|
To:
letters@nytimes.com |
|
|
|
|
|
Dear
Editor,
Something that
took me a very
long time to
understand
- which most
people never
seem to
do - is just
how blind and
stupid those
at the top,
like the rest
of us,
are
- in
politics,
industry
(particularly
the oil and
automobile
industries),
science, or
wherever.
The reason is
that if you are at
or near the
top of your
profession,
especially if
you have made
a lot of
money, you are
considered to
be successful
and are looked
up to. As
Earth's
Greatest Ape (Homo
sapiens,
indeed!), this is what
we are
behaviourally
programmed,
through
millions of
years of
evolution, to
do. How often
have I heard
someone say
that those at
the top
"aren't
stupid"? And
indeed, many
of them are
very clever
and often
well-educated
to boot.
Thus, it is
very difficult
(as well as
very
frightening)
to comprehend
just how blind
and stupid
they are.
What sane and
rational
person, for
example, would
squander his
inheritance,
leaving his
own children
with nothing
but a mountain
of debt to
contend with?
No sane and
rational
person would,
of course. Yet
that is
exactly what
we (en masse)
are doing, as
we plunder and
squander our
planet's
natural
resources,
disrupting its
climate,
while threatening
its
biodiversity
and
life-supporting
ecosystems in
the process.
I am not
anywhere near
the top of my
profession,
I
have made
very little
money, neither
am I
particularly
clever or
well-educated
- which means
that most
people
(programmed to
admire and
listen to
"experts" or
those above
them in the
socio-economic
hierarchy)
have no
interest in
what I have to
say (e.g.
on my
homepage at
www.spaceship-earth.org).
Which is a
shame,
because,
although I
have
short-comings
enough, I am
not nearly as
blind or
stupid as
those in
power, wealth
and authority,
who are
leading us
towards
calamity.
|
|
