* * Escaping the decade, just

This last year was a difficult one for my family financially as it was for millions of Americans.  I wrote this editorial that was printed last week by the Roanoke Times.

Nearing the end of the first decade of the new millennium, a decade we never decided what to call (e.g., the “Oughts” or perhaps the “Noughties”?), I’m reminded of that hilarious scene in the movie, Toy Story 2, where six wannabe hero toys make their way across a busy city street by shuffling along under traffic cones. Their skirmish ends on the opposite curb while destruction reigns on the street, as numerous vehicles crash trying to avoid them. Once safely delivered, they emerge from their transportable costumes, at which point Mr. Potato Head adjusts his black fedora and exclaims with obvious relief and optimism, “Ah, that went well!” In a perverse way, it is an apt metaphor for the decade.

Perhaps it could have been worse, but it was bad enough.  The attacks on September 11, 2001 precipitated the War on Terror and the subsequent invasions and occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan.  Asia and in particular, China, experienced rapid economic growth and political assertion.  The Great Recession ensued, plaguing our nation.  The income disparity between rich and poor is growing rapidly.  It is hard to see the decade being remembered for much other than malfeasance, nonchalance, and misadventure in the face of profound changes.

Three interrelated stressors seem poised to dominate our political, economic, and social landscape in the coming decade.  None are being addressed effectively now.

First, our society will need to understand the fundamentals and limitations of credit and currencies, and make decisions underlain not by greed and self-interest but by respect and shared purpose. Second, we will need to grasp the concept of diminishing fossil fuel energy and deal with it constructively.  And third, we will need to understand the irrefutable ways in which the natural systems of the planet – global climate, species diversity, and resource use – impact our economies.  Solving each of these will depend on breaking the tight bond between corporate and political power.

Last year’s near-collapse of the worldwide financial system placed a serious financial hardship on millions of families.  The reckless, malicious actions of Wall Street and banks across the land must be prevented from happening again.  Demigod Alan Greenspan was befuddled.  He admitted in October, “I made a mistake in presuming that the self-interests of organizations, specifically banks and others, were such that they were best capable of protecting their own shareholders and their equity in the firms.”  The financial industry will not police itself and if allowed will repeatedly wreak havoc across the economy.

Recovery from our economic mess will become impeded by energy scarcity, something we’d be seeing already if not for the recession-induced reduction in demand.  Oil is peaking in extraction.  Natural gas and coal are perhaps only a decade or two behind.  Because so much of our energy comes from these non-renewable fuels, this impending crisis has the potential to dominate our lives in the coming decade.  Thus far, most of our actions indicate our utter failure to grasp this reality, as evidenced by plans for new coal-burning power plants, new highways, and more sprawl development.  We must immediately decentralize and diversify our energy mix and lessen our dependency upon the fossil fuels.

The bounty of our earth is the source of all prosperity.  Biological diversity allows for resiliency in the face of blights, weather-related disasters, and diseases.  Instead of protecting the earth’s biological diversity, we arrogate increasing chunks of the earth to ourselves and sacrifice countless species at the altar of human greed and growth.

These converging threats will come home to roost in the near future and the need to down-scale, re-localize, and de-globalize our activities will become urgent.

            The marriage of corporate and political power has provided a seemingly insurmountable barrier towards progress.  Food production in this country is designed not to provide nutrition to our citizens but to provide profits to corporate producers.  Health care is designed not to make or keep people healthy, but to provide profits to corporate providers.  Energy production is designed not to free us from dependency upon foreign suppliers but to enrich the profits of the energy companies.  Fundamental, productive changes in the way these and similar systems are delivered are unlikely in the current paradigm because our government has become a slave to corporate interests.

In this first decade of the 2000s, we have managed to pass to still another decade many elemental threats. Will we be reaching the same happy conclusion in the waning days of 2019, along with the ability to once again proclaim, “Ah, that went well!”? The “teens” will provide many more busy highways to cross.