The sky is falling, the sky is falling!
Based on some of the latest studies citing increases in air temperature over Antarctica, melting glaciers in Greenland and increasing acidity in the world's oceans it does indeed appear that the sky is falling. Why is this relevant to ideals in motion? Simply because one ideal that I believe is universally shared at some level is a habitable planet. The climatic reprecussions we are beginning to witness are a direct consequence of "I" and "id" (see my posts from March 16 and March 24) getting the best of the realization of an ideal. One need look no further than the Bush Administration's continued insistance that there is no problem ("...it's undeniable that the White House's environmental record--from the abandonment of Kyoto to the President's broken campaign pledge to control carbon output to the relaxation of emission standards--has been dismal." - Time, April 3, 2006).
When we trump our ideals by allowing ourselves to be swayed by small minded, ego driven, and fear spouting "leaders" who have the agendas of their constituencies in mind rather than a desire to move us to a closer realization of our ideals we get what we pay for. One of the primary "laws" of leadership I work from is that people will give us what they perceive we are willing to accept. Pandering to the lowest common denominator of parochial interests (Terry Shaivo and Jack Abrahmof come to mind) rather than insisting that we as a people live into the realization of our ideals of truth and justice for all is a good example of this. So too is making the difficult choices necessary to live on a habitable planet.
