Cash in on the End of the World!

The US invaded Iraq and thereby made a global player out of Iran. By refusing to talk with Iraq's moderates when it had the chance, the US finds itself pitted against a hard-talking anti-US, anti-Israel dude, Achmedinijihad. Iran is developing nukes, all over the country and much of it underground. No problem, says Israel. They'll blow it all up, even if it requires them to use nukes themselves. Talk with the Iranians, said Jim Baker and company. Don't you dare talk with the Iranians, said the Saudi nobles to W and company. So the US addiction to Saudi oil keeps the freedom-loving country in support of an ever-hottening feud that could bring on WWIII (or is it IV?) And the investor class, by and large, is just fine with all this. After all, Capital doesn't care! It simply responds to market realities.

There are, of course, deviants such as I who don't drive cars. I don't eat meat, either. I meditate and practice Yoga and do what I can to love everybody and generate happiness. Or at least I want to. There are others who do a better job at all this than me. But the people that matter spend most of their time destroying the world and themselves with it. Their lifestyles and spending habits, their profit-motives, their alienation from one another, their ignorance and apathy all aids and abets human insecurity and conflict.

The mechanisms of human - and technological - action upon which human beings increasingly depend make the whole picture worse. Indians eat more meat and drive more cars and take more Western pills with each passing year. So does the rest of the world. The rain forest continues to shrink.

Sure there's hopeful signs, too. One in every seven Americans practices Yoga. Meditation and vegetarianism are on the rise. They who are enlightened have the best chance of survival. But oh! What a shame that so many are dying! So much effort is put into planning the next war and so little into planning the next peace. And so little media coverage is devoted to the human endeavors that promote peace.