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I saw a man squash a small bug that passed by him.
I asked him, “Why?”
“Why not?”, he replied…
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“Why not?” is a answer born in unconsciousness. It reflects a decision to act without awareness. To be unaware, is to be unconscious, in a world created by consciousness.
Prior to the adoption of the automobile in the US, gasoline was considered a by-product of Kerosene production. They used to dump it out. At that time whale blubber was still a major lighting source, and Kerosene was one of the few alternatives.
Now petroleum products power 90% of the vehicles on our planet. Petroleum derived fuel has done more to shrink the globe and shape the map, than anything that preceded it.
When automobiles were first introduced, they were powered by three different types of engines: internal combustion, steam, and electric. The high availability of cheap petroleum helped the internal combustion engine become the universal choice. Now petroleum powers everything from supersonic jets, to scooters.
Everywhere you go, petroleum takes you there. Everything you eat, petroleum transported to you. Everything you wear was shipped from somewhere. Everything you buy traveled by truck. You can’t escape it. Its influence is woven invisibly into the fabric of our society.
But petroleum is a finite resource. They don’t make it, they drill for it; they pull it out of the earth. There is only so much of it in there to begin with, and demand has never been higher. Developing nations like China and India, have a ravenous appetite for petroleum power. Global demand is escalating.
When demand for a finite resource increases, the cost for that resource increases. Petroleum was cheap when we were the only buyer. Now that there is global demand, the days of cheap fossil fuels are over.
The 20th century saw the world shrink, as petroleum fueled cars, jets, and ships made transportation cheaper and more plentiful than it had ever been. In the petroleum fueled transportation boom of the 20th century it became possible to produce something in one place, and then transport it anywhere in the world. For the first time in history, you could grow food, and house livestock, in large factory farms. You could build cheap goods on one side of the planet, and ship them to buyers on the other. We became increasingly disconnected from the conditions in which the things we buy are produced.
The late 20th century saw the beginning of another boom. The communication boom. Powered by petroleum transportation, we were able to build a communications network that spans the globe. Information was decoupled from its medium, and transmitted within this network. Communication that would have previously taken months to travel physically around the world, could be transmitted instantly. The world shrank again.
We began to see that there were horrible things hiding behind thousand mile long supply chains: child labor, factory farm conditions, environmental catastrophes. We began to see that the cost of petroleum is higher than economics alone can explain. The ugliness that underpins our consumerism, the ugliness that petroleum allowed us to outsource, can no longer be ignored as it screams back at us on our global communication networks.
The cost of gas is higher than it has ever been, and is only rising. It is afterall, a finite resource. As the cost of transportation increases, the supply chains will fall apart. They are only economically viable when transportation is cheap.
This does not mean economic or social collapse. It simply calls for adaptation. Goods from across the globe will become luxury items again. Food will need to be produced locally. Production will become more distributed. We will need to readdress the methodologies we use to feed, clothe, and shelter ourselves. We will become more conscious of those methodologies, when we can no longer hide their impact thousands of miles away.
Petroleum was a booster rocket that helped fuel a technological, industrial, and economic boom that transformed the world. Without it, we would still be living in an agrarian society, depending largely on animal and human labor. We would not enjoy most of the advances, conveniences, and luxuries, that have transformed the human experience in the last century. Petroleum fueled the modern age.
Petroleum however, has outlived its use-fullness, and is rapidly becoming a liability to be jettisoned like a first stage booster rocket. It has helped elevate us to heights that would have been beyond the grandest imaginings of man a few hundred years ago. We look back down the chain of history from a dizzying height, but petroleum cannot keep us here. In order to advance our society, technology, and industry, we must turn our attention to sustainable solutions. We need to ween ourselves from our mothers milk, and build a future that isn’t dependent on a well, rapidly running dry.
Labels as limitations
When I was nine months old, I used to point at objects and ask my mom, “See that…?” she would then fill in the appropriate label: banana, car, table, etc. And I would finish my sentence, using the new word ie, “See that banana?”
As a small boy, I found this immensely helpful in building a vocabulary I could use to communicate. There was great power in knowing the name of an object. Regardless of the objects function, I could now define it, request it, or reject it. I had been given a handle my mind could grab onto. That thing is a banana, but that other thing, is a table.
There are many tales and legends about the power of someone or something’s true name. This concept stretches through magic and mysticism, back to antiquity. The idea being that a true name will represent the true nature of the person or object. By knowing this true name, you have great power over the subject.
But can a name, or a label, define anything? Does the word banana represent the sun soaked, rain drenched environment of it’s birth? Does it reflect the yellow of it’s ripe skin? Does the word prepare you for the experience of a banana? For the taste and texture of it’s fruit? Of course not. The complexity of the banana transcends our convenient label for it.
Yet we are often like little children labeling everything we see. That is a car. That is a table. That is bad. This is good. He is stupid. I am handsome. She is fat. This is boring. That is worthless. We are obsessed with defining everything. We label and categorize every experience, every object, every person, and every sensation we encounter. These easy answers may allow us to communicate easily with each other, but they rob us of understanding.
When you label something, you define it. When you define something you have decided upon your experience of it. You will see it as you have labeled it, good, bad, or ugly. You will lose your ability to see truly, to understand deeply, and to experience fully.
Labeling over experiencing, is just a way to distance yourself from your own life. It is a way of putting something in a box, so that it can be neatly filed away. But nothing can be truly labeled, understood, and filed away. The deepest truths of the universe exist as paradoxes, only understood when easy answers and labels are eschewed. The universe is not just all that exists in physical space, it is the very space between, around, and in. It is the object and the context. It is the seen, and the unseen that makes the seen possible. The Alpha, and the Omega.
The birth of Zen began with a single flower. There were no words. There were no labels. The Buddha held up the flower, and said nothing. Most of his disciples saw a flower, and so they saw nothing. One man looked deeply, and truly understood. By rejecting an easy and convenient label, he could see its true nature. He learned its true name; the name that cannot be spoken. Zen Buddhism was born in that moment of understanding.
I still find myself labeling things. See that beautiful woman? Feel this pain? Hate this traffic? The little boy is still there, still trying to label everything. But now I can give up childish things. I can drop the label, look deeply, and truly see.
We are so much more than our labels, our names, or the roles we play. We are like that flower, infinite in depth, unique in expression, and connected with everything. Our true name cannot be spoken, only understood.
Going through an old notebook, I came across my wedding vows. We both wrote our own, and these were mine:
I will always see you.
When you forget who you are, I will remind you.
When you are lost, I will find you. I will lead you home.
If you are alone, I will reach to you.
If you are scared, I will comfort you.
When you need truth, I will speak it.
When you need trust, I will give it.
If you fall, I will catch you.
If you do not know, I will teach you.
When you need love, I will give it.
When you feel joy, I will share it.
If you smile, I will be warmed by it.
If you cry, I will be moved by it.
When you need to share, I will hear you.
When you cannot shout, I will listen for a whisper.
If you are cold, I will warm you.
If you are lost, I will guide you.
When you succeed, I will feel pride.
When you fail, I will feel pride.
If you feel pain, I will heal it.
If you cannot win, I will help you.
If you have faith, I will see heaven.
When you dream, I will believe in you.
When you fear, I will hold you.
When you try, I will aid you.
If you have needs, I will not know rest.
If you have enemies, I will not know peace.
When you laugh, I will hear music.
When you breathe, I will love you.
Even after time has stolen my sight, and my fingers cramp and can no longer hold yours. As long as blood flows with each beat, I will always see you.
I am so rich!
If you are reading this, you are one of the most powerful and influental people alive.
If you keep your food in a refigerator, clothes in your closet, sleep in a bed, and have a roof over your head: you are richer than 75% of the world’s population. If in addition to those necessities, you have the luxury of Internet access, you are in an even more elite percentile: you are literally one of the richest people in the world. If you are reading this at home, it means that you have enough free resources to pay for Internet access, and a computer. If you are reading this at work, it means that you have the luxury of an easy well paying job (in relative terms). You have free time at work, instead of back breaking labor to provide for your basic needs.
If you live in a free market society, then your opinion as a consumer has fantastic weight. All goods that are made are designed to appeal to you. Billions of dollars are spent trying to anticipate your needs and desires. Everyone else gets hand me downs.
If in addition you happen to live in one of the most powerful and influential democracies in the world, then your vote as a citizen is more precious still. It allows you to decide your own fate, and determine the course of your nation’s history. In most cases it allows you to determine the course of the entire world. The United States exerts extreme influence around the world when concerning the desires of it’s citizens and their policies. If you can vote in the United States you are more powerful than virtually every other living thing on this planet.
Your buying patterns influence industry around the world. The impact that industry has on the social and ecological systems we depend on, is decided entirely on the buying habits of the few. The impact on world markets, societies, and ecologies that we have is incredible.
When we decided we liked new cell phones regularly, the value of a mineral known as coltan shot up. This mineral was available in only few places around the world. One of the largest was the Congo. The demands of industy drove the locals to illegal mining that wrecked havoc on the eco-system. The mining brought people to regions of the Congo inhabited by Gorillas, who they began to slaughter.
The reach of our collective decisions affects the entire world, yet we act as if we are powerless. We complain about mercury in our fish, smog in the air, and conditions that created “mad cow disease”, but don’t do anything about it.
We are literally the only ones who can do anything about it.
If you are tired of it, stop accepting less. Stop accepting industries that pollute the water we drink. Stop accepting companies that abuse people half a world away. Stop accepting companies who make money while people die. Stop accepting less.
Our industries only care about next quarters profits. They will keep making the same products using the same ideas, until we decide they aren’t good enough.
I think we can do better, what do you think?
