Chief Joseph Dam—the great million-dollar-a-day mistake! [ click photo for next . . . ]
Columbia River watershed . . .
On the road in the American Northwest.

[ double-click to play moviePoem |

See also my piece from the ON THE WAYSIDE stream
of poems, called SEARCH GOOGLE (Google has a server farm
on the Columbia River at The Dalles, large enough to be seen from outer space,
with cooling towers four stories tall,
using more energy the former aluminium smelter.
Hydropower, at this Dark Age megascale is,
in my view, definitely not clean, not
environmentally friendly.

CULTURE OF COLLAPSE

We shape the world and the world shapes us.

Like water, the energy that creates and sustains cultural
excellence follows the free flow of meaning and intelligence.
When dams block this free flow of meaning and intelligence,
meaning and intelligence themselves will naturally and
necessarily move to break the blocks.

This is the source of real revolution.

The key insight is that real revolution is of necessity non-violent.
From the high peaks of cultural excellence, this is obvious, for far
and wide across the dry canyonlands of mediocrity, one sees clearly
that humanity's impulse to violence and the use of force is the root
cause of the dams themselves.

ALWAYS: It takes the healing gift of water to put out the fire.
Not, more fire.



THE BEST USE OF THE LAND

The best use of the land in both time and space can be seen
only through the perspective of the whole.

The guiding principle of best use is that, at the end of the day,
or a season, or a lifetime, what we leave behind is better,
is richer, is more beautiful, than what we first found.



THE THREE STAGES OF COLLAPSE

The root cause of all collapse is contradiction.

A contradiction is a fact, not a theory.

If I put 100 cows on a pasture, but the nature of the pasture itself—
the weave of grasses and forbs, the depth and texture of soil,
the available sunlight and water—says it will support only 10,
we have a contradiction.

When confronted with the fact of contradiction which is the cause
of collapse, first there is ignorance of the fact, then denial, then
resistance.

I may at first not know the nature of the pasture very well, so I make
the essentially innocent mistake of turning out too many cows. But
if I am for whatever reason attached or committed to my idea of
100 cows—say, I need the cash they will bring me, or I desire to
have more cattle than my neighbor—I will tend strongly to deny
that I am mistaken. This denial will harden into resistance once
others begin calling attention—bringing into the public commons—
the fact of my mistake. Then this stage of resistance will tend strongly
to do the wrong thing twice over, so instead of 100 cows I now will
show that I am right with 200.

Contradiction literally means 'contra-diction,' to 'speak against,'
as when two realities speak against each other, or when two
theories speak against each other, or when two facts speak
against each other.

Harmony is the opposite of contradiction. Its root meaning is
'fitting together.' Harmony is the essence of adaptation. Obviously,
adaptation is the opposite of collapse. Nature as a whole, when
seen and experienced as a symphony of dynamic, flowing
movement, is always necessarily harmonious, because these
movements will tend strongly either to fit or adapt together, or
perish.

Because contradiction is the very essence of waste—waste of energy,
essentially—the economy of Nature's watercourse way necessarily
will move to resolve contradiction.

The only single exception to this in the whole of Nature is humankind.
And for one simple reason. Because we are tragically unaware of
the confused formative movement of consciousness itself which leads,
when faced with simple facts, to stubborn denial, and to rigid, self-
destructive, resistance.

The greatest of ethical imperatives, therefore, is to by means of
becoming in an enlightened way aware of awareness itself, heal or
resolve the confusion of consciousness. And the contrary also follows,
that the greatest sin is to knowingly exacerbate, or manipulate, or
conceal the confusion—and the resulting denial and resistance—
for reasons of outward polical power or mere petty self-interest.

X.24.2010
Ice Lake Camp
Eagle Cap Wilderness