Avarice

Petrol prices are up, disposable income is down. Our culture continues to decline while we struggle to maintain our privileged lifestyle with less available money.

Our dependence on fossil fuels is causing many of the major problems facing our world today. Rather than focusing on how our culture has evolved around this dependence and encouraging the social change required to address it, we look for alternative fuels so that we can continue to maintain the status quo. Biofuels are not the answer, in fact they may be the final nail in the coffin. While world governments are beginning to legislate ethanol based fuels, dollar signs are filling the eyes of many as they strategize on how to exploit this new cash cow. Forests are being clear cut to make way for crops to feed our fuel addiction while we continue to struggle to produce enough food to feed our expanding population. The food crisis is such that the organic food industry may be wiped out while we have no choice but to use chemicals to maximize production to address this burgeoning issue.

Here in Canada, eleven companies in Quebec were charged with gas price fixing. While oil companies continue to rake in record profits, their greed is such that they resort to illegal tactics to generate even more. CEOs of major corporations continue to get paid exorbitant amounts of money to make their shareholders rich at the expense of the planet and ultimately at the expense of the longevity of the very corporation that is feeding their greed. In an attempt to get by with less, our schools are devoting less time and funding to the arts and physical education to maintain focus on the sciences. Our governments have followed the same pattern. Perhaps this is why we continue to search for a technological or scientific solution to a social problem and why we are in another dark age of cultural decline.

For my part, I am trying to address my concerns through my wallet. I am simplifying my life so that I consume less. I encourage small local businesses by spending a little extra on their products rather than patronizing the big corporate chains. Ultimately this will encourage less urban sprawl and reduce my need to travel outside my immediate community to shop. I will continue to use my disposable income to reflect my values and not my materialistic wants while avoiding television so that I can maintain enough clarity to tell the difference.

“A grandfather talking to his young grandson tells the boy he has two wolves inside of him struggling with each other. The first is the wolf of peace, love and kindness. The other wolf is fear, greed and hatred. "Which wolf will win, grandfather?" asks the young boy. "Whichever one I feed," is the reply.”
- Native American Proverb