Some Reason for the Season

On a day when we will hear a lot of jokes about the end of the world, the end of the Mayan calendar, it’s worth reflecting on a deeper meaning.

Today is also the winter solstice. The shortest day of the year in the northern hemisphere. This is no accident. The Mayan’s timed their calendar to the movement of the sun, moon, and stars. This was created at least 1500 years ago. That’s a millennium before Columbus sailed into the west. What was essentially a stone age culture, with no telescopes, calculators, computers or even books, thought enough to project out the exact timing of the solstices for 15 centuries into the future.

Without attributing any attitudes or beliefs to those ancient people that I can’t verify, the mere fact that they created this calendar gives us something to think about…. Something to reflect on. How often do these quantities and measurements  of time enter our consciousness? Does our civilization have a long count calendar?  Of course, it’s the information age, anything is available if you look for it. Check out 3012: http://www.timeanddate.com/calendar/index.html?year=3012&country=1  My birthday falls on a Saturday that year. You’re invited.

But do we really plan for the future in any meaningful way? If you want an example of how poorly we plan as a general rule, there is a great example in recent times. The Y2K bug existed because people couldn’t look 30 years into the future: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Y2K.

We might put a little money away for our kid’s education, or retirement, but how often do we really contemplate the long term and how our actions today will impact future generations?

How will our descendants view us? Will we have descendants? The year 3012 will come whether we’re here to see it or not. What legacy will we leave, what foundation are we building?

Do we care about that? Or just the next version of the iPad or episode of Pawnstars?

This has been a special time of year for all cultures, as long as people have planted crops and marked the seasons. The Roman empire prior to Emperor Constantine dedicated it to the god Saturn, and  had a week of partying and gift giving  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saturnalia. It is a time when the sun is reborn and begins its rise in the sky. But whether you choose to celebrate Ra the sun god, Saturn the god of time, the baby Jesus, or a magic lamp, give some time to reflect on our responsibilities and priorities.

As we go into 2013, my hope for humanity is that we all make one resolution. That we stop and think. That means, before forming an opinion based on what some pundit on tv says, we take some time to look into the facts. When politicians appeal to emotions like fear and greed, we stop and look into the facts. That when we speak, vote, or spend, it is with a thought about the future, the long term future, not next month or next year. In the information age, ignorance is a choice, and in a democracy we get the government and the future we deserve. Unfortunately, it will be our distant descendants who have to deal with the future we create. Today may not be an actual Mayan Apocalypse, but are we sure we’re not planting the seeds for a long term, gradual one?

It’s all well and good to hear traditionalist remind us of ‘the reason for the season” and to “put Christ back in Christmas”, but instead of selfishly focusing on having the winning ticket to the spiritual lottery, where you get eternity in the lap of luxury if you bet on the right god. Think about whether we are leaving a heaven or hell on earth for people 500 or a 1000 years from now?

Will future generations bless or curse you? Do you care? Maybe thinking about that is a good reason for the season.  

What do you owe your neighbor's grandkids?

In real terms, my neighbor's future grandkids can pound sand. They aren't going in my will.

If you already have kids or grandkids, this isn't really aimed at you. Where to start...

There are two bogeymen

The Point of Protests

There is an illustrious history of popular protests around the world. A few successful, some spectacularly so, most forgotten in the footnotes of obscure history.

Are you a pessimist, realist, or conspiracy theorist?

If you hear anyone prattling on about illuminati, global banking cartels, or ‘the powers that be’ (TPTB), don’t immediately dismiss them as loons; see them for what they are… unabashed, doey-eyed, naïve, optimists.

You see, they’ve recognized the historical trends, seen the flaws in human society, and recoiled at the horrors of man’s inhumanity to man, and what they’ve done is put on their rose coloured glasses and attributed all the ills of the world to a faceless evil entity. Those with supernatural leanings will blame the devil, or malignant gods. But our friends who populate the internet's more interesting forums are way too practical for that.

So replace demons with a more flesh and blood cabal of sociopathic puppeteers, and in this way, they can go on seeing their friends, neighbours, and really anyone they encounter in real life, as good natured, altruistic examples of human goodness. Real life people who do wrong must have been mutated or corrupted by the evil system slash plan that TPTB have put into place.

Dig into a conversation with any conspiracy theorist or doomer, and you’ll find that they are really a utopian. They’re just waiting for the global catastrophe to wipe out the evil puppet masters, so the survivors (always including themselves) can start over in a lovely commune of sharing, environmentally sustainable, perfection. At least, it will be after they shoot anyone who doesn't agree.

The idea that both corporations and governments are made up of millions of moving parts (that's my polite euphemism for nasty, fallible, selfish humans), and billions of small decisions, which have a cumulitive effect over a long period of time., ...well, it's all too complex for some people to grasp.

150,000 years later

I wonder how the first homo sapiens to develop language said 'fuck it'. I'm sure they had a word or gesture.

After a long day of running from carnivors, tracking game, digging up edible roots, or maybe sharpening  sticks on a rock... did they sit around complaining about the lack of opportunity or that the cheiftan gets all the best chicks? I'm sure some of them just wished they could climb back up a tree and stay there.

A mere 6000 generations later, a lot of us still want to climb a tree and not come down. Or maybe just pitch a tent in a park.

After centuries of improvement, the gap between rich and poor is now getting worse. The complexities of our consumer driven economy and technology riddled society are enough to drive many around the bend from the intersection of progress and efficiency to the corner of despair and desperation. Financial crisis, overwhelming private and public debt, broken political systems, shifting power, resource depletion, climate change, ...where's my tree!

But actually, from where I sit, high atop mount Olympus, nothing has really changed. Not since Kronos ripped the nads of Uranus and set the worlds spinning. The only difference is in the concept with which mortals struggle mightily... context.

Words and worries may change, but over the 150,000 years of human history, the future has always been frought with danger... whether it's being eaten by a tiger, falling to a rampaging horde, plague, or economic destitution, the constant is uncertainty. The past has been overcome, the present is fleeting, and the future is a chaos of possibilities. Fuck it... or embrace the adventure.