More Open Road
Day Two of The Journey: Woke up in Price Utah and headed towards Moab, Lordy, what an incredible piece of real estate. It was all I could do to stay in the car, in fact I faltered a couple of times and parked and struck out for a ridge to get a view despite the distance I knew I had to travel that day. I remember now the West that seduced me and has held me a willing captive all these years. Arches, Canyon Land, Bryce, Monument Valley, wow.
I started to get a bad feeling as I descended down from Manco into Durango and started seeing the mansions on every ridge. Durango was a one Safeway cow town when I unceremoniously left there thirty five years ago (the judge said buy a bus ticket and never come back, long story) but it too has been turned into EveryTown USA and despite my intention to look up some old haunts I got out as fast as the bumper to bumper traffic allowed. There to Pagosa Springs is a continuous stream of Land for Sale signs but once you drop south towards Chama you are back in the real deal all the way to Taos, the pass out of Tierra Amarrilla down to the RioGrande Gorge being a major highlight everyone should see . Taos itself has fallen prey to the bourgeois blues, all groovy boutique and expensive art,dining, being seen etc with that oh-so-multi -cultural liberalness and eco-friendly Western earthiness Missoula can only dream of. Cynical me.
While I'm on the subject, we went to see the film The 11th Hour, a sort of sequel to Al Gores film filled with predictions of climate doom, disappearing species etc. The villains turn out to be "greedy" corporate bigwigs, much to the relief of the wealthy New Age liberals who all have solar collectors and energy-efficient light bulbs in all nine rooms of their adobe houses. Now,I'm not saying we shouldn't try for a "sustainable" lifestyle, I was impressed by the "Earthship" we toured with it's water catchment system , all off the grid living, idealistic young folk packing old tires with red earth. What I am saying is the film fell just short of pointing out the systemic contradictions when markets meet nature. The old saying was "if you're not part of the solution, you are part of the problem" but the hard reality is you can be part of the solution but still be a major part of the problem. I am. You are. It is a shallow consolation to have "been right all along" as we devolve into chaos, destruction and misery (first for poor people) but if climate change doesn't condemn capitalism I can't imagine what does.
posted by troutsky @ 5:37 PM
14 comments
14 Comments:
Are you taking pictures?
you are dead on when you say we can be part of the problem and the solution. I feel that way when I want some 99cent chicken nuggets
Trout, I'd like to invite you and your commenters to visit my blog and get their political position plotted on a very interesting political map which I am going to keep at the top 'til the end of the year. Talk about our one party system and how it doesn't represent the people — certainly not the ones who've responded so far.
I am the worst photographer in the universe, not that the occasional picture doesn't work out but I just never seem to bring a camera or use it when I have it.
If you want to help the environment you should consider moving to North Korea. You would be true to the ideals you espouse. Kindly walk into the nearest US Consulate and declare yourself a citizen of the world.
Those who advocate Communism for others need to experience it for themselves. One can not get the true experience from the Theriesenstadt tours. It seems there is an abundance of "chicken collectivists".
FYI How does a lowly Trout guide earn so much money to conduct such frequent travel? Either the lowly Nature boy is more "Capitalist" than he claims or the trips are subsidized.
It appears he has been subsidized by family wealth his whole life.
Was anon talking about Beakerkahane of Troutsky?
The Beakerkahane Hot Dog Company
1. Call Uncle Maury for a loan.
2. Call New York Congressman to rush necessary hot dog vender permits.
3. Exploit illegal immigrant to run hot dog stand.
What is perplexing is why these poor folks think my advocacy is dangerous? Why my search for NEW ideas (non-Stalinist, non-authjoritarian)is subversive enough that they feel compelled to denounce me ( as ridiculous as their criticism is)?
As for wealth, my wife and I live on less than 50,000 capitalist dollars per year,(earned through labor) no trust fund, no inheritance,no interest earning investments, blah blah.I own my house free (bought in 78 for 26,000 capitalist tickets) and clear and drive a 95 Escort.I live cheap, travel cheap and value time over money.Still, I contribute to and participate in a system which I don't support and in so doing am complicit in the damage the system does. So I use what time I can to overthrow it.OK?
Troutsky,
if climate change doesn't condemn capitalism I can't imagine what does.
Why my search for NEW ideas (non-Stalinist, non-authoritarian) is subversive enough
The only non-Stalinist, non-authoritarian economic system that works is called capitalism.
But capitalism does indeed allow for a destruction of the environment. Now let's advance a hypothesis that only a purely Stalinist, authoritarian system can prevent the destruction of the environment.
Then, the choice would be this: To live as slaves of a totalitarian system OR to let capitalist destruction of the environment to reduce the world's population to manageable levels.
But there is a catch: if we adopt the totalitarian method, world's population will continue to grow and even if we all recycle EVERYTHING and only eat grass for breakfast and tofu for supper, the environment will still continue to deteriorate, due to demographic explosion.
So isn't it better to just let nature kill most of us to preserve the balance ? Why should there be 6 billion people on Earth. Why not 600 million ? Or 60 million for that matter ?
sonia, to claim "capitalism is the only..system that works" is to deny human capacity. It's like saying to a film buff like yourself that the movies we have now are the only kind that can ever be made.Like Thatcher claiming "there is no alternative" or Fukuyama claiming we have reached "the end of history".It is totalizing in it's logic and dangerous.
As to human population, surely there is a better way out of this dilemna than early death, birth control comes to mind readily.
Lets see
We will ignore the standard Communist
anti-semitic drivel by LWB. Funny but if the exact comments were made about
Blacks the Commie halfwits would react much different.
Lets see how many trips abroad did you take? Was the airfare and hotels subsidized? How does someone who always seems to cry poverty enjoy so much Capitalistic excess?
If those trips were subsidized you
need to report that as income. If the trips were sponsored by hostile
foreign powers you are legally required to register as a foreign agent.
Moreover, a desire to overthrow the US government as stated here should
lead to denaturalization. Had you been a Naturalized citizen such a statement would have been cause for denaturalization. The government is adverse to denaturalizing born citizens. However, if that ever changes Kim Jong "Mentally" Ill could use a court jester.
to claim "capitalism is the only..system that works" is to deny human capacity
Maybe, but claiming the opposite is to deny reality...
The best system is to ignore systems and rely on yourself.
I've spent some time in New Mexico, Utah, and mostly the great Navajo/Hopi res in Arizona. Incredibly beautiful country. I love the space and the colors. The art probably is overpriced, but much of it is beautiful and creative beyond words.
I'm a socialist/capitalist. The USA is not a capitalist country. I think the closest descriptive words would have to be some distorted form of crony capitalism. I do not believe in pure, unregulated capitalism. It is too cruel to individuals.
For capitalism to be effective, it needs to be closely regulated by a variety of commissions, boards, etc. Labor's opportunities to organzie must be unfettered.
If these things are not in place, we get what we have today. For instance, no-bid contracts to Haliburton is not capitalism. Unfettered monopolies are not capitalsim.
We human beings have proven throughout the ages that we readily allow greed to overcome every compassionate quality we have. The crooked and heartless seem to rise to the top of the more powerful corporations. I'm not going to give examples - where would I start?
I think I'm done for now.
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