American Acquisition Disorder

We are a nation of over consumers. It is reflected in our obesity, our waste stream, our debt load, and much more...our need for much more. What brings this to mind is "The World's Longest Yardsale" occurring this weekend. It starts in Gadsden Alabama at the southern end of Lookout Mountain and winds its way to Addison Michigan near Ann Arbor almost 700 miles. The name and the event support my point - it is the world's longest and so must be the best, the greatest, the largest, the mostest. We just can't get enough. Folks we have a problem.

First, from Robert Hunziker’s  “State of the Climate – It’s Alarming!’, counterpunch, ‘June 15, 2018, (in which  he actually does explain his use of the exclamation point in his title.)

We face two great existential threats today... nuclear war and climate chaos. Hopefully we can keep those tiny hands off the red button, but there is no guarantee. Global warming is so problematic because of our denial combined with the rush to extract as much profit as possible from the fossil fuel industry before its inevitable collapse. Before we despair, it might be wise to reflect on the advice of the fine historian, Howard Zinn:

“To be hopeful in bad times is not just foolishly romantic. It is based on the fact that human history is a history not only of cruelty but also of compassion, sacrifice, courage, kindness."
"What we choose to emphasize in this complex history will determine our lives. If we see only the worst, it destroys our capacity to do something. If we remember those times and places—and there are so many—where people have behaved magnificently, this gives us the energy to act, and at least the possibility of sending this spinning top of a world in a different direction."
"And if we do act, in however small a way, we don’t have to wait for some grand utopian future. The future is an infinite succession of presents, and to live now as we think human beings should live, in defiance of all that is bad around us, is itself a marvelous victory."