Fatalism vs Optimism--the battle wages on

Health care - it’s certainly difficult to talk about health care reform in the United States these days, and it happens to be only a symptom of our larger challenges. Many of those who have insurance (like some members of Congress) apparently think that everyone can pay the outrageous prices insurance companies charge. We have had to let our insurance lapse due to premium prices. It’s frightening at any age not to have insurance, but more frightening I feel, as we are aging.

The government we expect to fix our insurance woes is sadly broken and the division of severe partisan politics is hurting us terribly. It does look like the sixty votes are now in the Senate for health care “reform” but what is proposed is more a give-away to insurance companies than true reform.

Our two-hundred year plus experiment in a democratic republic seems to be unable to break the deadlock of partisan politics and corporate lobbyist control. The corporations have taken over and individuals are paying the price. Can capitalism be fixed? Is there such a thing as sustainable capitalism? I have my doubts.

We cannot continue to count on growth and consumerism to keep us going. We’re fast running out of the natural resources that have sustained our grotesque consumerism of the last 20-30 years. It certainly isn’t to say that I am not guilty - I am, and I don’t know how to get completely out of the system. I do reduce, reuse, recycle and rethink. My husband and I are not heavy consumers, and we do grow many of our own fruits and vegetables. We produce far less garbage than our neighbors and we take composting and recycling very seriously. But, we eat too much meat, we use too much water, we depend upon cars (although we have reduced our miles driven) and have a multitude of other consumer traits.

I ponder whether a fatalistic approach is more appropriate, since we can't seem to agree on fixing the challenges we clearly face. If perhaps, all humanity were to die off, it might not be such a bad thing? We are the biggest consumers and exploiters of the world’s resources. We outsource our pollution and our jobs. We don’t share well. We’re greedy. We’re violent. Homo sapiens, as the most innovative and adaptable species, has become, too, the most invasive pest. An yet, we do love life and want to explore, learn, love, and live.

In all seriousness, we need to work on reducing the global population just as much as we are working on global climate change (not that Copenhagen proved to give us any serious change with an appropriate timeline). I know it is going to be hugely difficult to get nations (and individuals) to agree, but I know our single largest battle ahead is population control.

Of course, if we let that go, too, the tipping point will eventually cause our population to crash due to lack of food or through disease in the form of virulent global pandemics. (How's that for fatalism?) Sigh.

Questions such as these cause a deep-seated battle to rage within me - as my natural optimism vies with the fatalism such great challenges offer. It is quite daunting to grasp that there are no quick fixes; these tribulations have begun during our lifespan.

Peace and blessings (practice the first; count the second).