Posted by Rick on March 21, 1999 at 18:33:15 {MWSZV6.08fSjY}:
In Reply to: *Realization posted by Julie on March 21, 1999 at 09:33:24:
I appreciated the experience, and understand that the rich often don't appreciate the blessings they have. Some parts of the earth right now fit the description of "heaven on earth," like the countries of Norway, Sweden, Denmark, New Zealand, parts of Canada and other parts of the world. I don't dispute that.
I will tell you a parable to illustrate what I meant to convey. The wealthy father of a family decides to see if his family can make it on their own like they bragged they could. Being the wealthiest man on earth, he separates the bulk of his fortune from theirs, but generously gives them a hundred billion dollars. His family lives in a large self-sustaining estate with a million acres of cattle ranches, farmlands, and home sites. This family is divided and some live in tudor style mansions, others in nice little homes, but 10 out of 1 family members live in old shacks or sleep in tents on the land in abject poverty.
Some enjoy the best standard of living; foods from state of the art dairy equipment, modern food storage technologies, fully equipped kitchens and a comfy bed and breakfast lifestyle. They hire their siblings to wait hand and foot on them in exchange for nice little rooms in houses near the mansions. The others are in ill health, living half naked, at the outskirts of the ranch. A plague has developed in those outskirts, causing many deaths.
All the security surrounding those wealthy few keeps them alive and enjoying paradise on earth, going about their lives, marrying and having families, the retired sipping herbal iced tea in beautiful gardens flanked with fountains outside their tudor mansions, the young hopping into their new BMW's to head into the city on a Saturday night.
The problem with the whole family on that entire estate is that they seemed to ignore the basics. All the tudor mansions were filled with termite infestation, the land was over-farmed, and the financial holdings were diminishing by extravagant spending. There was no future planning. An incurable plague had developed from squalid living conditions on the outskirts of the ranch, and nobody even noticed much less tried to spend money on research to find a cure.
Eventually the predictable happened. The mansions started to fall apart, and there was no money to repair them. The plague was brought into the wealthy areas by the siblings who wanted to serve their wealthy family members. The crop failed for the first time, and the cattle started to die from a mysterious disease. This disease even started to cross over to humans, and everyone started going insane. Sound familiar, Julie?
No, it might not, if we roll back the clock by 10 years in the scenario I just described to the "good old days." We are in those "good old days," Julie, maybe a decade or a few decades from the time when all of mankind's neglect on the environment and impoverished civilization finally bears rotten fruit. It's just that today, if you look behind the scenes, you can see the end coming.
Like in any of those termite infested tudor mansions, suppose someone said, "Julie, sorry to interrupt your party, but come here. Look, the floor is soft in this upstairs room. That wall over there is sagging ever so imperceptibly. Inspectors came through here and said it's amazing this house is standing. And what's this I hear about on the outskirts of the ranch, bodies being buried in mass graves from some disease?"
"Can't you see I'm trying to enjoy myself? I got this new dress for the party, and the caviar isn't going to sit at room temperature forever. What is your problem, Rick? You have everything you want, and this is a beautiful home. These antiques were handed down for generations and are worth a fortune. Look at the buffet! That came from the farm, but you keep claiming the soil is almost exhausted..."
To which I reply, "I didn't say that, some scientist said that..."
"What 'scientist'? You're renting too many sci-fi videos. Oh, you mean that agency who claim they are experts on soil? They're so full of it! The land is producing beautiful crops and will keep producing them! We don't need to stop farming and let the land 'rest.' The land is not like a person that needs 'rest'! All that boloney about mass graves, family members living in dire poverty, and plague is another example of paranoia. I'm disappointed someone intelligent as yourself would buy into that, Rick!"
I feel dumb! You're so right, I realize. "Sorry, Julie."
Laughing and checking her beautiful self in the mirror, diamonds sparkling radiantly, she takes my hand and continues, "Perception is reality. You may want to re-think yours, life can be wonderful Rick and the world is not the awful place you have been led to believe it is. I think you're just under too much stress lately as you usually seem to be much more hopeful than your dark comments indicates. Let's get back to the party. I hear the mariache band!" :-)
Rick