The polarization of our society is nothing new, but I used to be able to align myself on most issues with the left, thinking that they were at least trying to create a bigger tent and were less self-serving. But the Left is now cursed with the audacity of ‘wokeness’ symbolized by the lumping of Senator Al Franken in with the likes of Bill Cosby and Harvey Weinstein. Yes, the senator I knocked on doors for was taken down because we just couldn’t tolerate all his successes in the senate to help women and veterans, due to a photo staged years before on a USO tour to entertain our troops. In the interest of trying to reach unreasonable goals of perfection we shoot ourselves in the foot. The band, The Buffalo Springfield told us in their song, “For What Its Worth” “ There's battle lines being drawn
nobody's right if everybody's wrong,” nicely captures this sentiment.
It goes without saying that I join in the righteous indignation of police brutality suffered by so many in the black community right here where I live and countless other cities in the US. Any caring person would. Any person who deeply gets it that America is experienced very differently depending on your color of skin. Anyone who has studied our history through the lens of those who have lived a very different American experience know there are volumes of covered up history that needs our honest scrutiny.
In this regard, it’s easy to see why the “Right” can drive those who agree with the above statements into a mind-numbing frenzy. The “Right’s” toxic cocktail of white supremacy peppered with misogyny, a huge dose of the all too familiar anti-Semitic tropes and frosted with a love of cult driven autocracy, makes even the most superficial conversations all but impossible. But the left’s deep embrace of a social justice-framed kinder gentler approach to humanity is not without an enrollment in crazy town too. It’s focus on trying to out-do each other’s wokeness is creating a variety of blind spots which are steeped in anthropocentrism and will not be our saving grace in the end.
Both extremes are heading us off a cliff of ecological collapse. The right is offering a standing room only cattle car to ride in and the left is offering a comfortable ride in a high-speed electric train, both have the same destination. The first to experience the suffering are the already marginalized. Overpopulation activists, like myself, struggle to bring the conversation about justice upstream, because when the big picture is ignored, justice is never served. The only thing that can exist in the gap between the increasing demand for limited resources is suffering, misery and early death.
To overcorrect and make every issue about how we treat individuals is not going to cut in when it comes to surviving as a whole society. I believe there is a sane, caring middle approach which is based on ecological sanity and honors our deep need to create a world which nurtures equality. The two are deeply intertwined.
The recent outcries about population decline have been nothing short of ridiculous. First, it’s the rate that is declining, not the actual population. Secondly, if we understood how overpopulated we already are it would be welcome news. Try to imagine how civility and empathy are going to thrive in a world of dwindling resources in the face of populations which continue to rise. Try to imagine treating your fellow human well when the water distribution lines lengthen, and the relentless heat of the unforgiving sun is beating down on you and your family.
The best example I can think of in how hamstrung we have become by both the right and the left is the issue of immigration. One narrative is full of hatred, xenophobic rhetoric, and demonization of those attempting to come into the US particularly though the southern border. They are the ‘build the wall’ people. The other side focuses their lens on the easy to document suffering of those, often children, who are only trying to better their lives by risking their lives to enter a country which has been built by those who came in various waves of immigration throughout its history. They are the ‘have a heart’ people.
The reason ‘none of the above ‘is the proper choice between the two narratives is that one uses inflammatory bigoted language to prevent ‘those people’ from entering the US and the other ignores the whole issue of sustainability in the name of their version of justice.
It is okay to say sorry we are full. It is necessary to acknowledge the negative effects of the doubling of the US population in my lifetime. As a child, I woke up in a world of 180 million people. As an adult I struggle to wrap my head around the fact that we are nearing 330,000, 000. All around me I witness what we have lost in the process. More traffic, overcrowded schools, densely packed crime-riddled cities, more pollution, more homelessness, and less wildlife. Nothing in the US can improve with the addition of more people, which is now happening mostly due to immigration. Everything will get worse. Even living a modest lifestyle requires an extraordinary amount of water, wood, energy, and infrastructure. With already overtaxed aquifers, rivers drying up, where do we expect our water to come from when we do nothing to stop the hemorrhaging of resources created by our growth mainly due to outdated immigration policies?
In the modern world we still measure our success by growing which only means more pavement, less wildlife, less access to fresh water. As our carbon footprints increase with the more feet we allow into our borders, we will experience, more droughts and severe storms. Saying we are full need not and should not come from a place of racism. It must come from a place of ecological honesty and biological integrity. Both sides of the political dialogue seem to have skipped out on their ecology classes.
Meanwhile it’s time for those of us who want to live in a more sustainable, just, and peaceful world, where wildlife is not continually threatened by our growing presence, to grab a part of the political discourse and claim it for sanity. It’s the only way justice can truly be served, for our better future is only possible when ecology gets a seat at the table.