Y'know.. it would appear to be patently obvious, that we, meaning humans in general, are the most naive creatures of this planet..
We follow the media for our 'deeper understanding' of the world around us.. and allow our particular source, usually one network's news at ten, or one newspapers daily edition, to set firmly in place our perception of the world around us.
We allow Lobby Groups to feed us disinformation, and follow blindly the nonsense they feed us..
Take for example, the growing movement against those who smoke tobacco, and the industry itself. Now it can be taken as a given, that smoking is not good for you, that it does damage to the smoker who's inhaling all manner of noxious chemicals..
But what is not pointed out, that the amounts of these noxious chemicals are minute, and the chimera of second-hand smoke has been expanded to such an extent that it is risible..
The air we breathe in our homes is unfiltered. It comes directly into our houses from outside.. where literally millions of cars spew the same chemicals found in cigarettes into the atmosphere, in ammounts so much larger than a cigarette, that one cannot use the 'enclosed space' argument, because it is all-pervasive.
We plaster our cigarette packages with warnings that these will kill us, yet allow a new car to roll off the assembly line, without the warning on the bumper, or along the side, that 'this machine cracks gasoline, not burns it, and the chemicals it puts out it's tailpipe is ten thousand times more deadly than the smoking of a carton of cigarettes an hour..
We allow aircraft to take off every minute, which dump again, the same chemicals into that which we breathe..in amazing amounts..
We allow expansion of businesses which run on natural gas, or oil, or coal, which again not only poisons us, but destroys our entire ecosphere..
We are watching this world change, and entire species disappearing, thinking blythly to ourselves, that it's not affecting 'us'..
It goes beyong naivety.
It's just plain stupidity.
Now there are those who will say our economies will take time to adjust to new technology, and that if we don't allow them the time they need to make these adjustments, our standard of living will fall..
This is to those who live within the States that belong to the G8+5.. the wealthy countries who's populations are insulated from the true effects of our mental isolationism..
But how much farther down the standard of living scale can those in Africa go? Who speaks for them?
Who campaigns for fewer internal combustion engines, with the droughts, or the floods, or the disappearing ice caps, other than a few poorly fundred groups, who most within the affluent nations consider 'tree-huggers' or 'ecological extremists'..
For the airline industry.. it could be suggested that they start re-inventing lighter than air craft.. blimps.. powered by external combustion engines.. electrical engines.. hybrid engines.. It might be much slower to get from point A to point B.. but what's the rush in this day of instant worldwide communication?
For the automotive industry.. re-tooling to produce only hybrid, or external combustion engines.. effectively steam-driven cars... Again, the pace would be slower, but what's the real need for speed?
For the anti-smoking campaigners.. some education. Some information on how their successfull efforts could be turned towards the real problem.. the polution by big business in the name of profit..
For the G8+5 nations.. a concerted effort by those countries with the capital resources to legislate not significant reduction in greenhouse gasses, but the elimination of them entirely, when profit is the only incentive to produce them..
We have the technology.
We have the knowledge available to us, but lack the ethic to implement such sweeping moves..
Stupid.
And for those who take up a cause without finding out all possible information concerning that cause, moronic.
We humans are easily led creatures.. naive to the point wherein we will watch ourselves destroy millions of our fellow humans without a single qualm, for the sake of our own convenience.
And we can't, in good concience, blame our leaders, for we elected them, or accepted them..
We can't blame big business or their lobbyists, for they are motivated by the same incentives we are.
Greed.. and speed.. and a complete lack of understanding of the 'big picture'..
Deliberate ignorance will be our downfall..
Let that, at least be recorded.