There was a long feature article in the New York Times today discussing the way Goldman Sachs and their ilk manipulate the aluminum market in a legal way under the rules of the self governed London Commodities Market. In a ridiculous repetitive dance they move 1500 lb bars back and forth from warehouse to warehouse to increase their profits from storage fees. An astute commenter from Oklahoma had much the same reaction as I had:
"Well, isn't this special. We need new ideas, new forms of energy, innovative ways to bring medical
costs down, and industries that don't ruin the environment. And the best Goldman can do is to
shuffle aluminum from warehouse to warehouse. No wonder America is going under.
The only innovation is in corporate greed."
According to a Florida jury of 6 women, it's OK to shoot a 17-year-old black child after following and stalking him if you've decided he might be a danger. Never mind that the police have told you not to engage him. Never mind that he was unarmed and minding his business.
When everything seems to be awry, it's necessary to get away from the greed and ugliness of this country and out into nature. We escaped to the woods where humans are small and mountains are big. We looked at natural wonders that are virtually unchanged since Thoreau saw them more that 150 years ago. For the moment one can believe that nature is more powerful than greed, and drilling technology and rampant pollution
In Franconia, NH it appeared for a moment that water is an eternal force strong enough to smooth and shape the hardest stone, and that the life force of trees can enable them to defy gravity and split rocks to survive. We were only passing creatures leaving a small footprint.
It is so much easier for me to disengage from the ugly media assault when I'm on vacation. Why can't I do it at home? Is it worth the disgust and disappointment of the news to be an informed citizen?
2 comments:
Charles Eisenstein says (somewhere, in an interview): "We live in special times. There are four billion of us, all gathered at the same time. Sometimes I think that every human being who has ever lived is now incarnated here for the big party, for the big transition." The transition he speaks of is from childhood into adulthood.
I think the nature we "escape" to is our home and will become so, again, either as respectful companions in abundance, or as ashes and dust.
Seven billion!
The numbers get so staggering even a difference of such magnitude seems insignificant.
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