And in addition to that, our situation becomes less sustainable every day. But what are you and I supposed to do, surrounded by an increasing concentration of greenhouse gases, soaring tensions between men who hold enormous amounts of power, rising inflation, falling stocks, insidiously persistent racism/classism/sexism/your favorite or most applicable form of hatred? What is there to do? The diplomats can’t save us. Our arsenals have served us equally as well.


In a tremendous funk today, I stumbled upon a charming literary café (i.e. a place where they sell coffee and have an incredible selection of books—some for sale, some for borrow) where I read an article called, “¿Cuánto vale una idea?” in a periodical called El Periodista. The article more or less proposed that there are a few creative people in our midst who have brilliant outside-the-box ideas, who might possibly be able to help us out of our downward-spiraling predicaments. But these people, the creative sorts, tend to be unconcerned with money and are satisfied just to create and experience creation. They aren’t the executive types, the world-leader types, or the two-plus-two-is-four types. And, consequently, they don’t merit much praise in our forward-thinking Western society.

But, in reality, where has our linear thinking brought us? Okay, there’s a lot to be said for the orderliness of institutions. But is it really the end-all be-all? …Mmmmmm, not sure. Not sure about that one.


On a similar, but different, note: I was giving an oral examination (with more of a linguistic than dental persuation) to a teenage student the other day. The question I proposed was this-- “Technology has changed a lot in the past 50 years. 50 years from now, what do you think technology will look like?” And her answer was—“I don’t think the world will exist in 50 years. I think we will destroy ourselves by then.”

Qué lata.

It’s got to be bad when the ones who are supposed to be ambitious have already surrendered to defeat.


As a disclaimer-- I’m not proposing a solution to the problems at hand here. Just a solution to the lack of acceptable solutions.