tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35117130.post3411874136539317837..comments2024-03-28T19:18:40.387-04:00Comments on Northern Reflections: The Dream Lives OnOwen Grayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06464860078574618579noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35117130.post-54542504029572903702016-08-09T13:14:47.015-04:002016-08-09T13:14:47.015-04:00Orwell would remind us, Steve, that when our langu...Orwell would remind us, Steve, that when our language is corrupted so is our thinking.Owen Grayhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06464860078574618579noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35117130.post-23402357098605890222016-08-09T13:13:09.265-04:002016-08-09T13:13:09.265-04:00Hurtig always had the courage of his convictions, ...Hurtig always had the courage of his convictions, Mound -- through thick and thin. On the world stage, I see no one like him.Owen Grayhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06464860078574618579noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35117130.post-55510430992155676282016-08-09T12:41:34.817-04:002016-08-09T12:41:34.817-04:00Here we are in 2016, a decade after John Ralston S...<br />Here we are in 2016, a decade after John Ralston Saul's "The Collapse of Globalism." In 2005 he chronicled the demise of globalism as a failed ideology, a belief-based system more akin to a religion than anything else. Yet we remain mired in a failed experiment that continues for want of any vision for a new way. <br /><br />Trudeau and every Western leader quests for perpetual growth in GDP - production and consumption. Yesterday was Earth Overshoot Day yet they scoff at the idea even as the corruption of our atmosphere proceeds apace, our lakes and coasts host red tides and blue-green algae blooms, our aquifers drain and farmlands subside, exhausted farmland succumbs to desertification and deforestation spreads around the world.<br /><br />How do you imagine our political caste, the High Priests of Globalism, will respond when they meet with the world's top climate scientists in Geneva this month like patients in a doctor's office awaiting the dreaded results of that awful test? How will they respond when they're told the fossil fuel era must end, not on its own terms, not gradually, but by their hand, promptly? How will they cope with the idea that 27-trillion dollars of proven fossil fuel reserves fully subscribed on stock markets around the world are effectively worthless, stranded? How will they react when told that their three-pack-a-day habit must end, cold turkey, if mankind is to have any chance of a future?<br /><br />We seem to be nearing the moment when all these calamities, so effortlessly kicked down the road for the past two decades, turn leaden and can be kicked no longer. How will they respond? Will they jettison globalism? Will they find new modes of organization - economic, political, social? Will they chart a way forward for this century? Or will they shrug and say "we can't" to mask a true intent of "we won't." I know how I'd place my bet and, yes, I would bet the farm. The Mound of Soundhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09023839743772372922noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35117130.post-27991719105763536562016-08-09T12:39:24.213-04:002016-08-09T12:39:24.213-04:00And who is litterate enough to listen even if they...And who is litterate enough to listen even if they were inclined? Its not by accident<br />we can no longer critically think.Stevehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14162783936999869984noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35117130.post-62875425635142455192016-08-09T09:41:24.436-04:002016-08-09T09:41:24.436-04:00Attention spans have gotten shorter, Steve. And th...Attention spans have gotten shorter, Steve. And therefore some people don't think very well. But there are exceptional people who don't go with the flow.Owen Grayhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06464860078574618579noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35117130.post-68643201010506187872016-08-09T09:08:37.218-04:002016-08-09T09:08:37.218-04:00Sorry Owen no one believes in ideas anymore. If we...Sorry Owen no one believes in ideas anymore. If we could make it into a game or an app<br />maybe we could score.Stevehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14162783936999869984noreply@blogger.com