A homeless guy came up to me on Telegraph Street and said, "You look distinguished."
"Thanks," I said. "So do you."
"Yeah," he sighed. "But I fell asleep in the middle of it."
Monday, May 28, 2007
Tuesday, May 15, 2007
Revival
I saw Paul Hawken last night. He led a revival meeting for those of us who believe in social justice and environmental sanity. He gave us a gently rousing sermon about the multitudes of the righteous across the globe who share our belief. He gave us hope that we, the meek and righteous, shall inherit the earth from the evil powers of oil, endless consumption, and Wall Street concentrations of wealth. He confirmed for us that our love for each other and for the planet is the way, the truth, and the life. He inspired us to keep the faith in our good works. We are legion; together, we shall overcome.
My mocking tone, here, fails to protect me from the truth of this insight: The many movements worldwide to save the planet and its people from the apocalypse amount to a religious movement. It springs from the same human spirit that inspires all the great religions: our purpose and salvation in a world going to hell is love, faith, hope, and community. We have new stories for our age, stories based in science and reason rather than myth and mysticism; we have replaced faith in an all-knowing god with our faith in the collective human knowledge and wisdom of science and reason. But our emotional and spiritual experience is, perhaps, much the same as with a religion.
In other words, we respond emotionally and spiritually to these stories in a variety of what could be called religious ways. We have the old-testament style fire and brimstone prophets of global and globalized doom, who inspire righteous indignation against the oil-loving infidels. We have the prophets of piety, who counsel that individual adherence to a set of environmental and social commandments (mostly amounting to ascetic practices of organic, solar-powered, and free trade consumption) will counter the momentum of oil-fueled globalized misery. And we have prophets of hope like Hawken and Bill McKibben, whose gospels spread the word of goodness in the world and its people.
Perhaps we shouldn't be scared of this characterization of the movements of social justice and environmentalism as religious in nature. We can give up archaic superstition in favor of reason, the Law of the Father in favor of reasoned debates, and concentrations of power in hierarchical institutions of established religion in favor of the diverse and decentralized practices of millions of people. But why should we give up the emotional and spiritual stuff of religion--the faith, the hope, the fear, the indignation, and, above all, the love? Humans do not live by reason alone. Indeed, faith, hope, fear, indignation, and love are far more powerful than reason, certainly historically, certainly personally, and certainly politically. Why abandon such power? Why cede it to those who believe in superstition, the laws of a long dead god, and blind obedience to centralized authority?
The name of Hawken's book is Blessed Unrest. Hallelujah! Amen.
My mocking tone, here, fails to protect me from the truth of this insight: The many movements worldwide to save the planet and its people from the apocalypse amount to a religious movement. It springs from the same human spirit that inspires all the great religions: our purpose and salvation in a world going to hell is love, faith, hope, and community. We have new stories for our age, stories based in science and reason rather than myth and mysticism; we have replaced faith in an all-knowing god with our faith in the collective human knowledge and wisdom of science and reason. But our emotional and spiritual experience is, perhaps, much the same as with a religion.
In other words, we respond emotionally and spiritually to these stories in a variety of what could be called religious ways. We have the old-testament style fire and brimstone prophets of global and globalized doom, who inspire righteous indignation against the oil-loving infidels. We have the prophets of piety, who counsel that individual adherence to a set of environmental and social commandments (mostly amounting to ascetic practices of organic, solar-powered, and free trade consumption) will counter the momentum of oil-fueled globalized misery. And we have prophets of hope like Hawken and Bill McKibben, whose gospels spread the word of goodness in the world and its people.
Perhaps we shouldn't be scared of this characterization of the movements of social justice and environmentalism as religious in nature. We can give up archaic superstition in favor of reason, the Law of the Father in favor of reasoned debates, and concentrations of power in hierarchical institutions of established religion in favor of the diverse and decentralized practices of millions of people. But why should we give up the emotional and spiritual stuff of religion--the faith, the hope, the fear, the indignation, and, above all, the love? Humans do not live by reason alone. Indeed, faith, hope, fear, indignation, and love are far more powerful than reason, certainly historically, certainly personally, and certainly politically. Why abandon such power? Why cede it to those who believe in superstition, the laws of a long dead god, and blind obedience to centralized authority?
The name of Hawken's book is Blessed Unrest. Hallelujah! Amen.
Friday, May 11, 2007
Future Fridays: The End of Endless Growth?
I have to recommend Bill McKibben's Deep Economy. I am surprised by how much I like it. It's perhaps not much different than a lot of environmental books, and it didn't tell me anything, beyond specific examples, that I haven't been thinking about since the 70s. But McKibben is fun for me because he rekindles my sense of the future as a project--not idealism or optimism or even hope, just local, green stuff to do because 1) local and green is the right way to go and 2) because, who knows, it might work. In other words, the book manages to take the alternative piety out of environmentalism--neither the fire and brimstone alarms of global warning prophets nor the sanctimonious saintliness of tree-hugging messiahs. Rather, the book lays out the basic framework of what's wrong and the pragmatic everyday things people around the world are doing to better their lives and communities.
McKibben lays out quite readably and sanely the familiar basic problem:
McKibben's most prominent, most pressing, and most promising example is agriculture. Currently, we are ruining the planet with a "poisonous brew" of petroleum fertilizers, herbicides and pesticides, genetically modified seeds, and heavy gas-powered machinery that produce monocultural crops to travel thousands of miles in the global economy. Industrial agriculture: 1) depends entirely on a dwindling supply of oil; 2) wreaks havoc on ecosystems, human health, and global temperatures; and continues to dislocate farmers from the land, disenfranchising them, and sending them to urban slums and shanty towns in search of work. To counter this historically brief two-hundred year trend, McKibben points to dozens of innovative, technically advanced, and above all local agricultural practices that people everywhere are turning to.
McKibben lays out quite readably and sanely the familiar basic problem:
- Passing the peak of oil supplies means the end of the industrial economy as we've know it for two hundred years.
- The global warming caused by the oil economy is coming and will change things, no one knows how much.
- The globalization of the oil economy leads to vast inequities and an overworked and highly stressed population in this country, even more enormous social and ecological problems for countries developing on the U.S. model exported through the IMF and the World Bank, and points without question at the unsustainability of fossil fuel industrialization.
McKibben's most prominent, most pressing, and most promising example is agriculture. Currently, we are ruining the planet with a "poisonous brew" of petroleum fertilizers, herbicides and pesticides, genetically modified seeds, and heavy gas-powered machinery that produce monocultural crops to travel thousands of miles in the global economy. Industrial agriculture: 1) depends entirely on a dwindling supply of oil; 2) wreaks havoc on ecosystems, human health, and global temperatures; and continues to dislocate farmers from the land, disenfranchising them, and sending them to urban slums and shanty towns in search of work. To counter this historically brief two-hundred year trend, McKibben points to dozens of innovative, technically advanced, and above all local agricultural practices that people everywhere are turning to.
- In the U.S, for example, where the process of industrializing agricultural is most complete, local farmers markets are nonetheless growing fast, making possible a livelihood from the land for increasing numbers of local farmers. It also strengthens community, as folks become more aware of each other and the sources of the food we eat. Who doesn't like the farmers market? It's way more fun than the generic grocery store. The food is better and healthier. And local agriculture is better for the community and better for the planet.
- In other, developing countries, McKibben points to dozens of indigenous, local practices that tend toward the small, local, and sustainable. Often as innovative and technically marvelous as they are low-investment, practices like "biogas" heating or raising chickens in cages above fish ponds (so that the chicken shit fertilizes the water grass that the fish eat) may not even show up in the GNP, but they provide food and livelihoods for local folks. And the local folks are healthier and happier, working within their communities and in charge of their futures.
Wall Street over Main Street
Proof that current public policies favor the rich over the rest of us: An article in the Boston Globe reports, "Last spring, 20 of the 36 valedictorians from Boston's public high schools were confronted with the stark reality that, after all their hard work, they did not have the money to go to college. This year, the number stands to rise." The authors go on to note the disturbing trend in which financial aid is increasingly based on merit rather than need, thus sending more and more money to private school types who need it least.
Since 1993, the number of wealthy students (top quarter of incomes) receiving aid at private colleges has grown at more than five times the rate of the number of needy students (bottom quarter of income).
Saturday, April 28, 2007
Hedge Hogs
Robert Kuttner talks about the most visible and dangerous development in contemporary capitalism, the hedge fund, that unregulated engine of the rich to create outrageous personal wealth while endangering the economic lives of everyone else and, indeed, the entire financial system.
Beyond the risk of a crash, hedge funds and private equity operators are driving the wrong brand of capitalism. Theirs is a capitalism of windfall returns for financial engineers, and less security and income for workaday Americans. Hedge fund capitalism also signals that real entrepreneurship -- patiently nurturing a new idea and building a company of managers and employees -- is for suckers.
Sunday, April 15, 2007
Même
FOODOLOGY
Q. What is your salad dressing of choice?
A. Olive oil and balsamic (or, rather, faux balsamic, since I was told that true Balsamic vinegar from Modena in Italy is aged over 100 years and costs about that)
Q. What is your favorite fast food restaurant?
A. Closed.
Q. What is your favorite sit-down restaurant?
A. I think about restaurants the way my dad used to think about food: it's all good, unless it's bad.
Q. On average, what size tip do you leave at a restaurant?
A. I shoot for 20%, but can't vouch for my math
Q. What food could you eat every day for two weeks and not get sick off of?
A. Give me each day my daily bread, just make it good
Q. What is your favorite type of gum?
A. Plaque-free
TECHNOLOGY
Q. What is your wallpaper on your computer?
A. Generic
Q. How many televisions are in your house?
A. Zip these days, and I don't miss it at all. Then again, the Sox will be playing the Yankees next weekend.
BIOLOGY
Q. What’s your best feature?
A. My gender.
Q. Have you ever had anything removed from your body?
A. My hipness.
Q. Which of your five senses do you think is keenest?
A. Touch.
Q. When was the last time you had a cavity?
A. Where?
Q. What is the heaviest item you lifted last?
A. My responsiblities.
Q. Have you ever been knocked unconscious?
A. By the bottle.
BULLSHITOLOGY
Q. If it were possible, would you want to know the day you were going to die?
A. Absolutely not. Death's certainty yet unknowability is essential to the human condition.
Q. Is love for real?
A. Love is real, various, ubiquitous, rare, essential, God, all you need.... It's the human equivalent of the connection that makes a flock of doves change direction all in the same precise instant.
Q. If you could change your first name, what would you change it to?
A. Dunno
Q. What color do you think looks best on you?
A. Black and white.
Q. Have you ever swallowed a non-food item by mistake?
A. Only on purpose.
Q. Have you ever saved someone’s life?
A. Every time my daughters got near water before they could swim.
Q. Has someone ever saved yours?
A. When I was a twelve-year-old boy, I bounced a basketball from the sidewalk into a busy street and without thinking reached down to get it. This lady driving a red Pontiac slammed on her brakes, swerved to miss me, swerved back to avoid a head-on collision with cars coming the other way, saving my life, hers, and several others with some fancy-ass driving. Her car ended up broadside on the street and, like me, unscratched. My savior--pretty, dark hair, thirties--rolled down her window and said to me, "You asshole!"
DAREOLOGY
Q. Would you walk naked for a half mile down a public street for $100,000?
A. You wouldn't even need to bring clothes to my jail cell.
Q. Would you kiss a member of the same sex for $100?
A. Where?
Q. Would you allow one of your little fingers to be cut off for $200,000?
A. I have a feeling the originator of this même is a twelve year old boy.
Q. Would you never blog again for $50,000?
A. Would I still get to complete mêmes?
Q. Would you pose nude in a magazine for $250,000?
A. This one seems a bigger dilemma for women. We boys have no problems, except imagining getting paid for it.
Q. Would you drink an entire bottle of hot sauce for $1,000?
A. Is this a même for measuring masochism?
Q. Would you, without fear of punishment, take a human life for $1,000,000?
A. Or sadism? It's an S/M même from the mind of a twelve-year old boy.
Q. Would you give up watching television for a year for $25,000?
A. For that kind of money, I could watch the Sox in a very posh pub.
Q. Give up MySpace forever for $30,000?
A. Do you mean, my space?
DUMBOLOGY
Q: What is in your left pocket?
A. The usual.
Q: Is Napoleon Dynamite actually a good movie?
A. I actually laughed.
Q: Do you have hardwood or carpet in your house?
A. Yes.
Q: Do you sit or stand in the shower?
A. I've sat through a rain shower, a baby shower, and a wedding shower, but generally stand for a meteor shower.
Q: Could you live with roommates?
A. Could they live with me?
Q: How many pairs of flip-flops do you own?
A. No pairs, only flip-flop, flip-flop
Q: Last time you had a run-in with the cops?
A. I have more of a drive-in history with cops.
Q: What do you want to be when you grow up?
A. Young again. A twelve year old boy.
LASTOLOGY
Q: Friend you talked to?
A. My best friend, Robin.
Q: Last person you called?
A. My older daughter.
RANDOMOLOGY
Q: First place you went this morning?
A. To pee.
Q: What can you not wait to do?
A. When ya gotta go, ya gotta go.
Q: What’s the last movie you saw?
A. Volver, perhaps as good as a movie can get when it has no remotely likeable male characters.
Q: Are you a friendly person?
A. I did this même, didn't I?
Q. What is your salad dressing of choice?
A. Olive oil and balsamic (or, rather, faux balsamic, since I was told that true Balsamic vinegar from Modena in Italy is aged over 100 years and costs about that)
Q. What is your favorite fast food restaurant?
A. Closed.
Q. What is your favorite sit-down restaurant?
A. I think about restaurants the way my dad used to think about food: it's all good, unless it's bad.
Q. On average, what size tip do you leave at a restaurant?
A. I shoot for 20%, but can't vouch for my math
Q. What food could you eat every day for two weeks and not get sick off of?
A. Give me each day my daily bread, just make it good
Q. What is your favorite type of gum?
A. Plaque-free
TECHNOLOGY
Q. What is your wallpaper on your computer?
A. Generic
Q. How many televisions are in your house?
A. Zip these days, and I don't miss it at all. Then again, the Sox will be playing the Yankees next weekend.
BIOLOGY
Q. What’s your best feature?
A. My gender.
Q. Have you ever had anything removed from your body?
A. My hipness.
Q. Which of your five senses do you think is keenest?
A. Touch.
Q. When was the last time you had a cavity?
A. Where?
Q. What is the heaviest item you lifted last?
A. My responsiblities.
Q. Have you ever been knocked unconscious?
A. By the bottle.
BULLSHITOLOGY
Q. If it were possible, would you want to know the day you were going to die?
A. Absolutely not. Death's certainty yet unknowability is essential to the human condition.
Q. Is love for real?
A. Love is real, various, ubiquitous, rare, essential, God, all you need.... It's the human equivalent of the connection that makes a flock of doves change direction all in the same precise instant.
Q. If you could change your first name, what would you change it to?
A. Dunno
Q. What color do you think looks best on you?
A. Black and white.
Q. Have you ever swallowed a non-food item by mistake?
A. Only on purpose.
Q. Have you ever saved someone’s life?
A. Every time my daughters got near water before they could swim.
Q. Has someone ever saved yours?
A. When I was a twelve-year-old boy, I bounced a basketball from the sidewalk into a busy street and without thinking reached down to get it. This lady driving a red Pontiac slammed on her brakes, swerved to miss me, swerved back to avoid a head-on collision with cars coming the other way, saving my life, hers, and several others with some fancy-ass driving. Her car ended up broadside on the street and, like me, unscratched. My savior--pretty, dark hair, thirties--rolled down her window and said to me, "You asshole!"
DAREOLOGY
Q. Would you walk naked for a half mile down a public street for $100,000?
A. You wouldn't even need to bring clothes to my jail cell.
Q. Would you kiss a member of the same sex for $100?
A. Where?
Q. Would you allow one of your little fingers to be cut off for $200,000?
A. I have a feeling the originator of this même is a twelve year old boy.
Q. Would you never blog again for $50,000?
A. Would I still get to complete mêmes?
Q. Would you pose nude in a magazine for $250,000?
A. This one seems a bigger dilemma for women. We boys have no problems, except imagining getting paid for it.
Q. Would you drink an entire bottle of hot sauce for $1,000?
A. Is this a même for measuring masochism?
Q. Would you, without fear of punishment, take a human life for $1,000,000?
A. Or sadism? It's an S/M même from the mind of a twelve-year old boy.
Q. Would you give up watching television for a year for $25,000?
A. For that kind of money, I could watch the Sox in a very posh pub.
Q. Give up MySpace forever for $30,000?
A. Do you mean, my space?
DUMBOLOGY
Q: What is in your left pocket?
A. The usual.
Q: Is Napoleon Dynamite actually a good movie?
A. I actually laughed.
Q: Do you have hardwood or carpet in your house?
A. Yes.
Q: Do you sit or stand in the shower?
A. I've sat through a rain shower, a baby shower, and a wedding shower, but generally stand for a meteor shower.
Q: Could you live with roommates?
A. Could they live with me?
Q: How many pairs of flip-flops do you own?
A. No pairs, only flip-flop, flip-flop
Q: Last time you had a run-in with the cops?
A. I have more of a drive-in history with cops.
Q: What do you want to be when you grow up?
A. Young again. A twelve year old boy.
LASTOLOGY
Q: Friend you talked to?
A. My best friend, Robin.
Q: Last person you called?
A. My older daughter.
RANDOMOLOGY
Q: First place you went this morning?
A. To pee.
Q: What can you not wait to do?
A. When ya gotta go, ya gotta go.
Q: What’s the last movie you saw?
A. Volver, perhaps as good as a movie can get when it has no remotely likeable male characters.
Q: Are you a friendly person?
A. I did this même, didn't I?
Friday, April 6, 2007
Warner Warning
Walking by Ty Warner's various sea-front properties in Montecito last week, I witnessed an army of laborers building, renovating, beautifying. An economic apologist might piously point out how many jobs "Ty" is creating, how much money he's pumping into the local economy (though I wonder how much of the reported hundreds of million actually stays in the local economy and how much goes to imported luxuary items and materials). But to me, the significant fact is that so much capital and so much human labor, skilled and unskilled, lower class and lower middle class, is being devoted to the exclusive benefit of rich people.
Consider the Warner properties, not including his multi-lot bluff-top estate, and not including the cost of actual purchase:
Ty Warner epitomizes the worst of contemporary capitalism. He makes a fortune selling frivolous beanie babies to kids and crazed collectors, then invests that fortune in luxurious playpens for the rich and super-rich. His idea of public spirit, his contribution to making the world a better place, begins with personal aesthetics and ends with public relations. The saddest part is that he is typical, more successful than the run-of-the-mill millionaire, but still playing the same game of individual aggrandizement with little or no sense of larger purpose.
Consider the Warner properties, not including his multi-lot bluff-top estate, and not including the cost of actual purchase:
- Biltmore Hotel, recently renovated for a cool $240 million (for 233 rooms). Rooms "start at $550" a night.
- San Ysidro Ranch, recently renovated for $130 million (for 40 cottages and suites), plus an additional $25 million for the Stonehouse restaurant. Accommodations available for $800-$4,000 a night.
- Coral Casino, currently undergoing a $35 million renovation. Membership cost unavailable on the Internet.
- Montecito Country Club, renovation plans in the works, with Jack Nicklaus designing the golf course. Membership, $10,000.
- Sandpiper Golf Course, $124-$144 for a round of golf.
- Rancho San Marcos, currently a relative upper-middle-class bargain at $65-$85 for a round of golf, though changes are expected.
Ty Warner epitomizes the worst of contemporary capitalism. He makes a fortune selling frivolous beanie babies to kids and crazed collectors, then invests that fortune in luxurious playpens for the rich and super-rich. His idea of public spirit, his contribution to making the world a better place, begins with personal aesthetics and ends with public relations. The saddest part is that he is typical, more successful than the run-of-the-mill millionaire, but still playing the same game of individual aggrandizement with little or no sense of larger purpose.
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