Please Remain Calm

I just heard that housing has never been as unaffordable in British Columbia as it is today. It now takes, the radio announced, 73% of the average household income to pay for the house. And if you're a renter that worrisome news is also for you. The trouble and doubt is enough to make a person panic.

The European Union is in as deep of trouble as North America, and the Canadian dollar is dropping like teeth at a hockey game. Unemployment continues to mount. The "jobless recovery" makes one wonder who is recovering, and what they are ripping off to achieve it. Who are the people that are buying all these expensive houses? Getting a job? As The Cars sang in the 1980's, "It's all messed up."

The mess that BP and Haliburton have made of the Gulf of Mexico continues unabated. The last thousand year old trees are helicopter-lifted out of our forests while the wildlife that used to live there sits at the side of the logging road with a guitar case open singing the Homeless Blues. I can feel the hysteria rising in me like the mercury rising in a thermometer in the arctic.

"When in trouble, when in doubt - run in circles, scream and shout," was a little ditty that my Mom liked to say when when we were kids. "What! Meatloaf and peas again!" we would cry and protest. But, of course, she was being sarcastic. She did not want us to panic, nor should we have.

Panic leads to worse problems and is not helpful in providing solutions. It is the mob's modus operandi. I do feel like screaming and shouting, and gathering a pitch-fork carrying mob complete with burning torches and catchy slogans - "Capitalism is wrecking the planet, when are we gonna ban it?" But I will remain calm, and so should you.

At the very least, we should not all panic and get hysterical at the same time. Now is the time to stick together, those of us in the bottom 90% of world wealth, and look after each other. It is the time for action, not hysteria. Time for cooperation, kindness, and creative thinking.

Together we are strong, and regardless of how much the top 10% has, there are more of us. Way more.

We have the power. Let's use it. Don't panic - problem solve.

Red Pill Or Blue Pill?

Red pill, or blue? As Chris Hedges points out in Empire of Illusion, "we are vainly trying to return to a bubble economy, of the sort that once handed us the illusion of wealth, rather than confront the stark reality that lies ahead." We have been taking the blue pill for over 100 years now, and it seems that we would like to continue. We prefer comfortable illusions over messy, inconvenient reality.

In The Matrix Morpheus offered two pills - a red one, and a blue one. He tells IT drone, Thomas Anderson, that he is in a prison of the mind. He is a slave to a system that is largely incomprehensible in its opaque anonymity.

"You take the blue pill", Morpheus says, "and the story ends. You wake up in your bed and you believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill - you stay in wonderland and I show you how deep the rabbit hole goes. Remember! All I am offering is the truth. Nothing more."

If we choose the blue pill everything is always progressing toward a better, easier future. House prices always rise, and endless entertainments keep us merrily occupied. Newspapers gloss over bad news while touting thousand dollar handbags in half-page, stylish adds. "All is well in blue pill world", we are assured - "relax, enjoy, work, spend. Have another blue pill".

Blue pill addiction leads us to feed the hallucination with trillions of dollars of borrowed money that we will never be able to pay back, in order to prop up a dying system. The blue pill leads us to believe that fossil fuels and off shore drilling are the only way forward, regardless of the dismal track record of the oil and gas industry. There is happiness in denial, and the blue pill will not allow images of the poor, the weak, the suffering, and environmental destruction to mar our perfect world. We can't see them.

However, what we also lose sight of is the fact that we have adopted these delusions by choice. We could have, like Thomas Anderson, picked the red pill.

The red pill will set you free. But first it will kick you in the head. The red pill reveals the truth as it is, blemished, harsh, and uncomfortable. The red pill awakens us to environmental and social injustice. The red pill allows us to see 14 000 children dying every day, ravaged by the poverty that we allow when on blue pills.

The red pill may even reveal your own drone-like existence if you have not already broken free of the apparatus that seeks to perpetuate the exploitative, parasitic approach of the purveyors of profit. However, also revealed will be an exit door, a way out.

Neo got out. He knew that life is better with stale bread and water in freedom than with cakes and ale in bondage. Neo took the hard way, refusing the comforts offered by the delusional blue pill. His was a struggle that entailed much hardship, but in the end he broke free of those who would keep him in chains.

It will be the same for us - we can take the blue pill and continue the illusion of limitless luxury and comfort, but we will be keeping ourselves in bondage until our hand is ultimately forced by the sheer weight of delusion crushing the fantasy utterly. Blue pills lead to ultimate failure.

If, like Mr. Anderson, we don't want to fail, we pick the red pill. Then the puppet masters are revealed behind the curtain. Also illuminated is the pain and suffering these shadow masters have created in the name of the free market and liberty, the very things they have corrupted beyond recognition. Red pills will lead us to monumental changes, but they will be for the greater good, and we will all be free.

We can choose knowledge over ignorance, and freedom over captivity. Like Plato's cave dweller, those who make this choice will emerge into the sunlight and see reality for the first time, rather than remain chained up in the cave facing the wall.

Which will you choose? Red pill, or blue?

Morpheus: "It is the world that has been pulled over your eyes to blind you from the truth."

Neo: "What truth?"

Morpheus: "That you are a slave, Neo. Like everyone else you were born into bondage. Born into a prison that you can not smell or taste or touch. A prison - for your mind. Unfortunately, no one can be told what the matrix is. You have to see it for yourself. This is your last chance. After this there is no turning back."

No Mischief Monday

Wanted: New Ideas

General Motors is not on the scrap heap yet, but will its make-over save it from ending up there eventually? Will the new leaner, meaner company be different enough to stay on the road, or will the wheels fall off, again, in the near future? My guess is the latter.

The governments of Canada and Ontario have pledged 9.5-billion to help in restructuring the once mighty company. If GM takes our money, then continues with the same ideas, its repeated failure is inevitable. Taxpayers should not be paying to prop up this dinosaur of an industry. The inventors of planned obsolescence have themselves become obsolete. Let them join the eight track and VCR. Their time has come and gone. Go gracefully. Go now. Let's evolve!

Driving a car is convenient and fun, but it is not necessary, and it is very expensive personally and environmentally. We need alternatives to individual large personal vehicles, and we need them now.

The alternative vehicle of today is the bicycle, the most efficient use of energy in the known universe. A quality bicycle will give years of service. Much of the maintenance can be done at home with a few basic tools. The fitness benefits are huge, as is the enjoyment of moving along under your own carbon-free power.

For longer trips, supportive infrastructure such as bicycle racks on hydrogen buses and allowing bikes on solar powered electric rail transit networks will help people get around without cars, and without oil.

At one time many cities in industrialized nations had steetcar, or trolley, systems. America had its systems, too. Today's "Red Rocket" streetcars in Toronto are part of a system that started in 1861 with cars drawn by horses. Major US cities had their own extensive systems. New Orleans has the longest continuously used streetcar system in the world. European cities never gave up their early trolley lines and use them to this day. Melbourne, Australia has the largest network in the world.

Even Sooke had its own passenger rail service between 1922 and 1931 when the Galloping Goose, a 30 passenger car plied the CNR rail line between Victoria and Sooke twice daily. Now the route has been transformed into a trail for cyclists and hikers. What happened in North America?

Partly what happened was the Great Streetcar Conspiracy of the mid-20th century. Between 1936 and 1950 a holding company in the US bought out over 100 electric-powered streetcar rail systems in 45 large cities and replaced them with General Motors buses. The rails were either torn out or paved over and streetcars were scrapped.

The holding company represented big players that would benefit from individualizing and streamlining commuters into buses, and then cars. Corporations such as General Motors, Firestone Tire, Standard Oil, and Phillips Petroleum did not single-handedly kill efficient light rail in American cities, but they did not help, either. The Supreme court of the United States found that some charges were warranted.

"In 1949, the defendants were acquitted on the first count of conspiring to monopolize transportation services, but were found guilty on the second count of conspiring to monopolize the provision of parts and supplies to their subsidiary companies. The companies were each fined $5,000, and the directors were each fined one dollar. The verdicts were upheld on appeal in 1951.^[1]

The scandal's consequences were the rise of a permanent car culture in the United States and the lack of any cohesive intercity mass transit network." Wikipedia

Our painful addiction to cars is coming to an end, as shown by recent sales numbers. They have changed enough to send one of the largest corporations in the world to the scrap heap. It is time to get out of the Hummer and into a pair of hiking boots. The wonderful book "Wanderlust: A History of Walking" by Rebecca Solnit will make you feel like walking away from your car, GM or otherwise, forever. Cars are a mobility aid we can no longer afford to use.

GM is not a sound investment. We should be investing in new, big ideas. We need to take risks and be willing to try new and exciting things to solve our transportation challenges. We may have to re-uptake old ideas that worked.

Like street cars.