On Monday, June 7, 2004, at 12:36 AM, henry wrote:
your sojourn through the last few weeks of
intellectual exploitation does not appear to have required much in the
way of recuperation.
it's perverse but I feel wrecked, insomnia has kicked in, I'm trying to rest and the only way I can start to do so is by writing which just makes me edgier still. I just get so bored of life if I don't write.
Throughout your enlightening jeremiad, i expected two words to perch
somewhere on the edge of the end of the post:
nuclear power
Matt Simmons advised Bush on his energy policy earlier in the presidency and with depletion he sees everything going towards nuclear and coal powered generation ( http://www.globalpublicmedia.com/TRANSCRIPTS/ index.php?name=MATT%20SIMMONS&origin=/INTERVIEWS/MATT.SIMMONS/ index.php&transcript=2004/04/ MattSimmons.InterviewedByJulianDarley.Part-1.2004-04-15 ).
The nuclear scenario is another nightmare though as even Indonesia has now become a net importer of oil and gas and is apparently looking at nuclear alternatives. The other side of nuclear power generation is of course nuclear arms proliferation and the production of some of the most toxic and militarily dangerous waste materials known to humankind. That doesn't solve the transport problem though nor industrial farming. But as Simmons says, either you shrink as a nation or you go nuclear. Bush seems to have been reasonably well informed about these problems since at least his initial election campaign. Cheney on the other hand is on the public record as fully recognising the coming energy crisis in 1999 when he was chairman of Halliburton.
and isn't nukuler--as our dear leader pronounces it-- truly fitting for
the end of metaphysics, heidegger-wise? as the soft-skinned essence of
human existence is more and more mechanized by way of formulating all
cultural practices into modes of human resources; as all of metaphysics
converts to technology = nihilism = total mobilization of all beings
toward the arbitrary ends of humanity... so, the will to power, the will
to will... mirrors somehow the physics of the interchangeability of
energy/matter; and the poetry of power, physically, becomes the nuclear
arrangement of our future? so an insight by heid, that the worst is not
the bombs going off, but rather their not, and so the slow, long
synthesis of life, energy, power, matter, existence. a long, slow,
mutating re-shuffle of the ontic deck of ontological cards, while
continuing to pursue... what?
Health, friends, family, happiness and a long life for all? I prefer the Star Trek version where the world joins together to eradicate poverty and overcome adversity through technological innovation. I vote we all go clean fusion and drive electric SUV's, and maybe Ronnie Raygun's aliens are still watching us waiting for some sign of intelligence before making friendly first contact. If we wanted to we could already have genetically modified flying pigs too.
Who knows what comes next? I'd say there's plenty of room for pessimistic optimism if only someone somewhere has the power to start dealing with this problem. Someone needs to inform the public and soon.
Cheers,
Malcolm
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