Blog #138--Art and Life Imitate One Another
Some say “art imitates life,” while others prescribe to the belief that “life imitates art.” This may be the same paradox as asking which came first, the chicken or the egg. Regardless, we can find plenty of examples where life and art parallel one another. After continuing to hear about corporations and countries that have taken short cuts or otherwise neglected the long-term ramifications of their actions, I am beginning to find a strong parallel with a movie I enjoy called “Paint Your Wagon.”
Released in 1969, the movie stars Lee Marvin, Clint Eastwood, Jean Seberg, Harve Presnell and Ray Walston. A musical, it includes several memorable songs including “Wandrin’ Star” and “They Call the Wind Mariah.” It has plenty of comedic elements as well, with Marvin a loner who drinks alcohol to excess on occasion. But I bring it up today because the plot of the movie reminds me of present-day circumstances.
Marvin and Eastwood are part of a group of greedy individuals seeking their fortunes during California Gold Rush days. When they discover gold, others follow immediately. Some want to find their own gold jackpots, while others choose to create businesses to exchange goods and services for gold. As the town grows, so does the competition for gold. Seeing their veins running low, Marvin, Eastwood and Walston search for new ways of obtaining wealth.
Realizing how much gold bullion falls through the floor boards of the taverns, restaurants and stores, they begin digging tunnels to extend under these businesses. This allows them to siphon off some of that precious gold powder. For awhile, their plan is successful. Their tunnels honeycomb the underground of the entire town, now called No Name City. However, all good things must come to an end.
The plan backfires when the weight of the buildings and public activities break through into the tunnels. The whole town falls apart without its firm foundation, and townspeople are left with two difficult choices. Some like Marvin move on to seek the next big gold strike, while others remain to rebuild the town. As in all similar light-hearted movies, no one is hurt by the destruction.
Of course, real life doesn’t always have a happy ending, and I can begin to see similar events happening to the people of Earth. Greedy people have been pushing the Earth closer and closer to similar destruction. The recent discovery of multiple massive methane leaks in California has contaminated a large area and may take several months to close. The potential catastrophe was allegedly initiated when owners decided to save money by not replacing faulty valves. Short-term wealth was accompanied by short-sighted results.
Flint, Michigan, is reeling from contamination of its drinking water, the result of changing the source of its water to a river that includes chemicals which corrode lead pipes. Many people, including a large number of children, are now suffering from lead poisoning, with no end in sight. Oklahoma, which used to be relatively free from earthquakes, is now one of the earthquake capitals of Earth. Some experts are convinced these earthquakes have resulted from a fracking process to extract crude oil.
Japan’s Fukushima nuclear power plant is still allegedly pumping out massive quantities of radiation five years after a meltdown. Radiation released into the Pacific Ocean has already begun to reach the West coast of the United States, while aerosol contamination has spread quickly all over the globe. Since there is no guaranteed way of stopping the radiation being released from the plant, there is a strong likelihood of massive deaths of marine life and long-term ocean contamination, not to mention the radiation poisoning possible for much of the human population.
For that matter, we still haven’t found a suitable way to dispose of spent fuel rods or other radioactive contaminants since their half-lives can be literally thousands of years. It wouldn’t take many exposures to do irreversible damage to the planet. Plastics are not biodegradable, and our dependence on them may eventually backfire. Even now, a massive whirlpool filled with plastic bottles and the like can be found in the Pacific Ocean, and others around the world are likely getting bigger daily thanks to human carelessness.
There has been a big rise in carbon dioxide levels in Earth’s atmosphere. At least some of this has been caused by humans, although some of the biggest polluters continue to deny their culpability. The carbon dioxide acidifies the oceans, killing off marine life where found in high concentrations. It may be helpful to plant life since plants take in carbon dioxide and release oxygen into the atmosphere. But it exacerbates the breathing problems for humans with respiratory difficulties.
This is just the tip of the iceberg. Governments around the world have been working on weather-control systems to use as weapons, and there is little doubt at least some may have tested their weapons on unsuspecting human guinea pigs. As is almost always the case, they are not considering how their actions guarantee natural reactions to counterbalance their efforts. Thus, they can deny how their actions produce a strong negative impact on the general population beyond their target groups.
One or more seed companies are trying to monopolize all food crops, knowing that controlling people is easier by controlling the food supply. However, by destroying all seeds not produced by their geneticists, they are guaranteeing world-wide famine should their seeds suddenly stop producing quality results or begin to poison those who consume those products. Without genetic variability, everyone could suffer, including those who have made considerable wealth with their greed.
When we also consider the massive weapons of destruction being produced world-wide, including nuclear warheads, scalar technology, lasers, space weapons and the like, it is easy to imagine we all live in a larger version of No Name City. On the surface, everything looks about the same as always. But just beyond our awareness is a set of problems that, once exposed, could wipe out much of life on Earth. If we keep symbolically drilling tunnels under our city, we will eventually all fall in.
In my book “It’s a Secret, So Pass It On: a Toolbox For Life,” I consider the possibility that we all live in an imaginary world that we all accept as real. We should hope that is the case, for if this is a real world, then so is the destruction that must surely occur eventually. We can hope it doesn’t happen in our lifetimes, but what about our offspring and their offspring? What kind of legacy are we leaving for them?
I don’t wish to scare anyone since fear is our biggest enemy. But I don’t have a viable solution to these problems. Those whose job it is to keep the Earth livable have an extremely difficult task ahead trying to counterbalance the forces of destruction. Whether they succeed or fail remains to be seen. In the meantime, we can watch the movie “Paint Your Wagon.” We can pretend everything will work out okay, as if it is not a prediction of future events. But deep inside, we know better.
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