week

Just one more week and this will all be over.

That’s all I’m hearing. Sure, the election will be over and all will be right in the world. Maybe there’s a black guy behind the desk or a near-dead shell of what was never a maverick with his shaky fingers above the nuclear codes.

Whatever the case, does everyone think it’s going to just go away? If the old one’s elected democracy will be exposed as a sham. Those that are so passionate now will deflate and slink back to their Wiis and blogs. If the other wins, media will scrutinize his every move. His bills will be picked apart, eroded and rendered impotent.

The impressive rage, built up over more than a year of campaigning, pointing fingers and shifting blame, will not dissipate so quickly. Wednesday will not come with parades and hugs. Those that favored the opponent will remain firm in their beliefs, will still know they are right.

There’s a global recession coming, sparked by an ideology built on ever-expanding resources that are already drying up. Here, the nation’s poor are finally buckling under the disproportionate weight of the richest one percent.

Our markets are built on a flawed theory, one that was formulated and implemented when resources were infinite. It’s based on informed consumers that don’t have information and resources already drying up. Business and government cling to regression in a time that cannot afford anything but progress.

Things will fall. Not now, maybe not while I’m still alive, but eventually. Unless we change. Not our President, not our electorate, not our corporations, but the collective we. It is we that have to change ourselves.

Whether man-made, cyclical or proof God is bored with his pathetic experiment, climate change will have grave effects. Already we’re extracting more than the earth can provide. Our business sector, so powerful, flexible and advanced, opposes any real change, green-washing their message to save money, still thinking short-term.

Our nation, our communities and our conceptions need to change. We need innovation, ingenuity and transformation more now than ever. We, for the first time in our history, have ready access to global communication and we react by trying to limit bandwidth so those providing the pipes can glean more profit.

All people can talk about is one election in one nation. Short-sightedness got us here and will lead us further into desolation. My optimism waned and failed long ago but I hope to regain something resembling it. The ideas are already out there.

A book written fifteen years ago lists thoughtful tax incentive programs that encourage conservation over extraction. It uses a metaphor of ecological maturation to demonstrate positive restrictions and allowances that would regulate and expand the markets while decreasing our societal footprint.

I don’t have the hopefulness to believe it’ll happen. Too many are oblivious or ignorant to the struggles we face, some willfully so. Too many with too much have vested interest in indefinite continuation while too few with too little pay the price.

But, there’s nothing to worry about. Because in just one more week, this will all be over.

Cross posted at Thought Chasm