Two visions

There are a lot of articles about the two American parallel universes that we are going to have to live with for the coming months. I’m already trying to wean myself from any political articles on this without total success. I was nevertheless impressed by another duality that Tom Friedman talks about in the the New York Times this morning - These are networks of nations with opposing battlefronts. He calls them “resistance” and “inclusion”.

They also have some common elements, One tries to bury the past. The other tries to work toward a more connected and balanced future. Russia and Ukraine are one pair. The Middle East is more complicated but also has opposing forces. The same alternatives might be seen in the United States.

Life is not quite that simple, of course. There are elements of the past that we are discarding and immediately adapting the new thing - like an acquaintance who thinks AI can solve all kinds of things that it clearly can’t. We have abandoned some of the civility that creates a greater degree of trust. On the other hand we hang on to things that don’t seem to please anybody in a new and changing world. But perhaps “either-or” needs to give way to “both-and”.

Choices

“We need character in order to extract the useful.” So said Robert Genn, a visual artist of note, who inspired me to write twice weekly as he did for years. He was born the same year as I was, but is now coming to us from the beyond through the reprints of his original messages since his death, curated by his artist daughter, Sara Genn.

Robert was originally writing about the distraction of haikus coming from other - which he proposed to alter as “eyekus” visual moments. I like that idea, but I also liked the quote I started with here. Robert wrote about life as well as art.

And there is a good deal to extract today. The balance between news and opinion in journalism is at least noted in the better press. I do pay attention to both. This morning’s New York Times, has lots of both from opinion writers that I do follow.

Tom Friedman thinks that Biden could be proved right re Afghanistan. He points out the fallacy of thinking that the Afghans needed to be taught to be fighters when they had resisted invasions by others for decades. He points out “In oft-occupied countries like Afghanistan, many people will actually prefer their own people as rulers (however awful) over foreigners (however well intentioned).” He goes on to say that we shouldn’t make judgments on “the morning after”, but wait for the “morning after the morning after”. We’ll be distracted by the chaos there now, which indeed is appalling, but the outcome cannot be determined immediately.

Then I moved on to The Bad Economics of Fossil Fuel Defenders, by the economist, Paul Krugman - another favorite, who makes economics understandable and relevant. He gives us four reasons not to believe the objectors to climate crisis proposals. First, the economy has always done better under Democratic party leadership. Second, when governments increase environmental protection, the costs never increase as much as expected, because businesses are spurred to innovate. Third, “history strongly refutes the notion that there’s any necessary link between economic growth and greenhouse gas emissions”. Last, we don’t need to depend on fossil fuels when renewable energies are growing, while decreasing in cost.

Money is part of the story; he notes “in the 2020 election cycle Republicans received 84 percent of political contributions from the oil and gas industry and 96 percent of contributions from coal mining. Perhaps that’s why it has become part of a culture war. And as Canadians are now in election mode, perhaps I should check on similar patterns in a national party here, that did not allow “Climate change is real” to become part of its platform.

There was a positive story in the Times as well about fighting environmental racism. Community organizers prevented a pipeline to run through predominantly black communities. Environmental spills had been all too common in the company’s safety record. Pollution is higher in neighborhoods inhabited by people of colour everywhere and it has to stop. The story ended on a positive note:

“What happened in Memphis this year is an example of how historically powerless people can work together to interrupt a pattern of environmental racism that has been in place for more than a century and a half. It’s also an example of why everyone else should care.”

These extractions were useful among lots of distractions!