A lifetime is but a moment in the history of evolution but hindsight is foresight, and to integrate history past and emerging wisdom leaves us in one of the greatest positions ever to upturn the downward ecological spiral that we are now in.
Our present political system is totally hostile to life, lacking the will or ability to adapt or change. Our system has become immune to the long-term wishes or needs of the people. Our present system has blindly placed our politicians in the position of predator, with the tax axe more randomly wielded and wildly slashed than the fangs of a starving wolf pack.
I have long been recalcitrant in scribing my accumulated thoughts with regard to the downward spiral upon which our political powers that be are blindly leading us. But fact is fact and fiction is not my addiction.
The intelligence of the man on the street is not that of a rocket scientist, but they have known, in both mind and heart, for a very long time that something is very wrong with civilizations that keep plunging headlong into disaster after disaster.
Technology was intended to make the world a better place but instead, wielded by fools, it is used to enslave and destroy. We have muddled through both nuclear (Hiroshima) and biological war in Vietnam (AIDS, though not admitted), risking species destruction, and are now wading waist-deep in the total destruction of the air we breathe, the water we drink and the foods that nourish our bodies. And family life, as we once knew it, is now being torn into shreds. Those facts terrify me.
It is not unusual for most people to avoid this terror by restricting their awareness through the use of alcohol, drugs or simply withdrawing from full awareness.
But this is not a long-term survival choice and must change. We must no longer be complicit; this trend must be opposed. Whatever final fate awaits mankind is also the fate of you, your family, friends and all future generations.
The situation has changed; there is no longer anywhere to run. We have zero choice, the threats are planetary. I hate clichés, but the basic survival choice of “fight or flight” is no longer optional. It has been reduced to fight.
“If you can’t beat them join them” is also obsolete, because their present trend leads to self-destructions, placing all future generations in the strongest of jeopardy.
This country was founded with the skilful manual art of the broad axe, squaring the giant timbers that built our nation.
But now the foundation upon which it was structured is being severed by the razor-sharp edge of the tax axe. When the tax burden whittles the source from which it comes by 50 per cent and greater, it has the potency to cripple any intelligent person to the point of despondency and despair. This must be reversed.
We must escape the physician manipulation by the multinational pharmaceutical profit seekers. We must escape the pesticide manufacture’s profit oriented grip on our food growers.
Our hospitals and nursing homes should abort the dependency on volunteer help, most of whom, though well intentioned, are ill trained and grossly incompetent through no fault of their own.
Kitchen gardens and farm gate purchases should not be a thing of the past; their support and encouragement should be a priority. Wetlands and environmentally sensitive areas should no longer be ignored.
Jumping on the green bandwagon should be given more serious thought and definite careful consideration, no longer the flaunting charade that is now little more than political pantomime.
There are times when I feel that I am preaching to the choir, not to the audience. But truth lies in history. Is it perhaps not time that we learn by sighting mistakes repeated worldwide?
Cannot Canada, by gentle persuasion and assistance be the “Show How” that leads the world? Am I wrong in thinking that Canada can? Am I wrong in thinking that world peace is possible?
Take care, ‘cause we care.
barrie@barriehopkins.ca
519-843-4544