The Right Time

The recent global climate conference in Copenhagen (COP 15) has pointed out some things about the people attending and all people in general. 

All of the 193 countries were out for themselves.

They won’t admit to the big picture.

Now that’s a pretty big statement, but here’s a bigger one.  The generation of greenhouse gasses spells probable doom for the future inhabitants of this planet, which are your and my grandchildren and their grandchildren.

Yet the attending individuals focused on their immediate needs rather than look ahead. 

Many delegates refused to sign the Copenhagen Accord because it didn’t do enough as far as they were concerned.  Everyone wanted a perfect agreement for themselves, even if it means others will suffer.

I didn’t get everything I wanted.  The future will take care of itself.  I need to take care of me now.  There is always next year.

Other examples are the shoppers of Black Friday last year, who crushed an employee, a young father, as they jammed into the store looking for bargains, and Republicans doing anything they can to destroy the Democrats, regardless of the people they hurt.

These are examples of our survival instinct.  Survival now is all that matters.  It has been like this since creatures of any kind inhabited our earth.  It is called competition.

At the lowest level, trees grow higher or angle upwards to get the most sunlight.  Bugs and vermin will kill anything in the way of food.  Predators eat the weaker and slower. 

At a higher level, animals defend their territory from other animals, even of their own kind. 

At the human level, competition has been refined with ego and greed.  Having some is good, having more is better, having it all is just right. 

Greed is what drives us into competition, and winning feeds our ego. 

Before we look down on competition and greed, be aware that competition and greed are the reason you are alive today.  If your ancestors had not carved out their ‘piece of the pie’ for themselves and their families, they would have been eliminated by the competition.

We all share the greed for the better things of life for our families and ourselves.  That greed drives us into competition for a better paying job to gain the better things.  Winning the competition for a better paying job feeds our egos and increases our greed for tougher competition and higher pay. 

When rewards for competition are removed, so is the incentive to compete.  Would we be so interested in sports if there was no competition and no prize?  Would we work harder than others if every job paid the same regardless of effort?  The Soviet Union tried ‘collective’ farming where there were no rewards for extra effort, and their people nearly starved.  

How does that relate to the delegates at COP 15, Black Friday shoppers and Republicans? 

Delegates at COP 15 are in competition with each other, putting the good of our earth aside.  They are more of poor nation against rich nation, and their agreement is all they have to sell here.  If they don’t get paid off, they will not cooperate.  They hold the earth for ransom. 

Black Friday shoppers were in frantic competition with each other.  Greed for the bargain shut out all other reality, including the fallen body of that young father whose children will grow up without him. 

Republicans are denying their votes because the agenda of their party is to defeat the Democrats at any cost, holding the welfare of the people of this country for ransom, while they attempt to make voters believe it is for their own good. 

Survival is a good instinct, but it needs temperance.  Sometimes it is the survival of our neighbors, our group, our people and our world that is more important. 

We are not yet at a stage where we can put the greater good before our egos.

It is a sorry state.
Change starts with just one person that says “I won’t join that sorry state.”
Maybe it’s you.