The fact of appearances can tell many things, sometimes even essential things, but there has always been exceptions because there are many who travel wide and far, and experienced much, who have stories to tell that amaze and mystify, and works that awe.  The tragedy of the exceptional, I discovered in the recent year, is that the excuses lay bare the ugliness of human nature when it is turned to or cloaked in darkness.  The mob mentality was outlined in the tragic novel Lord of the Flies, in which children turned against one another and then towards the apparently weakest, the creative sort, the type who could lead them to freedom.  There was a glee in what the doomed child, if he could perceive it, would have seen as a terrible smog, a smittenness in the other children's own being tempted darkly into the dark methods and ways, the very meanness which in good society we try to avoid.  That glee was not only in committing some deep wrong, but in getting away with any responsibility, getting away with a smirk remark intended to insult and offend, getting away with signaling and setting off chains of events that could only end badly for the one then too gleefully deemed doomed.  Usually there is hardly any glee in apathy and indifference, but even that carries a certain perverted accomplishment of at least having had beat the other in the cruel race that symbolizes harmlessly the cruel world their perception makes.  

In moments like these, I reflect on the myriad experiences that made my life full.  Those secrets I hide away for when dark times come and I need a candy to prove the world is sweet, that being is light, that life is good.  In moments like these, I try not to forget those who bravely and courageously take a stand, even for just a little while, and those who maintain my right in my absence, and try to do the same so others too will have a moment of happiness to store away.  

There may be stirring feelings in harming others while imagining oneself to be some victim of some faceless cruel world, but when those are the only feelings that get you through the day, you should know corruption around you has occurred.  No wrong is committed without the conscience speaking up and that is the consciousness of a normal functional being.  Right is where good is done and the conscience is free so that consciousness and being themselves are free, so in doing good one is free and in doing right truth is won.

Whenever I think of the novel, I wonder at my sadness upon reading it.  A group of children killing themselves and targeting the one who could only lead them to freedom.  Then I chance upon reflection and in reflection I realize what great courage and masterfulness it was for Golding to speak up about the very condition of the world.  Yet, my inquiry continues and this I cannot answer: whereupon one understands the deeper meaning of the world as an expression of good, as one beheld by God in Heaven as the fruit for humankind in its individuals, why then readers are unable to appreciate that their understanding of the bad does not prevent themselves from thoughtful contemplation to effect the fullness of their being?  That in noticing what is wrong is the beginning to find the path of doing what is right, still that glee robs the being of its freedom and truth, in tempting one to be passive and inactive, or worse, in realizing one's own unbecoming actions?

So it is, now the country is on a perimeter in time as well as circumstances, and as well myself undergoing wrong after wrong, still the world it holds and the world before me continue on their humdrum glee that robs these people who effect wrongs plain to sight, for fear that in not grasping the glee they shall be robbed themselves of those naughty moments when one could commit a crime or a misdemeanor or worse, when in reality that glee has robbed them of the goodness they could be.  The goodness of what inheres is the only compass one could ever find in the world at large which could be beheld with absolute certainty, the only wealth ever known, as was taught by the Lord, the only wealth and possession which has no shade of uncertainty.  When the world outside is proved to be that which one in holism can perceive, perception itself gives itself away unless it is active and in activity realizes the self.  Yet even then uncertainty shadows what is deemed to be external, while what is known to be one's own, one's own being, one's goodness, one's perceptions, one's actions - those are brought to the realm of knowledge direct to oneself only.  So I ask now, question oneself before giving into the glee that leads to darkness.

  Despite the alarmist scenarios regarding energy prices meant to raise our awareness concerning what could become the case, ie. price-wage spirals that launch us into a depressed state, the fact of the matter stands that there is still time to respond to the sound of the alarm.  Of course, one thinks of "REACT" and jump forward in time in extrapolation to examine the tempting feelings of loss and sadness, but in actuality, we must be mindful of what may be possible in spite of the rather exaggerated state of markets and their interdependence.

Interdependence is not merely a rigid set of relations of things where if one moves another also moves.  It is a principle or a lens with which we can evaluate how different conditions and circumstances may stand to influence one another.  There are many methods with which one can "adjust" the market, many ways in which indicators can be moved by certain information or certain popular views.  Thus, we must be reserved in how we come to a judgment of the state of affairs.  A certain reservation and distance will allow us to examine the domain of possibilities that can be open with the right enquiry.  We cannot merely rely on formalized abstractions of the financial market, instrument or indicator, to prescribe what a response to rising energy prices could consist of.

Perhaps an initial question to raise would be why.  What is causing the energy costs to go up so drastically in recent years?  The reasons consist of a spectrum of factors that loosely, to say through many plausible connections, tie together in some coherence.  Such of course is not the exact constitution of the real market, but is a facsimile of the larger picture, one of lesser complexities.  This is to be addressed because oftentimes we rely on such facsimiles as a fundamental diagram but its truth value must be questioned if we are to find certain degrees of freedom through which to examine additional possible solutions, ie. we must think outside the box.  The problem of the truth value to the facsimiles composed of a network of indicators drawn from the real market is to do with that they were originally representational and thus through representation certain facts are ascribed but also that information loss is inevitable.

The point of referring back to the real market and indeed the real society in which a small fact of the dollar value to energy is found is to question the basic premises or phenomena in which the change in dollar value to energy is realized.  What is the first proposition by those who propound that rise in energy costs is irreversible and necessary?  In one case, it is referral to the maxim of supply and demand.  If demand continues to rise and supply remains limited then it stands to reason that the cost of the commodity should go up.  Whether this is the case remains an open topic to investigate in the specifics of supplies being shorted somehow, perhaps in response to rising demand across the world.

This is a point not to brush aside because we must question how the demand has risen.  The simple answer is that there are more factories and cars that require the use of fossil fuels.  Yet this answer had not addressed the matter of the how of usage and its implications referring back to the manner with which energy is used and whether the energy used produces excesses in society that turns to waste or if it produces a consumption that is productive in the end, ie. realizing some good evaluated to be worthwhile and is more than the indulgence of consumption.  It must be noted that how we consume energy and to what ends energy consumed is directed is a question to be addressed at different levels from the individual to the larger in-organizing.  For instance, at the level of the individual, it does not make sense to visit the supermarket ten times a month when once would suffice; or at the level of a import-export company, it does not make sense to import large shipments of oranges from a foreign country when the oranges two states over are cheaper and require less fuel to transport.

But why are such examples relevant in any way?  It is because the demand and supply and costs was never a simple equation as is popularly and mythically believed.  The simple equation negates the fact that a society was never a rigid organization with definite protocols whose people have no ability to change and adapt.  One way to see a counter to rising energy price, as due to proportionally decreasing supply, would obviously be decreasing the total sum of energy being consumed.  While this may seem like a rather obvious proposition and thus is weak in propositional value, in reality, to decrease the total sum of energy consumed is no simple task.  It is worthwhile because where domestically, the total sum of money squandered onto energy that for instance produces only excesses to be turned into waste is managed, the price of energy that maintains the market as a price point can have limited effects onto the rest of the markets.  Intuition guides that delimiting the effect of changing energy price points would delimit the perpetuation of effects into other industries, thus the rest of the market.  To be more concise, the threat of inflation broadening out due to increasing energy price could in this way be managed.

The notion of managing usage has the most important consequence of separating the volatile energy market from the rest of the market.  The term "economy" actually denotes more than the market, and implicates the social behavior that in totality inclusive of the various market mechanisms and financial indicators as well as common prices and buying behaviors.   Conservatism is a notion we must broadcast across the domestic landscapes.  While pointing fingers to developing nations is fine and good and provide certain checks on behaviors by the international community by moderating views and perspectives, it is only one avenue, and it is one that excludes our own people from examining the basis of the problem domestically.  It is a fact that in America our consumption overall is less than some other countries, but the fact of the matter stands that even so, the consumption is excessive as is normally acceptable to use energy as can be afforded.  Thus, conservatism is a notion that requires expanding and elaborating, so that the finer details can be observed by actors at different levels.  It is a notion powerful enough to hold together the different levels of actors in society, such that adoption could express the will of the nation.  It is one idea that should not be brushed aside for our behaviors are exemplary for the rest of the world.

The separation of the fossil fuel market through the moderation and even decrease in energy usage domestically should probably be led to the effect that energy prices can no longer be so immediately driven up by increasing demand here despite rising costs.  The rationale is that where demand decreases it becomes possible that the price point of fossil fuel could be managed within the borders.  As behavior towards energy change domestically, to say less energy is usurped here so that demand is stable and non-increasing, or even, decreasing. than it becomes possible for those in the market to evaluate the possibilities in interventions and mechanisms that work out the balance affecting the price point domestically based on domestic behavior.  We always talk of stronger borders but a border is not a physical wall necessarily, but consist of definitions that guide behavior and determinations for those geopolitical locales interior to the boundary.

But of course the utility of energy is often associated with innovative growth.  Management consists not only of adjusting the increase or decrease of usage and price points, but in investing wisely.  Energy of course is a kind of capital.  There is a finite supply of it at any given moment.  To invest wisely this capital of energy is something which can be taken to task at many different levels.  It is by this rationale that the notion of conservatism has not just to do with delimiting or ceasing usage, but rather to do with being reserved in judging how best to utilize it.  On the way, smart investment of energy will lead to more positive and productive outcomes, as well, it is likely that a decrease of consumption could be had.  To say that energy consumption is correlated with productive activity is to note that we shall not move towards ceasing its usage.  Nevertheless, it is a fact that if we can moderate and delimit the proliferation of effects due to increasing prices in particularly to the rest of the market, we will bide our time.  

Time for what?  Of course, it is to move the inertia of research and development of alternatives to fossil fuels.  As nothing happens in a day, to shift investments into alternatives to this form of energy requires time and effort.  Such research not only opens up alternative vistas in energy harvesting and use, such research will encompass many factors that must be taken into the balance of the bigger picture consisting of efforts from many industries and fields of discipline and of concerns in regards the environment of planet Earth.

  Going to the Moon is very important for the future of humanity.  The promise of peace as the natural state of being beckons where beyond the earth where our lineages have had such a long record of development.  What had been difficult centuries and millennia before were overcome in many ways so that peace is possible.  Peace is not only the beginning but the goal.  To be together without lamely thinking ourselves as like unthinking beings out for gains lasting a moment or two - we are beings that dream and plan and work in cooperation to realize the worthwhile realities.  The idea that the moon is a new beginning is the idea that we can start anew.  It is the new frontier in the sense that the Americas has been the new world.  The land of opportunity and dreams, the society of peace and order.  

The sight of the bright white moon in its phase strikes me with a profound sense of contentment and reassurance.  The presence of the first and immediate celestial body.  A place we haven’t been, a place we will soon go.  Everything is possible.  The way there will be made.  That this one here is possible makes the rest across the incomprehensibility in vastness also there and teeming with the possibility of real existence.  To make this first step, the importance cannot be overstated.  Just as venturing from the stasis of tradition to a realm of pure potential was the foundation in human action that allow the dream of the ideals and values defining societies today in the Americas.  What is freedom?  What is hard work?  What is making?  The move to the moon will not be merely a duplication of circumstances and choices.  Just the same, the endeavors into space will bring those to new heights of human experience.  What these realities could be we will never discover should we not venture beyond this home of a vibrant and lush garden. 

Carl Sagan wrote that we are upon the cosmic shore gazing into the deep oceans of space.  The grand stage of unknown proportions from these sittings of such modest proportion.  The amphitheater the presents an infinite count of drama depicting all that could be possible beyond the reach of any or all of our imagination.  What presence, what meaning could be discovered and made that I am this one, here, this small subjectivity, that exists within what is all and could contemplate my own existence within all that is and changes.  From the moon is a new vantage offering a view into what surrounds us everyday and every moment, which yet eludes us as we travel through the wonderful devices of our own making, under the firmament of the blue sky.

   new as

Future

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