“From Tragedy May Come Opportunity"

Hurricane Sandy has come ashore with a force rarely imagined or seen by those living in and around the environs of New York and New Jersey. The sobering effect of nature’s wrath has reminded us of our immortality and insignificance in the face of the power of Nature. It has shaken the foundation of our very being and, hopefully, will wake us from the stupor of denying the reality of global warming and climate change, and expose the demonic influence of unlimited greed and the massive deception perpetrated against civilized people to which we have succumbed. Surely, it will open our eyes to the reality of what we have been a party to by allowing those who have no souls to pillage and plunder the finite resources of the planet, and to reduce human beings to an expendable resource that serve as sustenance for appetites than can never be satiated.

Perhaps this tragedy bears the truth of wisdom that can only come from learned minds and a common concern for all people, and the earth to which we all belong. Maybe we will, finally, defer to the truth of scientific knowledge and see the folly of those who discredit that which they know in their hearts to be the truth.

As the evidence and the suffering that has been unveiled for all to see becomes accepted fact, we will unite as one people to deal with what has brought this misfortune upon us and to harness the best within us to minimize the possibility of it happening again. Sad to say, it may prove to be a blessing in disguise.

The very nature of the world we live in and our penchant for accepting the products of those who seek to numb our minds in the interest of appealing to some of our basest instincts; we have become too much the conformist and too little the innovator. The pain and discomfort that often comes with the courage to be original or different from the pack is what the image makers and the appetite creators peddle so we will become the pliant consumers they work to create. To the extent we take the bait, they win. To the extent we dare to stand strong on our beliefs and values that contradict their onslaught to our senses, they are the losers. I think it has become glaringly apparent that the time has come for us to take control of our common destiny, their rapaciousness be damned.

We can no longer deny the truth of what we have been doing to the environment, for much too long, and our dependence on respecting nature and making it work for all of us; not just the gluttonous few. That will require us to assert not only our independence, but to acknowledge and accept our mutual dependence. The resource of all this planet holds belongs to all of us. It is up to us to respect that fact and to make it work for the common good. It is time to think outside the box. It is time to revisit and honor the famous words of George Bernard Shaw and made famous by Robert F. Kennedy: “There are those that look at things the way they are, and ask why? I dream of things that never were, and ask why not?

We are going to have to set ourselves to the task of rethinking many aspects of the environment in which we live. Environmentally friendly forms of energy will have to assume front and center. Fossil fuels will have to be branded with the responsibility they rightfully bear for the evolution that has brought us to this perilous point in our history. The transportation systems that we rely on have to be rethought and may have to give way to means we never imagined. Architecture will take different forms than those we have traditionally accepted as the norm and that have shaped the towns and cities in which we live. Elevated trains may prove to be a better alternative than the subways that serve our large cities, but are more vulnerable to the crippling effects of massive storms. We may just have to adjust to a totally different perception of the world around us and embrace that which appeals less to our aesthetic tastes and more to the dictates of a new reality.

The massive rebuilding of towns and villages where most of the people live in the path of Hurricane Sandy may give us pause to rethink the shape and form structures will have to take in order to be less vulnerable to destruction and devastation but, perhaps, less aesthetically pleasing than that to which we have become accustomed.

The infamous Hurricane Andrew that hit the South Florida coast some time ago left not only massive devastation, but some clues as to how we might address the power of its force in the future. The structures that most withstood the force of that massive storm were not conventional homes built of flat vertical planes that challenged the strength and the force of winds, but were geodesic domes that permitted the wind to flow over the structures without succumbing to its power and force. The dome structures are not only less susceptible to the force of wind, but are much more energy efficient with the potential to have a much more pronounced effect on its consumption.

People who have had the courage to venture out of conventional homes and into dome homes have, admittedly, had a period of adjustment. But, for the most part, they have grown accustomed to the new style, comfort and cost of owning a dome.

Domes come in wood structures and concrete structures. Both are “futuristic,” compared to conventional homes. They are more energy-efficient and spacious than conventional homes. However, because of the more limited demand for those kinds of homes, the market has been less robust. I do not think those who produce these homes have necessarily focused on their potential as much as they have on their marketability. A significant increase in demand may well change that dynamic, as it should. A more stable market may produce more innovation in terms of style than we have seen to date.

Dome structures lend themselves very well to solar and wind power, both of which should enjoy resurgence in the wake of the super storms that we have recently seen and are likely to see in the future.

The tragedy of Sandy has already demonstrated a sense of urgency for government agencies to focus on the potential of the marked changes that will be required in order to respond to the power of nature we are likely to face in the future, and to minimize the havoc they bring down upon us.

The manufacturers of domes need to devote more time and effort on the appearance of what they have to offer. Brown as the universal color does not necessarily have a broad base of appeal, nor do buildings that are asymmetrical and look more like strange creatures than an attractive place to live. Being outrageous may be attractive to the eccentric with a desire to challenge convention, but I would hazard a guess that those tastes will be less in demand than will a rendition of what can be more attractive and appealing to a broader range of tastes. I would hope the industry would not only seize this opportunity but demonstrate more creativity in the face of this challenge.

I believe the government should step to the forefront and demonstrate a sense of urgency in addressing the massive destruction of homes in the path of Sandy. A task force of those involved in new and innovative architecture and building materials should be asked to address the new demands that have resulted from this natural disaster. The blend of architecture with solar and wind energy seems like a natural marriage.

The government should seriously consider the merits of subsidized loans for those who opt for more functional forms of architecture and energy than we have seen in conventional homes. Government must serve as the catalyst for innovation that focuses on what most effectively serves the needs of people, but addresses environmental concerns as well. That kind of thinking has served us in the past and it surely can do so in the future.

From what has been a brutal act of nature could well hold the potential for improving our relationship to the environment and to the economy. I think this is a golden opportunity to breathe new life into banks and other locally owned financial institutions. The vultures of Wall Street and “too-big-to-fail” have reaped more than a fair share of the nation’s wealth by playing to and controlling our political establishment. The people deserve more and, frankly, I have much greater trust in local institutions and the people who live and work there than I do in some remote behemoth laying in wait to suck more of the life-blood out of our economy in order to satisfy their insatiable greed. The time has come to reign in their excesses and to become more responsive to the nation as a whole.

In the wake of this terrible tragedy may well lay a new beginning that will better serve us all in the future. The power and creativity of one, united people can and should dwarf the evil of all those who sit in high places and sap the vitality from those who play by the rules and believe in a system that serves us all.

The national elections have clearly shown what a sham the entire political process is. Big money, corporate power and corrupt politics have carried the day. I sense that the nation has had enough of the lying, deceptive advertising and mud-slinging to last a life time. We have every right to claim the government and the political process as an asset that belongs to the people and is not up for sale to the highest bidder. I would like to think that the sobering effect of Sandy will throw light on this issue, as well.

All political parties have a right and an obligation to stand on local and national stages during elections and tell the people what they stand for, free of the enslaving effects of massive amounts of money, legislative largesse and a Supreme Court that should hang its collective head in shame for the way they have sullied the highest court in the land.

The time has come for the nation to take back what is rightfully ours – an honest political process and the resultant clean government that logically follows. By the same token, fad must give way to practicality and compatibility with the limitations of this planet. The time has come to recognize and give legitimacy to the inescapable fact that we can no longer afford to have it “my way,” and yield to the reality that it now, of necessity, must be “our way.” A concomitant requirement is that we must learn to live with less and respect the realities of what life on this planet demands of each of us. A good start may be to adopt a new “convention” as a fundamental tenet to the way we live.

The lesson of Sandy may well be to “think differently, live differently and behave differently” for our common welfare, and let the image makers and the creators of our national tastes go fly a kite. There is a sense of urgency to this tragedy, but the bigger concern to us all should be how our political, social and economic systems serve us.

Whoever is elected to the Presidency, he must be absolutely transparent in every aspect of his administration. No more secret meetings. No more backroom deals. No more pandering to wealth and privilege as a means to remain in office. We, the people of the United States of America, have had quite enough.

Barack Obama may be the lesser of two evils, but any trust I may have in the man is on hold until I see whether or not he will continue his appeasement of the opposition and his pandering to big money, at the expense of all those to whom he has held out the promise of “change.” His words ring hollow and his notion of what “change” means is becoming a bit shopworn.

Cowboy Bob
The Sagebrush Philosopher
November 6, 2012