|
To:
letters@guardian.co.uk Date: Tuesday 22 March 05 |
||
|
||
|
Dear Prof. Hunt,
Despite
its depressing reading, thanks
for your contribution to
today's Guardian ("For
Bush, science is a dirty
word").
After watching the
world go into collective
denial following the stir
caused by publication of the
Club of Rome's "The
Limits to Growth" back in
the 1970's, it took a long
time for me to understand how
those in power and authority
could be so blind and stupid.
Eventually I came to realise
that almost everyone is blind
to the “Insanities
of Normality”,
especially when their vested
interests (which we all have)
are at stake.
With the advent of
civilisation, the "socio-economic
environment "
effectively replaced the
natural environment as the
place where we (Homo
sapiens, indeed!)
struggle for advantage and
survival, which in the modern
world largely boils down to
making money in the local,
national or global economy.
And there is a lot more money
to be made from plundering
our planet than there is from
conserving it.
If President Bush and
Co. realised that for what
they are doing their own
children and grandchildren
will one day curse them, I'm
quite sure they wouldn't do
it. But yelling at them isn't
going to help, any more than
yelling at an alcoholic will
get them off the booze; it
just drives them even further
into denial and distractions.
The only hope is for
those of us who are not (so
deeply) in denial to start
creating an "alternative
" socio-economic order,
based not on our primitive,
animal nature, as at present,
but on our more enlightened,
human nature. By setting a
good example (of sustainable,
far less materialistic living)
we might hope to entice others
out of denial and into joining
us.
Roger Hicks |
||
|
|
