If I weren’t going to get burnt up and have my ashes scattered to the wind when I die, my tombstone might read “ look to the small.” It is by far the platitude I utter more than any other, both as an armchair entomologist and as a big ol’ fan girl of William Blake (“to see the world in a grain of sand”).
Upon the brink of the sixth extinction, I say this a lot. The large mammals are going to be what people notice the most, but they will go towards the end of this period of mass extinction. Many insects, and even smaller, microbes, are dying off. Genuine Champagne yeast and the microbes that produce Camembert Brie are perishing, and while that seems like something that only affects rich motherfuckers, it should trouble us po’ folks that not even the people with the deepest pockets can reverse the damage our species has wrought.
I could devote this whole post to the subject of extinction, but I know that isn’t the top issue on most people’s minds these days, so let’s talk inflation instead. Inflation has consumers pissed off, but consumption is what is driving inflation. The platitude I issue almost as much as the first one I talk about is “we cannot solve a problem created by consumption with more consumption.” I usually say this in response to people who think that they can buy their way out of environmental ruin, but it fits with inflation too.
During the shut downs during the early days of the pandemic (which we are still living in BTW, despite all the hopeful talk of endemic), people weren’t buying much gas. They were traveling via plane far less. One could say refineries are making up for lost income, and they wouldn’t be all wrong, but not all right either. Just like with saying this whole thing is driven by corporate greed… not completely false, but not the complete truth either.
While we, the consumers, are paying these high prices by purchasing at even greater levels than in the past, we will see prices continue to be high even if we curb our consumption. We are hurdling toward peak oil, and as much as fossil fuel giants buy up renewable energy projects (Savion, a company that is installing solar farms in my neck of the woods was recently acquired by Shell Oil), they are still going to get as much money out of their fossil fuel holdings before we run out of dino juice. The price of everything is tethered to the price of its transport.
If you truly want to save money, think hyper local when you consider how you might change your consumption. We could learn a thing or two from survivalists concerning this. We need to grow our own, preserve our own, reuse and make do with what we already have if we want to limit our debt. Many people spent much of the pandemic developing such skills, and now is not the time to abandon the pursuits of gardening, canning, baking, sewing, etc.
History always repeats itself. Just like in the early part of the last century, here we are, returning to a lavish lifestyle after making supposed sacrifices during a pandemic (I say supposed because people near where I live experienced a half-ass sort of lock down for about two months, and went about their normal life, but better thanks to checks from the government). We are living in the roaring twenties, which will inevitably end with financial collapse that results from our own greed. Why are humans so fucking stupid? Do we learn nothing from history? We have the option to learn and avoid the worst pitfalls. We have the ability to plan, to adapt, and survive, but how many will choose this path?
This shit is depressing. But, I have developed another useful platitude that might just give you a chuckle: shoot for the crotch! I implore police academies to start training officers to do this. I implore people with weapons for self defense to do this too. My partner astutely pointed out how this message ties in with “look to the small” as well, but I don’t want “shoot for the crotch” to be sexist. If someone is being a dick, aim for the dick. Likewise, if someone is being a cunt, aim for the cunt. Lethal strikes are not needed when taking down a threat; anyone who has studied martial arts knows this.
Lastly, I didn’t come up with this one, but these are words I live by: make where you are where you want to be. This has become the key to my survival, which is very much dependent on my being able to find happiness. Stay safe, be well, and get your happiness where you find it. ✌🏻