What is: slapped in the face by the climate crisis

We don’t have to read another article or post on social media to know the world’s fucked-up right now. Of course, it’s been fucked up for some time especially here in the USA but we’ve been too busy working our asses off and getting nowhere to notice.

The question is how do we fix it? This is a complex issue in big part due to governmental co-called representatives both Republicans and Democrats that have been bought off by special interests. Mostly they represent corporations and don’t respond to the needs of us citizens. There are a few exceptions. You know who - most likely. The GOP and the Dems are as divided in polar opposite camps just as most everybody else seems at war with the other guy. Everybody for themselves? Isn’t that what the American Dream has become or maybe it was always this way. More money breeds the need for more money and so on… There is sadness and grief in that - both from the greed and lust for money and power — the panting of a thirsty/ravenous dog, and those of us terrorized by the dog.

Part of the problem is that beginning in the 1970s corporations stop making good products and providing excellent service to citizens and started making products for money. Citizens were teased into being called consumers. Money, CEOs, shareholders — planned obsolescence, dividing products and services into smaller pieces for more money and oh — by the way screwing the workers by — out-sourcing (it used to be called layoffs), cutting benefits, Union busting, wage concessions and so on.

There are the two worlds: The top 1% or the Rich and everyone else — slaves to the rich. Next introduce the Climate Crisis which in-turn produces unpredictable events. Maybe you’ve experienced some or all of them: fires, floods, rising sea levels, prolonged sub-zero weather, droughts, tornadoes, earthquakes, hurricanes all with greater frequency and of course pandemics — the Covid19 being first to cover the world in recent times. I say the first because who knows if some ancient virus exposed through the melting permafrost couldn’t make matters worse.

The best bet to work is to bring people together in search of new ideas and new solutions for all of us will mean sacrifices for everyone. The Rich don’t see a need to sacrifice in any equitable way to make a way for everyone to thrive and work to save the planet at the same time. The Middle Class, the Working Poor and the Poor already know sacrifice because they have been doing it for years. The new sacrifices for the new solutions will come in a different way.

We need a middle way.

I like the heavily regulated system of universal health care that the Japanese have crafted because it includes health insurance companies, pharmaceuticals, providers and citizens as opposed to government run programs which excludes commerce. This is something most Americans could get behind because it is inclusive on both sides of the aisle and is more closely related to the spirit and ingenuity of American leadership and creativity. Also, part of government’s responsibility is to check Corporations, not to give them free reign to make money while screwing the majority of people . I believe this is aptly called Socialism for The Rich. For more on the Japanese Health Care System: Better than Medicare-for-all — Japanese Style Universal Health Care.

The bigger issue, bigger than healthcare is the Climate Crisis. Climate Crisis — includes health care — duh. Here are the options:

1. Follow the Trump Free-For-All — is not really a plan unless you believe that rolling back environmental protections in favor of profits doesn’t endanger — the planet and vis à vis all biological life including humans.
2. Don’t believe Climate Change is caused by humans and accept it is real and continue on as if nothing has changed. In the words of a relative (without children): “We’ll be dead by then.”
3. Believe it is real and it’s too late to do anything about it. Give up.
4. Believe it is real and science and technology can fix it so we can return to “normalcy”.
5. Believe it is real and the we must go all out to remedy it including the principles of “The Green New Deal” revolutionize healthcare, see that Corporations pay taxes and penalties as the major contributors of Climate Change, de fund and quickly phase out fossil fuels in favor of increasingly cleaner alternatives. Use and find new sources of green energy.
6. Believe it is real and it’s too late to fix the world and save us. Try with all our might anyway — following the precepts of #5 and working to relieve suffering in hopes that a new kind of humanity will emerge.

We as a species could work to relieve suffering up to the end.

I hope I will be able continue to relieve suffering this until my body or my life gives out.

Originally published at http://psychesweather.wordpress.com on April 4, 2020.