We Have Met The Enemy

"We have met the enemy and he is us."

Remember that line? Do you remember the origin of it? It was first uttered by Walt Kelly's "Pogo" in a poster for the first Earth Day, 1970. It is easy to think it goes back further. The line is actually a play on Oliver Hazard Perry's famous quote "we have met the enemy and they are ours" (he actually included the line in a dispatch to Major General William Henry Harrison after defeating the British on Lake Erie on 10th of September, 1813). When Walt Kelly wrote those words for Pogo, it was meant as a comment on the state of the environment.

That is not what I am going to write about here. I might touch on it, yes, but the environment plays just a small part.

For the past few decades, certainly the last three, our country has been growing ever more polarized. There are those in positions of power, both within government and big business, who more than likely rely on this polarization to keep them in their lofty positions, be it in higher office or tremendously powerful. We have sacrificed common sense and, yes I will say it, our very souls, upon the edifice that these powers-that-be have erected. They have managed to get us to turn against our better judgment and to vote against our best interests by using that one truly American trait; paranoia.

That, mixed with a dash of neurosis and healthy serving of arrogance, has been our undoing.

There is really no point in going into the current political climate beyond that. Everything that has driven this country, especially for the past decade, has been particularly toxic. But even before this, we have done things that have truly been against our best interests. The last thirty years have been about gaining as much wealth as possible without even a hint of civic responsibility. We are the wealthiest country in the world and enjoy some of the lowest tax rates globally, yet still we grumble about paying it. Folks, we are in the bottom five for taxation (depending upon the source, the countries that have a lower tax burden appear to be Ireland and Iceland). On the local, state and federal level, cuts are being made to keep the budget somewhat in the black, yet spending is always being called for. We have a crumbling infrastructure across the country, replete with failing bridges, and roads that are completely unsafe to drive on. This stuff has to be paid for in some manner; sadly, there is no Infrastructure Faerie to place a new one under our pillows when the old one breaks.

When cuts are made, they are always to the things that the voters feel are superfluous to their needs. In the past, this has included things like libraries and, in some districts, schools. Cutting either of these is wrong, especially during an economic downturn. Libraries (while some might say are probably not as necessary thanks to the Internet) still provide free Internet access in many parts of the country, and given that many employers have dispensed with regular paper employment applications, that alone is a godsend. Cutting education spending is like giving your community a collective lobotomy. While you may, say, never have had children, or if you have can afford to send them to a private school, the idea that someone else's offspring is not your responsibility is misguided. The true wealth of a community is not in its houses, buildings or banks, it is in its people. It is measured by how the people of that community live, and in what conditions. What determines this is education. Not paying for education now, normally results in paying later; law enforcement, the courts and prisons are even pricier.

This brings us to the environment. Once upon a time, scientists were held in high regard in this country. Nowadays, they are held in suspicion, unless it is something that industry agrees with. Most of those who lead the charge against the scientists sorely lack in any scientific credentials, though they may be leaders in industry or carry around a good degree of political clout. We have turned one of our most valuable commodities into modern day Cassandras, who warn of impending problems but are ignored or, worse, shunned.

Perhaps the problem has to do with losing sight of the long term. We're human, we live, on average, 70 to 80 years, and that is not a lot of time. Most Americans are only looking as far down the road as a couple of years maximum, and for many of us the next few months are shrouded in a mist as we live from paycheck to paycheck. It is the here and now that governs our lives, as well as a personal quest for wealth, even if modest. When I say long term, I am not speaking just for the individual, but for all of us, our community at large. It is human nature to not look beyond the needs of our immediate clan, but in order to address the problems that are facing us today, we need to broaden our gaze.

That we excuse our behavior by calling it human nature also is something of a dichotomy. By referring to something as a human behavior, indeed as animal behavior, we are being hypocrites, especially if one is religious. Most western religions believe that we are divine, and in the case of Christianity that we should be more Christ-like. Yet not only do we accept that we are imperfect, we almost seem to revel in it when it suits our needs. Rest assured, there are certainly those who will help us fail, especially when it suits their's.

We have met the enemy and, indeed, he is us.