Time For A Decision

Today we are striving for maximum technology and information at our
fingertips. We have mobile 'phones, personal computers, laptops,
Internet access for all. But what is our aim? Stereos and computer
monitors, clothes and cars get continually upgraded. The old ones
eventually follow their path into landfill sites. Some go directly. Can
we process these levels of information? Can the earth process this
level of waste?

We are not even operating a fair system. Look at our organisations: the
World Trade Organisation, the IMF, the World Bank. Look at the
discrepancies in our living standards. Look at our value systems. Even
the most humble or altruistic of us are chasing some level of status or
material gain over spirituality. Our expeditions 'into nature' are the
most base and selfish appreciations, using colossal amounts of air-jet
fuel, sometimes trampling delicate ecosystems and are experienced
purely to satisfy our appetites. Taking instead of interacting.

'So, what are we going to do?' is not quite the question. A better
question would be what are we not going to do? We do not want to reduce
our quality of life. We cannot regress. We have to refine and improve
upon the way we live, not completely dismantle it. We can start by
(depending on your priorities) fairly trading imported goods,
regulating international bodies and corporations, organic food
production, recycling our waste, switching to renewable energy,
rejecting advertising and making politicians accountable. Politicians
are not our managers, they are our representatives. If they refuse to
represent the interests of the electorate we should expel them. Our
strength as a society or community is being weakened by a constant
process of attrition. We are fragmenting. We are spending our time
documenting it and analysing it instead of doing anything about
it.

We need to accept more responsibility for our lives. We are becoming
complacent and lazy. The world around us has to work for the benefit of
everyone, and everything, in it. We need to remind ourselves that life
is not a competition, it is a collaboration.

At this point I see enough compassion and beauty in the world to redeem
it. Let's not leave it too late. Let's not make the mistake of thinking
it will resolve itself.

(c) 2001 Vincent Pollard