New Moon Edition May 2024
Wouldn’t it be nice to live in a world where we were assaulted by solutions rather than problems? It would be different, for certain. For every issue that disturbed us, a quick and simple fix would be at hand. There we go. Just so. That’ll do it! Next.
Take for example the problem with plastics. Those polymer composites are cheap, durable, and applicable to a vast variety of uses. They are a significant profit center for the oil & gas industry and they are very damned hard to get rid of. Land fills are buried in plastics. The oceans are floating tons of the stuff. Our bodies house micro-plastics because our food and the air we breathe is full of them. What to do?
Closed loop manufacturing of the stuff is the solution of the chemical industry. Stop making new plastic and reuse what we have in situ. New technologies that restore recycled plastic to its original consistency is said to be at hand HERE and HERE and HERE. There is an ample supply on hand, a seemingly endless demand for it, and a big need for a solution to the current system. Caveat emptor, but it sounds promising.
And what about late stage capitalism? Income inequity? The growing divide between rich and poor. This revered economic system that like a rubber band is being stretched beyond the breaking point. Is there a viable alternative to the free enterprise economy as we know it?
2,150 people today hold more wealth than 4.6 billion people worldwide HERE. The ten richest of them doubled their fortunes during the pandemic while 99% of the world’s population got poorer HERE. That seems like a growing divide between rich and poor. We’re talking about solutions, though. This one is tougher than plastics.
There are articles about socialism in commerce HERE, Post Growth HERE and Beyond Growth economies HERE, and they are serious ideas to consider, but not a resolution to the perpetual conundrum of haves and have nots. Poetic license was my solution. I wrote a story about a post-American country where free enterprise and investments in the social contract get equal billing HERE. Ya gotta start somewhere.
Joe Walsh has been on a lot of big stages. He was a star with the James Gang, an even bigger star when he created Barnstorm, and absolutely huge when he joined the Eagles and help lift that band to the stratosphere. But he’s never been on a bigger stage than the one he shared on May 4, 1970 at Kent State University. The entire world was watching.
Joe is a very soulful guy with an incredibly poignant personal story. He’s contributed his talent and lent his fame to numerous important causes, but the event he wasn’t able to make happen was one he felt most deeply HERE. What he said in 2020 on the 50th anniversary of that tragedy rings especially true today. History is repeating itself and we can only hope to have learned from and remember those painful lessons.
How the university responded to that horrific event evolved over time HERE. The value of transparency and dialogue is front and center. Individuals and institutions have different priorities. It takes real work to find common ground. That and heart. Steps toward a solution to the struggles on our nation’s campuses today might be found there. One certain lesson of Kent State is armed confrontation risks disaster.