Big, small, meaningful, futile.
I am feeling overwhelmed.
I wrote about the making of billionaires, and it is still valid for the old school billionaires of just one year ago.
But now what is going on in the USA is creating a whole new batch of billionaires that is no longer constrained by any morality, concern for reputation, or sense of honour or duty.
But it would be foolish to think that it is restricted to the actions of one person, one leader. But it is a step change in scale and speed. No longer do you have to wait a decade to become a billionaire, or another decade to 10x that.
If you are willing to sacrifice people's lives, whole nations and not give a damn about the enviroinment ot legacy... You can become a billionaire within a year.
The old billionaire system seemed so hard to change - the systems put in place over the last decades, the ones that allow tax evasion, offshore accounts, public subsidies, exploitation of foreign or domestic workers, were all constrained by the desire to look good and noble - there was at least a nod at public service, public good.
Drop that, and can get rich so much quicker. You could get richer by buying shares in planet-destroying industries. But you can join the billionaire class by buying a drone company, then starting a war and then getting a share of a $35 billion contract for new armaments. You just need to ignore the impact on human lives, nature and the environment. And you need complicit political leaders who are willing to disregard the duties and laws that they swore an oath to uphold.
That is the big - the world stage, the leaders of the world's richest and most powerful countries.
Now to the small.
We have managed to get a candidate elected to local office. Her first days in office have been beset by political shenanigans, as those in power felt threatened by her energy and demands, which made them look ineffective or incompetent.
We have moved to elections for seats on a council two levels up, past the district level to the county level.
As the campaigns director, I have reviewed the election leaflets of the other parties in the race. One acts as though the world is perfect as it is. Elect him for more of the same. Another party points out that things are tough, but with a little bit of effort, we could patch over the pot-holes and improve a thing here or there. The level of ambition is shockingly low.
Our campaign started with looking at what we could change within the parameters of the role that our candidates were standing for. i.e. what are we permitted to engage with? I found myself going down this line - if we can only engage with pot holes, then we had better have a policy on those.
That doesn't account for the state of emergency we are in. None of the parameters reflects the issues that are coming down the line at us. The degradation of our farm land, the loss of wildlife, and the catastrophic shortage in fresh water that we are already facing.
Fixing the hundreds of potholes is needed. Accidents happen, cars are damaged, and tyres burst, so we need to fix this. But if we achieve only this after a four-year term in office, then the results will be ignored as our food supplies vanish from our shelves.
Then the attack on Iran began. Fuel supplies are dwindling, and costs are rising. As I write, there is a ceasefire in place, but the damage has been done. Prices will rise, people where we live will lose jobs, business owners will not be able to operate due to rising costs, and more people will become unemployed.
No leaflet mentions any of this. It is as if none of this is happening here - to us. Yet, it is happening everywhere - the effects of the climate crisis and now the consequences of the war. But it is not being spoken about.
So, is what I am doing here meaningful or... futile?
The reason I started was this feeling. The stuck feeling of knowing too much but also not knowing enough.
The mission remains - explore the ideas, clarify, simplify. Make things clearer to me and to whoever reads this far down.
The options are to join them, concentrate on potholes, or despair. Or make a small difference every single day. We got here by trashing the planet one small decision at a time. The reversal is the same process.
But with intentions based on shared prosperity.
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Big, small, meaningful, futile.
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