It's all been said.

But there was no need to be ashamed of tears, for tears bore witness that a man had the greatest of courage, the courage to suffer.
― Viktor E. Frankl, Man's Search for Meaning

Well, it's Monday.

For me that means I'm back in harness, sitting here waiting for the day to unfold and doing my early-morning thing.

I've enjoyed the break. 

A few days of rest and recuperation — and a bit of eating! — has been nice and very welcome given the shi*fest of 2020.

Today's post is reasonably short; namely, it's all been said before.

You know that.

So why then is it we're overwhelmed with all this consumer-driven content, books that we'll never read (even though a few keep whispering to us) and the unease of knowing, perhaps, that something's amiss with this world and the one waiting for the next generation?

I didn't like history at School — or much else. I realise, now, that that was because I wasn't able to study the 20th Century, which is really where I think all or a lot of the damage was done to this once great planet — if not exclusively in its modus operandi, then certainly in its cultural narrative. I'm trying to make up for lost time; and having started to dig a bit deeper into our 20th-Century past, I see how all the foreboding that lingers and is espoused now was previously opined on. I can't know if the compass was exactly the same (I'm thinking specifically about climate change) but there was more than a slow, oracular message to enable everyone to get with the earth-saving et al. programme but they never did. Indeed, when I came into the world, my parents expected me to succeed where they'd failed particularly in and across the material plane. And look where that's got us.

So what you might ask?

Well, as I tweeted on Saturday:

Does that mean our present situation is hopeless? I'm not sure I'm qualified to answer that question but to my mind hope is not what we need. All that suggests is that now isn't good enough, which seems more of an escape than a way to mobilise effort — if that's what hope is supposed to engineer. If anything, I feel that we don't need any more information, exhortation (guilt-riven as it often is) but instead (and I say this as someone who needs to practice more what I preach) it's time to walk our collective earth-saving talk. Of course, that's not the only issue that might be keeping us awake at night but, speaking personally, all the rest of the issues pale into insignificance when, absent an habitable planet, we simply won't be alive or our lives will be so diminished that opining on all those 'must-haves' will have very little meaning.

One last thing. Having considered (but not in nearly enough detail) the link between the corporate vehicle and capitalism, I've come to realise that no amount of end-user conduct — e.g. recycling, buying green and consuming less — is going to halt the terminal decline of the earth. Somehow, we have to persuade government, policymakers, the bankers, the capitalists and the greed masters and mistresses to see that the neoliberal project hasn't just had its day, it's killing us all. If you need a striking example of this, it can be found in the evidence that shows that 100 COMPANIES ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR 71% OF GHG EMISSIONS. 

Now I realise that's a crude example of my point particularly when we all rely on, in one way or another, capital and the corporate entity to sustain our lives but then again, if not shareholder or consumer action, how else are we going to get these behemoths and their Boards to wake up and smell the rotting corpse that they're creating?

Anyhow, enough of my doom and extra gloom for a Monday. Have a good one.

Until tomorrow.

Take care, Ju. 

Photo by Bernardo Lorena Ponte on Unsplash

If you're able to support my work then I've put up a 'support' page on my main website. Thank you in advance; even a small amount helps me continue to write these blogs and maintain my site.