Looking at the fracas in the good ol' US of A, the ever-increasing belching of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, and the indisputable physics that tell us of the consequences--some of which we see before us--I can't help but stumble upon another human nature metaphor: the drinking party.
When one is consuming alcohol in a social setting, perhaps a college party--or you just want to fuel the experience of going out and lighting a fire and shooting things--one knows from previous experience or observations that it is going to end badly. One knows that it is damaging one's body. One might even know that there are long-term consequences as well as the acute impacts. But humans do it anyway. It feels good, and I can't argue that someone shouldn't feel good, and the law of averages says that most people emerge from the experience with funny stories and for the most part with no easily transmitted diseases.
But we are living on this planet the same way that we get drunk and throw up on ourselves. It feels good to drive down the road in that F-250 with dual wheels covered by the custom fenders, with spinners and tinted windows. It is cool to drive that re-issue Dodge Charger that helped win the Revolutionary War. I'll admit it, it's appealing. And we can't stop. The over-sized house, the wasted gas trying to find our way out of the maze that is suburban development, the lack of effective public transportation, the new, bigger TV with HD so that you can see every drop of blood in the tap-out cage fight. We keep going, even though everything is telling us that it will hurt when we wake up--everything except those profiting or gaining power from the status quo. And we most likely won't change course, because it feels good for the time being.
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