[R-G] [BillTottenWeblog] Dependence Day

[Bill Totten]

Our Fifth of July annual holiday - a proposal

by Jan Lundberg

Culture Change Letter #190 (July 05 2008)


Our Fourth of July holiday ought to be critically evaluated for the word
"Independence" - what we are celebrating. Since the concept of US's
birth was based on just a document, so it seems sometimes, one might
emulate the Declaration of Independence by issuing a Declaration of
Dependence. What better day than every July 5th, when we can easily
recall our previous day's independence-revelry?

It would be too easy to just harp, "We are not independent of oil!" As a
nation we are addicted to oil, as the current president said. Dare we go
deeper with reflection on reasons for the addiction and the materialism
it originates with?

First we can take a couple of instances of lack of true independence
that may amount to a mockery of the principle. One instance is the
massive pollution of the air and the sound waves by July 4th
festivities. Fireworks and firecrackers aren't all bad, but we are
nevertheless putting poisonous heavy metals and soot into our breathing
environment. Annual tonnage of fireworks sold legally is in the
millions, and some say this is dwarfed by the illegal variety.

The pervasive practice of the noxious but colorful shows adds up to an
unsustainable use of toxic substances. We are simply too many to just do
anything we want for kicks; we have a huge impact due to our numbers. It
shouldn't be just an afterthought that animals run scared and are even
destructive because of the violent noise.

Such transgressions against nature reveal the central issue about
independence and dependence as a moral one. At first it does not seem
so, as people today can apparently choose to veer toward sustainable
living and self-reliance, or they can feel comfortable doing no
recycling, learning no new skills, buying their food from another
continent, and participating in their community to a minimal extent. In
the latter case, money and petroleum furnish everything, and life
appears to go on with no threat of sudden upheaval or interaction with
unknown neighbors.

The above is a most relevant contrast in independence and dependence.
The moral issue comes into the equation when we delve into what the
energy cost really is to maintain a high-consumption life-style. Because
the US uses about a quarter of the world's energy, and has only about
five percent of the population, the inequity is easily seen. We can go
further and trace one's dollars: they and their origin can always be
traced to some instance of exploitation or imperialism. Or, if we don't
want to "go there", we can remind ourselves that being the top
greenhouse gas producer (barely surpassed recently by China) is a
consequence of our energy dependence.

Some might say our only problem is fossil fuel dependence, and that
other forms of energy can allow us to keep on keepin' on. However, this
stance fails to stand up to scrutiny when one considers energy-return
ratios compared to the cheap petroleum that's gone, and when we consider
petroleum's flexibility and versatility for materials as well as fuels.
Solar panels and other technologies will not feed us in any way
approaching the way petroleum has. Lurching toward the technofix is a
waste of energy in itself, and does not address our deeper issues of
dependence and independence.

Because of these realities, and a series of unpopular wars when our
country was not about to be invaded, waving the red-white-and-blue flag
is not a sure indication of real independence. Could it be our flag has
for now ceased to reflect the vigorous, independent spirit of our
forefathers and their affirmation of our inalienable right to the
pursuit of happiness and freedom?

The Declaration of Dependence would be a conscious acknowledgment of our
global behavior as well as a self-warning that we must get back to real
independence soon - voluntarily or not, when petrocollapse and climate
change take over completely. It can be argued that a true patriot
decries today's dishonorable, unsightly dependence, and instead longs
for mutual interdependence to aid the common good. (There has probably
already been a Declaration of INTERdependence created and circulated,
and I would probably sign it.) Unlike Thomas Jefferson's Declaration,
let's try a first-person kind of pledge, as a public draft subject to
modification:

- I am dependent on using too much energy in a world of limited
resources and high population size.

- I have depended on long-distance freight for my food and other
essentials, as well as for nonessentials that were supposed to make for
wealth.

- I live in a nation oblivious to its unpopular world role as the number
one waster of energy and top generator of pollution.

- I depend on the isolation of my high-consuming household to avoid
working with my neighbors to manage our own local political affairs.

- I have depended on corporate media and a public school system that
does not tell the whole story. They have been influenced by powerful
capitalists as well as religion, conditioning us to believe our
lifestyle can go on forever with our know-how and "still vast" resources
to exploit.

- As a dependent American, looking to the good sentiments of the
Declaration of Independence of July 4 1776, I strive to become truly
independent of unsustainable energy use, of wasting resources, and of
tolerating oppression whether against me or my neighbor or fellow world
citizen.

When a human being is exemplary for conduct benefiting others, the
person is celebrated as all too unique; actually, the paragon is a
reflection of all of us. Conversely, when one of us is unethical or a
menace to society, this is a group failure of the entire population of
the culture.

A truly independent person is granted - thanks to a culture of mutual
aid - freedom of movement and of expression. Such independence and
freedom are not present in sedentary, non-nomadic societies of large
population sizes. Wild nature should be at hand to roam in, and
essentials of life obtained without others' control. Civilization has
had slave societies and the working hell of capitalism's production. We
are not really past that. For in modern sedentary society it is the
literally sedentary person, whether dependent on sitting in the car or
in front of a desk or a television, thus cut off from natural living,
who is automatically non-independent.

Reference:

"Fireworks Leave Tons of Pollutants For Months" by Marla Cone, Los
Angeles Times (July 04 2008): ktla.trb.com
_____

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