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Riverman's Vision

I've been reading a bunch of the posts in the 'personal lament' threads concerning the use and abuse of land and resources in the US and abroad, and thought I'd share this reoccurring waking vision I've had for 10 years about this. Whenever I think about environmentalism, eco-terrorism, resource management and mismanagement, I have this analogy that comes to mind, and maybe others can find a niche in their consciousness for it, too.

I imagine the world as a ship, the most beautiful vessel ever imagined, with intricacies and details beyond comprehension. And we are all passengers on this ship...no particular destination in mind, just sailing on the seas of reality. Growing, reproducing, living our lives on this beautiful, ornate, miraculous vessel.

Oh yeah, the ship is made of SOLID GOLD.

Then, one day, someone says "Hey, this is GOLD!!" and whittles a tiny piece off a hidden little spot on a stairwell handrail and pops it into his pocket. Here and there, a few other people go "Wow, this is solid GOLD!" and take an innoculous chunk here and there for themselves. (Nevermind the physics of 'where does the gold go?', this is just an analogy.)

Well, for a long time, we were getting pretty good at carving up bits an pieces for ourselves, but 2 important things have happenned: One: there are a LOT more people with a lot better tools out there carving up pieces of gold for themselves, and two: we have eventually carved up the part of the ship above the water until it's pretty well decimated.

So now, there are 6 billion people all BELOW THE WATERLINE in what it left of what was once an incredible treasure, all carving and whittling away as hard as they can.

Whenever someone get conscientious and says "HEY!!! What the HELL are we doing?? This is the HULL we're ripping up! We gotta STOP!! I'm NOT gonna do it!!", three of four other people say 'Then get outta my way clown!' and shove them aside and start whittling away their own stake.

Already, the hull has sprung a few leaks here and there, and several people have manned buckets and patches to try to hold back the flood.

But for the most part, the beautiful ship is pretty carved up, and what is left is getting carved up faster than ever before. And everyone is saying "Yeah, well, I deserve MY piece!" and they're still whittling away....

Oh yeah, and last I checked, there's no life rafts.
--
riverman

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