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It is the Antarctica summer and there is no miracles that would reverse the physics for that crack now, so let's stop panic for every a few miles of the process

It is the Antarctica summer and there is no miracles that would reverse the physics for that crack now, so let's stop panic for every a few miles of the procession and let the near future reality sink in -- when enough people do that, we may have hope. The last decade is the most progressive political period in US yet all we did is the worst damage to the climate crisis (on the flip side, how much worse could it be?). So let's face it, the political show does not really matter. Nothing will change until we crash and nature will force the change upon us. This is nothing new in the history and in a few millennia every thing will be renew and we will be forgotten (and forgiven). The inevitability is built into the large number theory. As long as there are too many drivers on the wheel and too many cooks in the kitchen, the average will rule the society and the average will always be shallow and near sighted. So before the actual crisis hit nearly every one, the society is incapable of change direction. In the analogy, money would be the gasoline and we have too many feet on that pedal. The market absolutely destroys any kind of responsibility. Meanwhile, passengers, either enjoy the ride or embrace yourself.

omegaworks 10y ago
In contrast to this advocacy of nihilism, hopelessness and apathy I offer a foil. Agitate. Get out in the streets and put your body on the line if you believe this is real. We are the worlds first experiment in self governace. We believe in government for the people, by the people. We can accomplish so much more by showing up and standing up for policy change. Exercise your right to assemble. Exercise your right to speak. Join. Donate. Walk. If you don't have a community of people around you willing to fight for this, make one. Host lecturers, host sign making jams, make art, make friends.
- hzhou321 10y ago
  Believing that Get out in the streets and put your body on the line will do anything is questionable. I don't share that belief. Reality gets sink in, not by watching TV or listening to activists. So for me, try to open my eyes and sort out my logic is the action to make. When enough people understand the reality without internal contradiction, the right action will show up. So I am acting on my belief, advocating truth and logic here.
  - omegaworks 10y ago
    "I had hoped that the white moderate would understand that law and order exist for the purpose of establishing justice and that when they fail in this purpose they become the dangerously structured dams that block the flow of social progress. I had hoped that the white moderate would understand that the present tension in the South is a necessary phase of the transition from an obnoxious negative peace, in which the Negro passively accepted his unjust plight, to a substantive and positive peace, in which all men will respect the dignity and worth of human personality. Actually, we who engage in nonviolent direct action are not the creators of tension. We merely bring to the surface the hidden tension that is already alive. We bring it out in the open, where it can be seen and dealt with. Like a boil that can never be cured so long as it is covered up but must be opened with all its ugliness to the natural medicines of air and light, injustice must be exposed, with all the tension its exposure creates, to the light of human conscience and the air of national opinion before it can be cured."[0] We speak and march to create visibility, to bring to light and make tangible the struggles that are hidden and quiet and disconnected. There's only so much typing messages into the infinite electric void can accomplish. Be careful to understand the difference between truth/logic and beliefs you choose to hold to keep you sheltered in your apathy. 0. https://www.africa.upenn.edu/Articles_Gen/Letter_Birmingham.html https://www.africa.upenn.edu/Articles_Gen/Letter_Birmingham....
- pdeuchler 10y ago
  > "Host lecturers, host sign making jams, make art, make friends." As if we needed more performative signaling today... I don't necessarily share GP's viewpoint but it's incredibly naive to assume that the US government isn't completely controlled by monied interests at this point... More than half of Trump's cabinet donated to Hillary Clinton's campaign. Furthermore, just being a whimsical, creative person doesn't wrest power from those who control our nation... the 60's and 70's pretty conclusively proved that if you needed evidence. If you want to take power from those who have it (which is the definition of enacting climate change legislation) then you literally have to take power. Given that money was used to move power away from the people, it seems a good place to start in taking it back.
  - omegaworks 10y ago
    "Actually, we who engage in nonviolent direct action are not the creators of tension. We merely bring to the surface the hidden tension that is already alive. We bring it out in the open, where it can be seen and dealt with. Like a boil that can never be cured so long as it is covered up but must be opened with all its ugliness to the natural medicines of air and light, injustice must be exposed, with all the tension its exposure creates, to the light of human conscience and the air of national opinion before it can be cured."[0] Whimsy is not what I advocated. If that's how it came across perhaps I chose my words imperfectly. I'm trying to figure out secular, modern ways of building community. MLK used the power of religion to build and sustain his movement. And to pretend that it didn't successfully create change is historical revisionism. 0. Letter from Birmingham Jail - Martin Luther King https://www.africa.upenn.edu/Articles_Gen/Letter_Birmingham.html https://www.africa.upenn.edu/Articles_Gen/Letter_Birmingham....
    - hzhou321 10y ago
      Except this time the tension is between nature and human. The activists do not necessarily bring that tension more to the surface than muddling it with societal tensions.
    - pdeuchler 10y ago
      You'll find Dr. King's approach was a heck of a lot more than "trying to raise awareness", or "building communities". I do not think it is just an odd coincidence that most people have forgotten the economic, political, and social militancy that came with the Civil Rights movement in favor of a disney-ified[0] version where mere marches, willpower, and belief in a certain set of principles caused widespread change. [0] http://inthesetimes.com/article/14524/santa_clausifying_martin_luther_king_jr http://inthesetimes.com/article/14524/santa_clausifying_mart...
- ende 10y ago
  The problem with "for the people, by the people" is that most of the people want just the former and not the later. They want to tell some other people how to govern for them and then return to staring at their iphone.
- anigbrowl 10y ago
  Yes, remember how we stopped the Iraq war? Oh wait.... http://www.thepaincomics.com/weekly050525a.htm http://www.thepaincomics.com/weekly050525a.htm What you're recommending is a way to feel good without achieving anything. Nobody in power gives a shit about protests unless they become overwhelmingly large and people are willing to die en masse. Also, we are not the world's first experiment in self-governance. that's a bedtime story for people who don't read history books.
  - omegaworks 10y ago
    Fine. The world's oldest, still functioning experiment in self-governance :) Maybe if I add more qualifiers to it you'll see past that quibble for the larger point.
theseadroid 10y ago
What about educating the whole population to the point that the average joe can think logically, critically, and independently so that the society as a whole can adapt change better? And it's not like we haven't seen that the average person can make better decisions because of education, than medieval age lets say. Maybe we just need faster ways to improve the population.
- plussed_reader 10y ago
  Not with Betsy Blackwater at the helm; if she does anything other than weaken public education at the benefit of the various charter systems, I will be deeply surprised.
- hzhou321 10y ago
  Of course that is the solution. The question is how? To be specific, what actually should we educate the population? We should differentiate knowledge from intelligence or wisdom. Knowledge can be fake, misleading, or contradictory. We have more knowledge and access of information than medieval age typical Joe, but do we have more intelligence or wisdom? To make the comparison easier, do we have more intelligence and wisdom than Plato (whom I am certain that we possess more knowledge)?
  - theseadroid 10y ago
    This is a large topic and I've been thinking for a while. In essence, there are 2 major things we need to educate more. 1. Science. To the point that average joe understands that the prediction of climate change is concluded from the same scientific methods that helped us finding cures for diseases, inventing computers, and sending people to the moon. Science is not always perfect the same as we dont always have perfect cure for some diseases at the moment. But that is the best we can do for now, and it's the work of many experts over many years. So it is logical to either believe it or contribute to it scientifically, financially, auditing-wise, or something else. After all we believe in scientists not because that they have the title, but because we believe in scientific methods, in scientific approach. 2. Social science. Pure science is about causality. Social science can teach us value, what is good, what is bad, and happiness. Then we can discuss whether not acting upon climate change will make you more happy or less happy.

omegaworks 10y ago

In contrast to this advocacy of nihilism, hopelessness and apathy I offer a foil. Agitate. Get out in the streets and put your body on the line if you believe this is real. We are the worlds first experiment in self governace. We believe in government for the people, by the people. We can accomplish so much more by showing up and standing up for policy change. Exercise your right to assemble. Exercise your right to speak. Join. Donate. Walk. If you don't have a community of people around you willing to fight for this, make one. Host lecturers, host sign making jams, make art, make friends.

hzhou321 10y ago
Believing that Get out in the streets and put your body on the line will do anything is questionable. I don't share that belief. Reality gets sink in, not by watching TV or listening to activists. So for me, try to open my eyes and sort out my logic is the action to make. When enough people understand the reality without internal contradiction, the right action will show up. So I am acting on my belief, advocating truth and logic here.
- omegaworks 10y ago
  "I had hoped that the white moderate would understand that law and order exist for the purpose of establishing justice and that when they fail in this purpose they become the dangerously structured dams that block the flow of social progress. I had hoped that the white moderate would understand that the present tension in the South is a necessary phase of the transition from an obnoxious negative peace, in which the Negro passively accepted his unjust plight, to a substantive and positive peace, in which all men will respect the dignity and worth of human personality. Actually, we who engage in nonviolent direct action are not the creators of tension. We merely bring to the surface the hidden tension that is already alive. We bring it out in the open, where it can be seen and dealt with. Like a boil that can never be cured so long as it is covered up but must be opened with all its ugliness to the natural medicines of air and light, injustice must be exposed, with all the tension its exposure creates, to the light of human conscience and the air of national opinion before it can be cured."[0] We speak and march to create visibility, to bring to light and make tangible the struggles that are hidden and quiet and disconnected. There's only so much typing messages into the infinite electric void can accomplish. Be careful to understand the difference between truth/logic and beliefs you choose to hold to keep you sheltered in your apathy. 0. https://www.africa.upenn.edu/Articles_Gen/Letter_Birmingham.html https://www.africa.upenn.edu/Articles_Gen/Letter_Birmingham....
pdeuchler 10y ago
> "Host lecturers, host sign making jams, make art, make friends." As if we needed more performative signaling today... I don't necessarily share GP's viewpoint but it's incredibly naive to assume that the US government isn't completely controlled by monied interests at this point... More than half of Trump's cabinet donated to Hillary Clinton's campaign. Furthermore, just being a whimsical, creative person doesn't wrest power from those who control our nation... the 60's and 70's pretty conclusively proved that if you needed evidence. If you want to take power from those who have it (which is the definition of enacting climate change legislation) then you literally have to take power. Given that money was used to move power away from the people, it seems a good place to start in taking it back.
- omegaworks 10y ago
  "Actually, we who engage in nonviolent direct action are not the creators of tension. We merely bring to the surface the hidden tension that is already alive. We bring it out in the open, where it can be seen and dealt with. Like a boil that can never be cured so long as it is covered up but must be opened with all its ugliness to the natural medicines of air and light, injustice must be exposed, with all the tension its exposure creates, to the light of human conscience and the air of national opinion before it can be cured."[0] Whimsy is not what I advocated. If that's how it came across perhaps I chose my words imperfectly. I'm trying to figure out secular, modern ways of building community. MLK used the power of religion to build and sustain his movement. And to pretend that it didn't successfully create change is historical revisionism. 0. Letter from Birmingham Jail - Martin Luther King https://www.africa.upenn.edu/Articles_Gen/Letter_Birmingham.html https://www.africa.upenn.edu/Articles_Gen/Letter_Birmingham....
  - hzhou321 10y ago
    Except this time the tension is between nature and human. The activists do not necessarily bring that tension more to the surface than muddling it with societal tensions.
  - pdeuchler 10y ago
    You'll find Dr. King's approach was a heck of a lot more than "trying to raise awareness", or "building communities". I do not think it is just an odd coincidence that most people have forgotten the economic, political, and social militancy that came with the Civil Rights movement in favor of a disney-ified[0] version where mere marches, willpower, and belief in a certain set of principles caused widespread change. [0] http://inthesetimes.com/article/14524/santa_clausifying_martin_luther_king_jr http://inthesetimes.com/article/14524/santa_clausifying_mart...
ende 10y ago
The problem with "for the people, by the people" is that most of the people want just the former and not the later. They want to tell some other people how to govern for them and then return to staring at their iphone.
anigbrowl 10y ago
Yes, remember how we stopped the Iraq war? Oh wait.... http://www.thepaincomics.com/weekly050525a.htm http://www.thepaincomics.com/weekly050525a.htm What you're recommending is a way to feel good without achieving anything. Nobody in power gives a shit about protests unless they become overwhelmingly large and people are willing to die en masse. Also, we are not the world's first experiment in self-governance. that's a bedtime story for people who don't read history books.
- omegaworks 10y ago
  Fine. The world's oldest, still functioning experiment in self-governance :) Maybe if I add more qualifiers to it you'll see past that quibble for the larger point.

theseadroid 10y ago

What about educating the whole population to the point that the average joe can think logically, critically, and independently so that the society as a whole can adapt change better? And it's not like we haven't seen that the average person can make better decisions because of education, than medieval age lets say. Maybe we just need faster ways to improve the population.

plussed_reader 10y ago
Not with Betsy Blackwater at the helm; if she does anything other than weaken public education at the benefit of the various charter systems, I will be deeply surprised.
hzhou321 10y ago
Of course that is the solution. The question is how? To be specific, what actually should we educate the population? We should differentiate knowledge from intelligence or wisdom. Knowledge can be fake, misleading, or contradictory. We have more knowledge and access of information than medieval age typical Joe, but do we have more intelligence or wisdom? To make the comparison easier, do we have more intelligence and wisdom than Plato (whom I am certain that we possess more knowledge)?
- theseadroid 10y ago
  This is a large topic and I've been thinking for a while. In essence, there are 2 major things we need to educate more. 1. Science. To the point that average joe understands that the prediction of climate change is concluded from the same scientific methods that helped us finding cures for diseases, inventing computers, and sending people to the moon. Science is not always perfect the same as we dont always have perfect cure for some diseases at the moment. But that is the best we can do for now, and it's the work of many experts over many years. So it is logical to either believe it or contribute to it scientifically, financially, auditing-wise, or something else. After all we believe in scientists not because that they have the title, but because we believe in scientific methods, in scientific approach. 2. Social science. Pure science is about causality. Social science can teach us value, what is good, what is bad, and happiness. Then we can discuss whether not acting upon climate change will make you more happy or less happy.