Text: Tentacles that bind

The tyranny of modern life is a demand for unnecessary stuff which creates systemic problems that are rapping us up and pulling us down into a sea of unsustainable practices.

Take for instance A grade unnecessary stuff, tobacco, alcohol, recreational drugs;
somehow or other a demand created systems of supply and we are all bound by the tentacles produced whether by addiction to the substances or the revenue produced by the record breaking sales. We all suffer at the hands (or suckers) of unscrupulous drug dealers by the degradation of our society and the loss of productive members. The problem is systemic and no amount of calling for personal responsibility will sever the tentacles that bind.

Now let’s look at some seriously unsustainable stuff; three hundred kilometres per hour gas guzzling, pedestrian maiming, rust buckets with plastic bumper bars. The pushers of these penile substitutes are responsible for the failure of our hospitals to keep up with the growing list of victims. Oceans of mineral oil afloat on a fragile eco-structure instead of in the ground, were it belongs, lubricating the shifting crust.
The Captains of this industry risk planetary destruction on there own. Mountains of coal being devoured by fire breathing, filthy emitions producing monsters which the continued existence of denies clean green alternatives being developed. Governments which pander to the beast, rather than stand up for our children’s future; other than by token gesture. Religions which pray for an Armageddon or Holy War so that their selfish members can leave behind a smoking mess and reside with a god that authorised the tragedy.

Let us have the audacity to imagine a world were those who are being drowned by the muti-tentacled, systemic, institutions communicate well enough to recognise individual efforts will not solve the common problems. Only a united effort, to sever the tentacles that bind, will do.