spill

we are a generation without a cause. the horrors we face are more numerous, collectively more sinister, yet subtler and more diffuse than the demons faced by generations past. the great myth of the battle between the forces of good and evil resonates in every era; it’s narrative echoes in the cold war, the holocaust, nuclear proliferation, the inquisition, the battle for civil rights – each an historical moment during which the perversion of power turned against us to challenge the basic tenets of our humanity, and each required a trying and painful revision of the status quo.

we are at new turning point, yet another painful awakening, a great and horrifying mistake calling on us to face our own fears.

today we face the deterioration of the world we have always known, but at our own hands, and only due to our thoughtless pursuit of something deeply human; comfort.  our collective greed, our excess, our appetite for the simple mass-produced luxuries we take for granted now have the ability, the perverse power, to alter the very fabric of the environment in which we exist. by feeding each and every one of our simple demands, we are rapidly changing the weather patterns on which we depend for our livelihoods, our moods, our sustenance.

the financial systems which fund our greed are stretched and  broken, our environment taxed and poisoned. but at what point did it become so evil for us all to dream of a bigger, brighter, faster future? can’t we all have everything we want, every device, every pre-packaged snack in every flavor, every color? we may still be able to have everything we dream and even wilder futures which we have not yet even begun to dream - but from now on, we must do everything differently.

we know this, yet we fail to rally. this is because nothing, no matter how egregious, has challenged the essential health, the comforts of our existence. one city, one coastline, even one country at a time may suffer at the hands of our foolishness, but the threat remains diffuse, because it’s born of our collective selfishness.

so what if we can’t fix the biggest problems that face us, if collectively we can’t man up, human up, or design any method to counteract the madness, the anger, the bitter toxic bile of our collective denial’s miscarriages? what if we can’t call upon a shining beacon of cleanliness and goodness against the forces of evil and greed and destruction and the toxic abasement of our humanity  - only because we are the children, the beneficiaries of the blind greed feeding us? how will we begin to resist our own desires?