The Quiet Connect

Life is busy and by the by things pass in the manner we expect- with great difficulty and endless nuisance. Health-care is frontline, the environment hangs in the backdrop- sword of inertia drooping ominously above. The Financial sector is also going through an expected regulatory overhaul. The wars continue/the insurgents do their thing, an unfortunate fact for Pakistan and the world. Domestically, Swine Flu threatens to disrupt dinner. Unemployment rises, elections pass and new ones start, some companies post profits- and some don't. All is good in the end?

When you have nothing worthwhile to say, it may be best to stay a quiet connect.

The Care for Health

The entire point of the State is to protect it's citizens. For what other reason would men band together, adhere to specified values and customs, and even accept the authority of another human being, if not for the compact of mutual assistance when any individual's physical existence is imperiled?

Sovereignty is held by the people, a principle established and reaffirmed at the creation of each State. Therefore if a State can not or will not provide for the health of its citizens, it is a sick State- a State with dying, or at best corrupt, Sovereignty. Government must at all times be most concerned with the health, and implicitly well-being, of its citizenry. The physical safety of its members is so essential to a State that it must monopolize the legitimate use of coercive force, granting us a military and police, in order to secure its borders from external threat and to ensure that its members do not harm one another.

The very concept of private property exists in order to protect the physical existence of individuals within society. In other words, private property is sacred to us because it is a source of health. The first man to have raised a fence, did so with the desire of ensuring nutrition-delineating and protecting a small patch of land for personal agriculture.

The very legitimacy of the State rests on its willingness and capacity to provide for the safety of its members, because no structure can withstand the test of time if built on a poor foundation.

"Free" Universal Health-Care is not an option, but a necessity of good-governance. The devil is in the details.

Harnessing the power of the word "Clean"

For the past few months my physical and mental space have been occupied almost exclusively by the global campaign to reduce greenhouse gas pollution and create a clean energy economy. So I haven't written anything, especially on a subject so dependent on science (that is too complicated and technical for me to have a worthwhile opinion on) as is climate change. However, here is my bit.

Our planet's climate is changing. Everyone over 5 years old agrees with that fact. The scandalous question is: "Why is our climate changing?"

Because of the Industrial Revolution? Natural planetary cycles? Does it really matter since the planet is only 6,000 year old and the rapture is coming?

There are only two real possible answers; one is the worst-case scenario and the other is the better but equally unfortunate scenario:

A) The first is that indeed, mankind has completely hijacked the evolutionary process of Earth and thrown it into a cataclysmic extinction level event spiral after a century and a half of unrestricted planetary poisoning through relentless heavy industrial production and warfare.

B) The second scenario absolves us of the blame, but leaves us with many of the same problems. The planet is undergoing one of its many multi-millenary cycles that shifts the status quo in favor of some species and forces mass adaptation to changing habitats- see the Ice Age. The only difference is that now, the process is slightly quickened by human activity- not much to worry about since something similar would happen anyway.

Either way, the human species will face the same challenges: Major shifts in agriculture, mostly affecting developing or undeveloped geographical areas. The poorest parts of the world do not have access to technology intensive agriculture (whatever its merits or entrapments may be, food is food); therefore these areas will be the most vulnerable to socio-political and economic unrest. This means more refugees, human rights abuses and disruption of trade- not to mention the opportunity cost of closed and/or chaotic markets. Concurrently an inevitable decrease in the quality of life of all people would be plainly visible- water is a precious commodity in many parts of the world already and is a basic common denominator example.

Throughout history, revolutions in production have been made possible by social crisis and these revolutions are the motor behind the technological progress of human society- once again, all strive toward efficiency. Fossil fuels are owed an immeasurable debt by humankind, for bringing us all the luxury and comforts of modern western civilization. Fossil fuels are owed due regard for bringing humankind to the point where such energy is anachronistic. Fossil fuels depend on combustion, wasting tremendous amounts of energy. The byproducts of these reactions are toxic- millions of Americans suffer yearly from respiratory, cardiovascular diseases and of course- cancer. Fossil fuels have made American intervention in foreign countries a matter of policy, even when such action was detrimental to all involved. That is expensive energy.

A truly advanced society, in terms of technology and social philosophy, thrives off of the natural cycles of the host planet, solar system, etc... We are gaining the ability to harness geothermal, tidal flux, wind and solar energy, battery technology has also made tremendous advances in recent years. A world power cannot afford to miss out on the energy revolution and the interest groups trying to forestall these natural evolutions in human capability are in the kindest of terms: unpatriotic.

The current economic crisis is the perfect time to look for new production methods and items, train millions of new workers, create new markets and expand the scope of international cooperation.
After all, Reagan himself pointed out that we needed a threat greater than any ideology or country to unite humankind.
So yes, it is time to end the wars and start the biggest overseas contingency operation of all- the global clean energy leap.