The "Long Run"

Kindergarten graduation
Interrupted when brawl
breaks out among parents.

HUNGRY AND OUT OF WORK? EAT A REPUBLICAN.

Back in the early 1900’s Idaho had a Senator named Weldon Heyburn. Heyburn and his friends were amassing fortunes mostly in the timber industry and were cutting timber as fast as possible. When he was asked about future generations he replied “Let future generations look out for themselves.” I have quoted this before, I know, but it perfectly represents an American attitude that prevails to the present day. It seems to me that people in the U.S. have never been, and are not now, future oriented. They are apparently unable to conceive of “the long run.” Obviously there may be some rare individuals that are concerned about the future, environmentalists and conservationists, for example. But generally speaking, most Americans are unable to think of anything but the present and the short-term. This can be readily seen both in history and in the present. Passenger pigeons existed in the billions and were destroyed completely in a relatively short time. We attempted to annihilate the buffalo, and almost did so also in a relatively short time. We have overfished most of our fisheries, arguing that fisherman needed to fish in order to support themselves, without even considering what would happen to the fish and the fisherman once the fish were gone. Here in the Kootenai River, ling cod (burbot) were once so prevalent people caught them by the wheelbarrow load and fed them to their pigs. Now they are virtually extinct. The same is true of the Kootenai River sturgeon, virtually extinct. We created dams on most of our rivers with little or no regard to what would happen to the salmon runs and other fish. We mined our ores and dumped the slag into the rivers until they were so polluted nothing could live in them. And there are still those who would clear-cut the forests with little regard for the future. We starve our schools and educational system without thinking of the future effects of a poorly educated and non-competitive population. And, of course, we burn oil as fast as we can with no regard for the future of oil and other non-replaceable resources. We seem to be congenitally unable to think beyond instant gratification, as if we are still simply impulsive children who want everything right now.

I am sure that this lack of foresight is not exclusively American, but I believe it is far more common here than in many other countries. I am quite certain that both China and Japan, for example, are much more future oriented than we are. When the Norwegians discovered oil in the North Seat and were confronted with a choice of what to do with this new-found wealth they decided to preserve it for their children rather than just spend it immediately. But more often than not the human species, especially those living in the United States, do not defer gratification when given a choice. Drugs are put on the market before they have been fully examined for possible future damages, food is marketed before it can be adequately inspected, and so on. Now, in spite of the BP Oil disaster in the Gulf, the Governors of some states insist we should keep on drilling without further precautions or waiting because oil workers need their jobs. But is further damage to the entire Gulf Region, and even beyond, worth risking for the jobs of some oil workers? I’m sympathetic, I know they need their jobs, but we also need our environment and once it’s gone oil workers and many others certainly won’t have any jobs. Not only are our citizens unable to think of the future, they are actually antagonistic to those who do think of it. That is why you see bumper stickers like, HUNGRY AND OUT OF WORK? EAT AN ENVIRONMENTALIST, and so on. And many people still disparage the Forest Service and Fish and Game. They seem to think that these organizations, as well as scientists in general, exist for the sole reason of keeping them from doing what they want to do. There is a short-sightedness and anti-intellectualism among Americans that is pathological, and left to its own will certainly destroy us over time.

This inability to think beyond today I think has something to do with our history. Blessed with a large and seemingly inexhaustible supply of timber, water, minerals, land, and so on, we were always able to “Go west young man,” and now that is no longer possible we seem to be unwilling to admit it. But it also has to do with our capitalistic economy that puts profit, especially short-term profits, ahead of all else. This is why BP decided to drill without taking any real precautions, it’s why we see drugs being recalled that should not have been marketed in the first place, why our food is sometimes contaminated, and why even the destruction of our only planet can be sacrificed for the shareholders. There are, beyond any reasonable doubt, “Sick Societies.” The U.S. has certainly become one of them. Oh, I forgot, there is no global warming, no peak oil, no problem with extinctions, no end to consumption, no nation unexploitable, environment, ecology, and even innocent children are not allowed to stand in the way of profits, and there will always be canned salmon. Greed is good and the more profit the better. It’s the American way.

LKBIQ:
“It is true, I suppose, that nobody finds it exactly pleasant to be criticized or shouted at, but I see in the face of the human being raging at me a wild animal in its true colors, one more horrible than any lion…Anger makes them reveal in a flash human nature in all its horror.”
Dazai Osamu

TILT:
There are nearly 20,000 known species of bees.