1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
|
---
title: Wishful Thinking
date: 2010/07/08
tags: musings, ecology, energy
---
I used to be a magical thinker many years ago. Whenever I wished for something
I would keep looking at the road side while sitting on the backseat of my
parents’ car or when I was walking home from school, hoping to spot the
object of my dreams.
For many years I badly wished for a tortoise or a turtle to come into my life,
just waiting for me at the side of the road. As I used to find coins just about
twice a month, I reckoned I could stumble upon animals just as easily. Animals
longing to let go of their wild nature, willing to become my companion and just
waiting for me to come by.
It never happened. (It should also be noted that my dream to stumble upon a
tame specimen of Gallimimus at the side of the road never came true.) I never
found a turtle at the side of the road.
Until today. A dream came true, but it had unnoticedly turned into a nightmare.
When I walked out the door this morning I caught sight of about four
centimeters of what seemed to resemble a six-legged crab. As I got closer I
could make out that one of the legs was actually a tail and another was a head
on a long neck. Closer yet I recognized it as a tiny turtle standing squarely
on the right side of my path.
Noticing an ant crawling on its eye I realized that it was dead. Its limbs had
not completely stiffened yet when I picked it up to move its body off the
street and onto the sidewalk where I went on to take a picture of a shattered
dream.
In an attempt to stretch this story into a metaphor for something more dramatic
than the mere death of critter—albeit a cute one—I chose
“Wishful Thinking” as the title for this entry. Although this story
is not representative of anything in particular, it did remind me of what I
recently read on Magical Thinking in Derrick Jensen᾿s “What We
Leave Behind”.
(There's much I disagree with when it comes to Jensen's worldview, but this
section is quite powerful.)
<blockquote>
<p>Are you a magical thinker? I know that too often I am. With apologies to Jeff
Foxworthy, let᾿s play a little game.</p>
<p>If you put a bumper sticker on you hybrid Prius that reads <em>Visualize World
Peace</em> in the hope this will bring about world peace, you might just be a
magical thinker.</p>
<p>If you buy a hybrid Prius in the hope this will slow global warming, you
might just be a magical thinker.</p>
<p>[...]</p>
<p>If you think buying compact fluorescent light bulbs will slow global warming,
you might just be a magical thinker.</p>
<p>[...]</p>
<p>If you think this culture will stop killing the planet without being
force-fully stopped, you might just be delusional, and if you don᾿t act
to stop this culture, then you will be failing in your responsibility as a
living being (p.224/5).</p>
</blockquote>
“Ugh, did he just really turn a story about a rotting turtle into an
environmental protection guilt-fest?”---so it seems. What I was aiming
for was that: remembering my innocent dreaming and my firm believe that
watching just closely enough will make the unlikely more likely, in the face of
the distasteful partial manifestation of that dream demonstrated just how
unsatisfying Wishful Thinking can be. Observing the road side would have only
increased my chance of discovering unpleasant road-kills. My convenient idea of
looking out for what is easiest to spot just addressed the wrong problem
(turtles aren't the type to lurk at the side of roads) and at the same time
left me unsatisfied. I think I'm eventually driving the point home: attempting
to solve the wrong problem is unrewarding in every way.
If you think our culture will survive if only we could manage to find an
alternative to cheap oil, you might just be a magical thinker---or you might be
part of the actual problem.
|
