Lithium Will Keep Us Together

The lesson of The Seeker has rested gently on my mind. Is humankind like a “passel” of dogs where each dog rips and tears for itself? This was my frame of mind as I listened to President Obama’s recent address to the nation.

Thankfully, my disorientation as I heard an American president talk about concentrating on the United States and its people by withdrawing troops from Afghanistan was short lived. This could not be, I thought, America cannot be doing such a thing. We just might be more than a pack of feral dogs.

Then, I took a deep breath and remembered an article I had read at http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/14/world/asia/14minerals.html and with a sense of resignation accepted that the dismal future forecast in my fears is probably not capable of being averted.

Comically, I thought about that old song: “Love will keep us together” and could hear it in my mind with a slight change in words. Now it was “Lithium will keep us together”. It really has a beat to it when you think about it. Can’t remember whether it was the Captain and Tennille or Sonny and Cher, but you get my drift here.

So I yawned and sadly got ready for bed, knowing that everything, while not all right, was as expected. The status quo would continue on the path of deterioration of the present level of existence for most of us. The president’s assurances seemed to my cynical self as just another bait and switch to keep the peasants from seeing. Yep, an affirmation sadly that there is no way folks are gonna wake up.

This put me in mind of India and my recent visit there earlier this year; the dirty skies, the constant inhalation of particulate matter, and the sad knowledge that this is going on not only in India, but also in China and the rest of the developing nations of the world.

Of greater concern to a minority of us is that the degradation is already starting in America as the populous begins to view environmental regulation as the Satan that prevents economic growth. No one seems to realize that the absolute continued pursuit of personal benefit at all costs leads to absolute failure of our system. Most folks just don’t see that greed must be regulated. There, I have said it.

Is it time to get messianic? Will it make a difference? Is there free will or is man truly an animal unable to change his nature? Can the message of love, caring and concern voiced by the enlightened for eons find fertile ground without perversions and exceptions that permit hatred “just some of the time?” I think not.