Dust Storm

I feel as useful as a bag of wet rocks in a dust storm. I need to sleep again. No matter how much I sleep, it’s never enough. No matter how little I write, it’s always too much.

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Big, challenging, and probably cumbersome ideas may be the only hope for the survival of humankind and, indeed, all life on planet Earth. If those visionary ideas form in time, where will they originate? In a world of skeptics and pessimists, who will embrace them?  Who will cultivate and nurture them? Who will provide the global leadership necessary to implement them? The ideas, probably, are the easy part of the process. Achieving sufficient consensus around them will be considerably more difficult. Assigning priorities among hundreds or thousands of crucial ideas will be vital and—if human history is a reliable indicator—close to impossible. The overwhelming task of identifying priorities is already on clear display with regard to climate change; the current status of the Paris Agreement illustrates that reality. Subsidiary self-interests tend to usurp the importance of what should be universal interests. Perhaps the “big and bold” ideas are too big and bold…or not big and bold and audacious enough. Maybe a collection of ideas, with intersecting areas of importance, would be viewed as more achievable.

A globally-supported Manhattan Project, for want of a better metaphor, dedicated to ensuring adequate supplies of drinking water for every human being on the planet might be a good start. Though the global supply of clean, potable water already is widely recognized as critical, an infusion of fresh, collective energy worldwide might actually enable us to achieve permanent or long-lasting solutions. Food security, worldwide, might be another Manhattan-style endeavor enlisting the direct, committed engagement of governments and people around the globe. Collective solutions to food and water insecurity would offer evidence that human needs are overwhelmingly more important than conflict and imperialism and protectionism. Remaining challenges might then more readily fall in response to our collective efforts.

Finding charismatic leaders willing to take the risk of promoting the critical global cooperation necessary might be the most significant stumbling block to progress. Leaders of nations tend to want to present images of strength, independence, and power. The characteristics we might need, instead, probably include a willingness to embrace collaboration, cooperation, and shared responsibility. Charisma, again, is a necessary quality of leaders—not ferocity, not dominance, not imperialism—charisma. And intelligence. And a willingness to give careful consideration to a broad array of perspectives about relevant issues.

It’s easy to think about these matters. Putting them in motion is akin to lifting the weight of the world with one hand.

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Perhaps the first and most important task among us is to change mind-sets. Private property is a fantasy. The air we breathe and water we drink have no owners, only caretakers. Borders are synthetic boundaries established to create artificial perimeters of power. Allegiance to one’s various sub-communities is always secondary to allegiance to humanity. Changing minds is like chewing granite.

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My desk is littered with facial tissues bloodied by an annoying nose, a banana peel, an empty demi tasse, and reminders of tasks I have not yet completed.

About John Swinburn

"Love not what you are but what you may become."― Miguel de Cervantes
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