HIATUS, When Eyes of Storms meet.

We're living in the time of the quiet. 

This is how the time seems to me, personally as well as for the wider world. 

Let me start with myself, as everything for everyone does. I am studying for an exam, a tough one. If I qualify, I would have the life I want. In the meanwhile, everything is in a preparation, even my life is being lived in the preparation of the life to come. But since the future is so uncertain, so is my life. 

The world, it seems is living in a similar hiatus. Either something really serious would destroy it, or we would pre empt the worst disaster that can happen and radically change our society. 

The really bad thing that seems to be happening is related to inequity and the environmental overload, which is building up to a catastrophe in both these spheres. 

I remember a story about the inhabitants of Greenland, who tried to keep cows and live like the mainland Europeans. The soil gave up and the elites were left with a few cows behind barricades. One day, the people revolted and attacked their masters. They had their fill of food, wine and blood. Then everyone slowly starved to death. 

We knew about social inequity and the impact that things like robots are going to have on our society. Bankers essentially control the resource base of our society through their control of money. But what money is, essentially something of denotative value, a value given by people and not machines and therefore, it would have value only as long as people value it. Beyond a certain level of inequity, people might not remain happy within the formal system and the power of the elite, the purely positional power, might just vanish and then we will slowly starve to death. 

I read something about the environment, here it goes: 

"Banuri and Opschoor (2007) have conclusively argued that the accelerated and unchecked momentum in economic, demographic, and climate change processes will result in a dramatic increase in the level of Co₂e³ (carbon dioxide equivalent), which will further increase temperatures from anything between 1.6˚c to 6.6˚c. Mirroring the HANDY study’s findings, they further posit that if global temperatures increase beyond a 2˚c temperature line (or the critical threshold), the world would witness dramatic and irreversible consequences of climate change. For those critical of this position, the Mauna Loa measurements would serve as an adequate empirical evidence to warrant a serious rethink (Beck 2008). These measurements indisputably show that the level of Co₂e has risen from 317 parts per million (ppm) in 1959–61 to 375 ppm in 2003 to 430 ppm Co₂e in 2007. Every year, we add over 3 ppm of Co₂e globally. Banuri and Opschoor’s 2˚c temperature line corresponds to 450 ppm Co₂e, which means that by 2017 (not accounting for annual ppm increases in Co₂e) we would cross a point of no return. "

The whole thing seems to have a very negative tone. That is the reason that people avoid thinking about it. I mean, who wants the stress right? Leave it and it would go do whatever its supposed to right? 

I feel that most of the times. Since nothing tragic has happened yet, I keep running my AC overtime, using electronic gadgets that have been sourced from far away, having massive environmental footprint and plastics that'd end up chocking fishes. I know what would happen, but I guess the practical effort required to change my behaviour is too much to bother ! And I don't want to be the mad one out, who is taking unnecessary stress and is uncool. 

Inequity is in the bloodstream of India, the very basis for it's magnificent monuments (slave labour) and it's anticipated growth (cheap engineers). When I have a cup of coffee and cake, the amount could feed a family of four who are probably starving outside. But I don't give them the money. Why would I? It's a market economy, there are rules and you are allowed to not feel guilty about living in such unabashed manner. I have accepted the way things are. 

Hiatuses are like eyes of a storm, or maybe two storms converged for a brief moment so that the centre seems calm. The world then seems like ducks sitting right in the middle, ( who are also generating the storm in the first place) blissfully unaffected. 

Maybe everything will go away on it's own. Yawn!