https://thewalrus.ca/the-internet-has-become-too-american-to-trust/
"As a species, we are extremely bad at dealing with slow-motion disasters. When
the roof leaks, we typically put a bucket under the drip and then forget about
it until the next time it rains. And if, next time, there are two drips, well,
that’s just one more drip than the last time. No need to panic. And before you
know it, every time it rains, we’re setting out dozens of buckets. And it’s not
until the roof caves in, and the furniture is wrecked, that we take action.
Because when the roof caves in, you
have to move.
So, spoiler alert: this is a climate change metaphor. This inability to act
until it’s too late is a curse upon our species. It’s our existential risk. But
that doesn’t mean I’m happy that, every so often, some mad emperor precipitates
a crisis, which, in turn, precipitates change. I’m not happy that Russian
president Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine. But I’m also not sad that the
resulting energy crisis lit a fire under the European Union’s energy
transition, taking the bloc from ten years behind schedule on solarization to
fifteen years ahead of schedule in just a few short years.
It turns out that when you’re shivering in the dark, all the reasons for
inaction fade into the background. The all-powerful fossil fuel lobbyists
suddenly find a lot of doors slamming in their faces in Brussels, in
Strausburg, and in Berlin. And that tedious neighbour who insists the solar
panel you want to hang on your balcony will “spoil the aesthetic character of
the neighbourhood”—that jerk can piss off all the way into the sun. No one is
going to listen to them anymore.
Once again, all things being equal, the world would be better off without mad
emperors and their wars of choice. But if there
is a mad emperor, and there
is a war of choice, at the very least we should strive to salvage what we can
out of their depraved and unforgivable acts of aggression. For avoidance of
doubt, this is a statement about United States president Donald Trump’s lethal
bungling in the Strait of Epstein.
And speaking of Trump, he is a machine for turning slow-motion disasters into
unavoidable catastrophes. A chaos agent who spends every hour that God sends
caving in roofs and getting people moving on important matters that they have
neglected for decades. Like the American internet."
Via Susan ****
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
