{"id":3135,"date":"2020-06-17T23:44:54","date_gmt":"2020-06-18T05:44:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/modernfimily.com\/?p=3135"},"modified":"2020-12-09T23:22:53","modified_gmt":"2020-12-10T06:22:53","slug":"the-black-elephant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/modernfimily.com\/the-black-elephant\/","title":{"rendered":"Greed: The Black Elephant"},"content":{"rendered":"

I truly am saddened to see the world we are currently living in.\u00a0 Greed and corruption are destroying the Earth.\u00a0 For generations, we have been dumping our liabilities onto the next generation to deal with.\u00a0 I totally understand why people are choosing not to have children.\u00a0 What kind of world are we setting up for our future generations?<\/p>\n

Much of the western world was built on capitalism. We assume that we are entitled to as great a share of the world’s resources that our money can buy.\u00a0 Where did this idea stem from?\u00a0 European men of property.\u00a0 Settlers pillaged the native people of the land, enslaved other humans, and their labor became part of the settlers (and their descendants) rights.\u00a0 I come from a European background and it saddens me to know that I am part of the problem.<\/p>\n

If you think this concept only existed hundreds of years ago and we’ve moved on, you’re wrong.\u00a0 Thanks to globalization, our insatiable quest for more, more, more continues to reach more remote parts of the world.\u00a0 We continue to exploit others.<\/p>\n

And nowadays, we seem fixated on low costs over high quality so the things we buy are being made so poorly that they only only seem to last a limited time until we’re back to the stores to buy another low-quality item.\u00a0 What a great cycle…<\/p>\n

We never seem to have enough.\u00a0 Man has become a cancer on the Earth and if we do not change our ways, we will not be able to undo what we have done (many can argue that it’s already too late as this year’s Earth’s Overshoot Day<\/a> is August 22, 2020).\u00a0 We need to get the dollar signs out of our eyes.\u00a0 We need to start seeing what is really important.\u00a0 We must make the hard changes that need to be made.\u00a0 Now.<\/p>\n

How We Broke the World<\/h2>\n

One of my besties sent me a wonderful NY Times article, How We Broke the World<\/a>, and it struck a major chord with me and I found myself nodding the whole time.\u00a0 You may not have a NY Times subscription to be able to read this so I wanted to provide a summary and my take on the piece. This quote pretty much sums it up:<\/p>\n

“We created globalized networks because they could make us more efficient and productive and our lives more convenient.\u00a0 But when you steadily remove their buffers, backup capacities and surge protectors in pursuit of short-term efficiency or just greed, you ensure that these systems are not only less resistant to shocks, but that we spread those shocks everywhere.”<\/p>\n

The author used the curious term \u201cblack elephant\u201d, attributing it to the London-based investor and environmentalist Adam Sweidan.\u00a0 I had never heard of this before but the term crosses two already familiar expressions.\u00a0 One is \u201cblack swan\u201d – a metaphor that describes an event that comes as a surprise, has a major effect, and is often inappropriately rationalized after the fact with the benefit of hindsight.\u00a0 The other term is \u201celephant in the room\u201d – a metaphorical idiom for an important or enormous topic, question, or controversial issue that is obvious or that everyone knows about\u00a0but nobody seriously addresses out of fear or embarrassment.<\/p>\n

Sweidan\u2019s examples of \u201cblack elephants\u201d were environmental and included global warming, ocean acidification, and pollution of water supplies.\u00a0 To address these issues on the required scale, Sweidan said, would profoundly disrupt current political activity.\u00a0 So what do we do?\u00a0 We ignore them.\u00a0 A black elephant is therefore something that changes everything, but which no-one wants to deal with.\u00a0 The article talks about 9\/11, The Great Recession, COVID-19, and Climate Catastrophes as other black elephant events.<\/p>\n

And what’s the cause of these black elephants in the room?\u00a0 Greed.\u00a0 Profits.\u00a0 Short sighted goals.\u00a0 We are the problem.\u00a0 We need to admit it.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Confessions of an Economic Hitman<\/h2>\n

I recently read Confessions of an Economic Hitman<\/a> by John Perkins who provided his real life stories of a young man who became drawn into international finance and had the role of convincing developing countries (particularly the leaders of these countries) to take out loans that are so huge that their countries will never be able to repay them. These “hit men” do this so as to ensure that these countries become satellites orbiting the American Empire and the “corporatocracy”.\u00a0 His job was to make these countries compliant, dependent, and endlessly economically exploitable.<\/p>\n

The basic gist is that he went to other countries promising the growth of their economy if they contracted engineers and workers from the US to install infrastructures such as electricity and running water.\u00a0 It looks like a great idea to the government because they are “helping” their people by creating a better economy.\u00a0 In the long run, the rich get richer (the very few rich of course) and the poor get poorer.\u00a0 The country becomes indebted to the companies that helped install the infrastructures and are at the United States’ mercy.<\/p>\n

Perkins asserts that the economic hit men were potentially only phase one of what could become a three phase attack on the democratic rights and independence of foreign nations.\u00a0 If convincing the leaders of countries to sign massive loans they could never repay didn\u2019t work, then the jackals (aka CIA) were sent in to kill selected targets and to create mayhem that would ensure the \u2018right\u2019 people would be put into power.\u00a0 If this didn\u2019t work, then US troops were sent in.\u00a0 He gives instance after instance of where this pattern was applied in Latin America, the Middle East and Asia over a period of about three decades.\u00a0 It is hard to read this book from anywhere in the first world without feelings of responsibility, disgust and self-loathing.\u00a0 He reminds us continually that our lavish and unsustainable life style is only possible by the exploitation of large parts of the globe. We’re talking modern day colonialism to exploit resources.<\/p>\n

Read the book.\u00a0 Be disgusted.\u00a0 Erase your ignorance.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Planet of The Humans<\/h2>\n

Michael Moore is at it again and created his latest documentary, Planet of the Humans<\/a>, which is available for free on YouTube.<\/p>\n

The overall takeaway of this film is how corruption and greed are destroying the world we live in.\u00a0 I agree wholeheartedly with that overall thesis.\u00a0 But the way this film was laid out was twisted to instead state that renewable energy is tied to corporate power which is corrupt and causing many issues.\u00a0 As someone who has worked in the energy industry for all of my career, a majority of that in the renewable space, this film left me very angered as the majority of the footage dates to a time when the energy industry looked much different.\u00a0 Anyone in the power sector knows that there have been so\u00a0<\/strong>many changes that have evolved at a breakneck pace since 2010.\u00a0 Rather than turn this whole post into a rant on the film, check out this Forbes review<\/a> – I agree with much of the information in here.\u00a0 Are renewable energy companies trying to make money just like any other company out there?\u00a0 Yes, of course.\u00a0 Will renewable energy solve our planet’s issues?\u00a0 No.\u00a0 We consume WAY too much.\u00a0 We need to curb our consumption.\u00a0 That’s the overall point of the film but it was not presented well in my opinion.<\/p>\n

The film ends with “There is a way out of this: we humans must accept that infinite growth on a finite planet is suicide.\u00a0 We must accept that our human presence is already far beyond sustainability, and all that it implies.\u00a0 We must take control of our environmental movement and our future, from billionaires and their permanent war on planet Earth.\u00a0 Less must be the new more.\u00a0 Instead of climate change, we must at long last accept that it’s not the carbon dioxide molecule destroying the planet – it’s us.”\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

This – yes.\u00a0 The narrative of the film to get to this point – no.<\/p>\n

Black Lives Matter<\/h2>\n

Team all of the above up with the inequality that still exists in this world, which is being highlighted yet again, and my anger and frustration with the whole system that we live in continues to boil.<\/p>\n

This is not just an issue of black people versus law enforcement.\u00a0 Note that I am not excusing horrible racist acts of some police members.\u00a0 \u00a0I am also not saying law enforcement are above the law.\u00a0 In my humble opinion, the solution is not to de-fund the police.\u00a0 Do we really want to live in Gotham City? The large majority of law enforcement members are amazing people who truly care to protect and serve the world we live in.<\/p>\n

This is a MUCH deeper issue that involves hundreds of years of suppression.\u00a0 Racist ideas did not arise from ignorance or hatred.\u00a0 They were created to justify and rationalize deeply entrenched discriminatory policies.<\/p>\n

The first step in the right direction is to acknowledge that white Americans built up their wealth hundreds of years ago through exploitation of Native Americans and enslaved labor of Africans.\u00a0 Once slavery was abolished in 1865 (happy Juneteenth), things did not suddenly become equal for people of color.\u00a0 You’ve got to be living under a rock to think that’s true.\u00a0 African Americans have been oppressed for HUNDREDS OF YEARS which has significantly created a larger and larger disparity of wealth among blacks and whites.\u00a0 The same logic applies to settlers who exploited the native and aboriginal people living there.\u00a0 Native Americans have encountered inequality and injustice for generations.\u00a0 Don’t blame the police, blame the YEARS of a wrong and broken system.<\/p>\n

And what was the cause of all of this?\u00a0 What do ya know…. greed. At it again. White people used other people to make money.\u00a0 It’s as simple as that.\u00a0 The gap has widened after each generation and racist roots and a lack of empathy have been ingrained over lifetimes.<\/p>\n

Educate yourself.\u00a0 Educate others.\u00a0 Use your voice and your vote. Don’t be silent.<\/strong><\/p>\n