pressures of these deep oil wells are far beyond the ability of present science to restrain.
The leak has also spread, due to fractures in the casing below ground and new leaks have emerged as far as 25 miles away.
The oil can follow fractures in the ground and enlarge them.
The oil itself is not the real problem (although it is still a big problem by itself), it is the toxic compounds which are present like benzene at over 3000 ppb (parts per billion) when the EPA safe is under 4 ppb. (this is only one of a number of toxic substances that are bubbling up in excess of safe limits, which is most likely why the clean up people are getting sick from exposure).
This, just before hurricane season.
So if there is a big storm expect toxic air and rain to blow far inland.
 
Far more than a minor skin rash coberst.

The pressures of these deep oil wells are far beyond the ability of present science to restrain.
The leak has also spread, due to fractures in the casing below ground and new leaks have emerged as far as 25 miles away.
The oil can follow fractures in the ground and enlarge them.
The oil itself is not the real problem (although it is still a big problem by itself), it is the toxic compounds which are present like benzene at over 3000 ppb (parts per billion) when the EPA safe is under 4 ppb. (this is only one of a number of toxic substances that are bubbling up in excess of safe limits, which is most likely why the clean up people are getting sick from exposure).
This, just before hurricane season.
So if there is a big storm expect toxic air and rain to blow far inland.



The problems that the world faces dwarf anything that this oil spill might cause. This lack of citizen’s appreciation regarding the problems that we face is in itself part of the great dangers on the horizon. If the citizens haven't the sophistication to "see" the problems then they certainly lack the sophistication to accept the short term sacrifices required.

The herd is stampeding toward the cliffs while a hoard of unsophisticated riders are shouting and shooting in the rear trying to drive the herd forward ever faster.
 

What is this disease to which I allude?

There is a chain of cause and effect in many things and it is difficult to determine the sui generis of this chain of reaction. I shall just take the present obvious effect to define our (American) disease to be our uncritical faith in laissez-faire capitalism.

An oligarchy controls public policy in America. The oligarchy consists of those who manage the great wealth of American institutions. This oligarchy designs our educational system to graduate good producers and consumers and does not desire independent thinkers.

CA (Corporate America) has developed a well-honed expertise in motivating the population to behave in a desired manner. Citizens as consumers are ample manifestation of that expertise. CA has accomplished this ability by careful study and implementation of the knowledge of the ways of human behavior. I suspect this same structure applies to most Western democracies.

A democratic form of government is one wherein the citizens have some voice in some policy decisions. The greater the voice of the citizens the better the democracy. The greater the intellectual sophistication of those citizens the better the democracy.

In America we have policy makers, decision makers, and citizens. The decision makers are our elected representatives and are, thus, under some control by the voting citizen. The policy makers are the leaders of CA; less than ten thousand individuals, according to those who study such matters. Policy makers exercise significant control of decision makers by controlling the financing of elections.

Policy makers customize and maintain the dominant ideology in order to control the political behavior of the citizens. This dominant ideology exercises the political control of the citizens in the same fashion as the consuming citizen is controlled by the same dominant ideology.

An enlightened citizen is the only means to gain more voice in more policy decisions. An enlightened citizen is much more than an informed citizen. Critical thinking is the only practical means to develop a more enlightened citizen. If, however, we wait until our CT trained grade-schoolers become adults I suspect all will be lost. This is why I think a massive effort must be made to convince today’s adults that they must train themselves in CT.


“Thomas R. Dye, Professor of Political Science at Florida State University, has published a series of books examining who and what institutions actually control and run America. to understand who is making the decisions that affect our lives, we also have to understand how societies structure themselves in general. Why the few always tend to share more power than the many and what this means in terms of both a society's evolution and our daily lives. they examined the other 11 institutions that exert just as powerful a shaping influence, although somewhat more subtle: The Industrial, Corporations, Utilities and Communications, Banking, Insurance Investment, Mass Media, Law, Education Foundation, Civic and Cultural Organizations, Government, and the Military.”
 
Severely and significantly cut government spending and patronage. Eliminate "legal person" status for corporations. Institute executions for bribery and inducement to corruption.
 
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