Art & Politics

Reading the news and observing American culture, something I have not had the option to do for some time, I have noticed that there seems to be a bit of duality going on here. There seems to be a two-headed snake in the grass.

Sometimes there are news articles in which hope for a new century is founded and then other times it seems that we are on some dangerous path. Nonetheless, change does seem to be in the air, but it seems to me that we are going to have to be mindful of how those changes come about. An example here locally, is that a school board has decided to ban the viewing of Al Gore's film "An Inconvenient Truth" on the grounds that Global Warming is theory. Why are there pockets of America where the virtues of science are still being questioned? Or better yet, what happened to common sense? Even if we were to debate as to whether Global Warming is theory or not, the fact of the matter is that the fundamental message in this film is that we have one planet with limited resources. If one were to take a business minded approach to viewing this predicament, it is clear that it is not a conservative approach to continue using natural resources that are not replenish-able. It is by far, more logical to utilize and procure resources that are renewable. In fact, it is very logical and financially secure to obtain and develop renewable resources as this leads to a market that has no foreseeable end; a far more sensible business plan. As entrepreneurial capitalism seems to be leading this country more than anything, why is such logic so difficult to understand? What furthermore does not make any sense, and especially in this particular case, is that it is seemingly the people that are standing up for big business, further proof that our system is corrupt.

And then there is this: http://www.pbs.org/newshour/updates/environment/jan-june07/climate_01-22.html. Several Chief Executives of some major corporations pressed Bush to place federal mandatory caps on carbon monoxide. Quite a shocker, as it is seemingly against conventional wisdom expounded by bleeding-heart environmentalists that the corporations are to blame. Or is it? Is it perhaps evidence of something else? To para-phrase Ralph Nader, the consumer has the power in our economic system. More simply, as the dollar controls our society, then the one who has the dollar is the one who controls the system. We are often lead to believe that is some mystical entity that actually controls the dollars when in fact, as we are a consumerist society, the control really does lie with us. Spending that dollar is an act of endorsement. Buying a hummer supports the war effort. Installing and purchasing Green Power takes money away from the coal-fired power companies. They loose money and they start to listen.