Message-ID: <3.0.3.32.19971129065522.00faffe0@aloha.net> Date: Sat, 29 Nov 1997 06:55:22 -1000 From: Jay Hanson <mailto:j@QMAIL.COM> Subject: Personal suffering WILL BE IMPOSED To: mailto:DEVEL-L@AMERICAN.EDU
At 11:30 AM 11/29/97 +0300, Andres Ferreyra wrote:>After receiving Peter Ziegler's message to the list, I passed it on and it
>reached a forestry group in the National University here in Cordoba, which
>has found it to be of great interest / use. I personally thank Peter Ziegler
>for posting his message to the list and I sincerely hope other would-be
>posters don't feel threatened by the prospect of a flame.
Well, nothing is sustainable unless "land use" is regulated -- and of course it isn't. But Peter lives in Hawaii, so I don't need to tell him that.
Much as the grownups on this list would like to believe in Santa Claus, there is no sustainable version of "more of the same":
"As long as we remain trapped by the ideology of competitive growth, there is no solution. We are reminded of the South Indian monkey trap, in which a hollowed-out coconut is fastened to a stake by a chain and filled with rice. There is a hole in the coconut just large enough for the monkey to put his extended hand through but not large enough to withdraw his fist full of rice. The monkey is trapped only by his inability to reorder his values, to recognize that freedom is worth more than a handful of rice." Herman Daly, 1991
In sort, the ONLY alternative is a global change in values. Unfortunately, as economists remind us over and over, and as alcoholics demonstrate over and over, this only occurs through personal suffering.
Personal suffering WILL BE IMPOSED on global citizens when global oil production "peaks" in less than 10 years. Whether they will choose fight or switch, remains to be seen. ______________________ TIME, January 14, 1974 It looked like a hand grenade, so the Albany, N.Y., station operator played it safe and assumed that it was a hand grenade. He gave the man who was toting it all the gas he wanted. Attendants elsewhere last week faced curses and threats of violence, sometimes backed by suspicious bulges in the pockets of jackets. When a huge bear of a man warned a Springfield, Mass., dealer, "You are going to give me gas or I will kill you," the dealer squeezed his parched pumps to find some. "Better a live coward than a dead hero," he said.
Such incidents were not exactly common last week, but they occurred often enough, especially in the Northeast, to indicate an outbreak of a kind of gasoline madness. The New Year's weekend was the first time that many drivers became really desperate for gas. Many stations ran out of their monthly allotments as the weekend started and closed until they could get new deliveries after the holiday. Those that stayed open backed up long lines of drivers whose tempers sometimes exploded -- especially if they found the pumps dry when they finally got to them.
The gas shortage is sparking other types of deviant behavior. Flouting of the law is on the rise. In New York City, two gasoline tanks trucks, each loaded with 3,000 gallons, were hijacked within a week. Price gouging by station owners has become distressingly common. Miamians complain of having to pay $1 a gallon or being charged a $2 "service fee" before a station attendant will wait on them.
At best, many gas station owners and attendants have become unapproachable to strangers; they will wait only on longtime customers. Some issue window stickers to the regulars; others sell by appointment only. Oregon Governor Tom McCall last week rolled into a Union 76 station only to be told by the manager: "Sorry, Governor, we're only selling to our regular customers." So the Governor meekly drove to the end of the line at a nearby station that was taking all comers.
For more, see: FOSSILGATE: http://dieoff.org/page122.htm
Jay -- http://dieoff.org/page1.htm ----------------------------------------------------- Sustainable development both improves quality of life and retains continuity with physical conditions. To do both requires that social systems be equitable and physical systems circular. -----------------------------------------------------