Coping...
I read somewhere that there are three ways that people cope with the death of a civilization. The first is that they try to fight the dissolution of their society by creating a moat around those values that they do not wish to lose and then fight to the death to defend them. The second coping mechanism is to cling to those things that lend one personal satisfaction while you watch the rest of your social communities crumbling around you. The third is to join those who are looting the values to grab what you can.
Sadly, I do feel like we are standing on a precipice where we risk the very fundamental freedoms we have taken for granted for the past 50 or so years. Those who do not share my feeling of loss will argue against my position I guess. I would offer to take any of you who disagree with me on a little road trip where I can show you what the devastation of clear cutting can do to pristine forests. I will even take you to areas where the forests were clear cut nearly 80 years ago to show you the difference between old growth and second or third growth forests. And forests are only one of the things that we are poised to lose.
If we were being attacked by outsiders it would be worse I guess but here we are being destroyed in a non-civil war of words over issues where the arguments are anything but logical. Global warming is one good study. Whenever I bring up global warming I am told by my conservative chums that volcanoes produce more green house gasses than our use of fossil fuels. Well, yes. That is a fact. But we can do nothing to prevent a volcano. Volcanoes are an act of nature that are going to happen no matter how many SUVs we drive. We can only control our own contributions to the problem. And we need to look at those scientists who have no vested interest in the issue and discount those funded by groups who benefit from pro green house gas policies.
The economic gains we have made as a people are unprecedented in history of human society. No where has there been such an effort made to support public policies that lead to the possibility of all of our people benefiting from our efforts to provide decent jobs to everyone despite their native abilities. What is appalling to me is that the same people who decry our animal nature use a natural law argument to defend our pressing more and more people into destitution. The irony is that those who are harmed the most by such policies are those who stand on the side of those who promote them.
I would argue that there is a fourth coping mechanism when you see your culture being destroyed by forces either from within or from the outside. You lie down and stop fighting.
1:12:09 PM 
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