Righteous Fixations
To cut down a tree, especially an old and beautiful tree, takes a certain amount of disconnect. There are thoughts that cloud our innate connection to beauty and life. We MUST cut down that tree to park our car, build our house, or put in a road. It is a selfish drive and one that lacks sensitivity of caring. A disconnection from our hearts and minds must happen for us to destroy. It is the attribute that kicks in when we feel like we must kill another or level a beautiful place. Let’s call this disconnect – the righteous fixation.
How do we build wealth? Just play Monopoly and you will know how to gain a fortune. But it's more than that; all wealth comes first from the Earth, whether it's pork bellies or houses, or parking lots – it is all Earth stuff. A person who desires to be rich must first harvest (not themselves but with minions), then add value by altering Earth into useable substances, package it, and ship it out.
Making the Earth yields up its bounty to us – again and again, takes a certain amount of righteous fixation. Then to package it (usually in plastic which we know is creating cancer, clogging the sea, and polluting the land and air) is also an act of not caring, of righteous fixation.
Shipping it out across seas and land also takes disconnect. Who wants to drive a truck all day every day – disconnect. The oil, the noise, the tires – have you ever seen a rubber tree bleed? It's cruel. But we need those tires, those flip-flops, those rubber gloves.
That need – we need it. How many times a day do we say in our mind, I need this. I know it is bad for me and the Earth, but I’m buying this plastic-wrapped processed thing – I must have it. We seem to have no choice. You want to eat; everything is wrapped in plastic. It takes effort to live differently. Every time I buy the convenience, I defer the problem to the next generation. And because I don’t want to suffer a little bit of inconvenience today, the future generation will suffer a lot in the years to come: seas full of plastic- we are the last generation who will be able to eat from the sea, an environment so hot no food will grow – all the little kids of today will not have the food we are used to, a breakdown of society – democracy is about to be taken over by capitalism. We are willing to have this happen just so that today we can drive to the store and buy frozen chicken wings.
Why aren’t we all out there with Greta Thunburg crying out for change and putting ourselves aside to save a future? Because it takes connecting, feeling the pain, understanding the cost, communing with nature, and mourning our lost future and a lot of inconvenience. This takes time and energy that we don’t have as we hustle to pay our bills, raise our kids, and make dinner. So, off to the story we go!
It’s too much to feel. It is horrifying. So, we shove aside the future to live for today, to live for ourselves because, it seems, that is all we’ve got. We become as uncaring as the wealthy. We are all blinded by righteous fixation.
The wealthy encourage this by being role models of raking in profits and making an uncaring world – not caring about employees, not caring about packaging, not caring about the Earth, not caring about a future for humanity. They care only about their wealth. Just as we tend to care about our comforts but on a much larger scale, hence it is more destructive.
We must consider what wealth does to a person. How it changes them into a despot, like the Hobbit’s ring of power, you can’t hold it or it makes you cold-hearted. There are nice wealthy people but just not enough of them to have us see that capitalism is good for communities. On a small level, yes, having your own business is great. Making a living is great. But on a large scale, it leads to bad environmental decisions. And if the environment is what we need to heal to have humanity and other life continue, we must curtail the amassing of wealth.
Of course, it’s not only curtailing the accumulation of wealth, but many things need to change for this Earth to be healthy. We need to consider the Earth when we create things, we need to curtail our desires, we need to think ahead, and we need to love the creatures and plants that have no voice in the political human world. This last piece looks as if it is dwindling in the human spirit, for the next generation is so engrossed in their devices, so disconnected from the living Earth that they will be clueless, in shock, and lacking skills when the food system crumbles.
Maybe we need a monopoly game where when you pass go, anyone with lots of money has to give it to other players who have none. Have you ever seen real poverty, or been in the ghetto? It is a hopeless environment where people work to just barely get by and are always stressed. There are no food stores in the ghetto, only chips and alcohol. There are no boutiques, yoga classes, or social centers. There is nothing.
If America is so wealthy why can’t some of that wealth just open a supermarket in the ghettos so people don’t have to drive, walk, or take the bus so far for food? If the wealthy won’t look over their shoulder and help other poor communities, then it must be the government that redistributes wealth. This is called heavy taxing and that is the very thing the Big 500 wants to get rid of. Tax is a bad word for the wealthy, and they are willing to collapse the government just so they won’t be taxed. Seems crazy? Yes, it is because the ring of power makes you crazy. It is the blind righteous fixation. And as things become more desperate, more scary, more cataclysmic - this righteous fixation will be our undoing.
Oh, and happy New Year!