Msg: 2874 *Conference*

07-19-92 20:34:30

From: DREW BLANCHAR

To : RICHARD HANSON

Subj: VP RUNNING?

<the following is from "Dysfunctional Civilization" > < from Sen. Al Gore's
book "Earth in the Balance"    > < caught it in the latest issue of "MAN!"  #15
>
..........
  To define the essence of who we are in terms that  correspond with the
analutical activity of the neocortex (high brain section capable of abstract
thought) is to  create an intolerable dilemma: how can we concentrate purely on
abstract thinking when the rest of our brain floods our awareness with
feelings, emotions, and instincts?
.......... The cleavage in the modern world between mind and body, man and
nature, has created a new kind of addiction:  I believe that our civilization
is, in effect, addicted to the  consumptions of earth itself.  This addictive
relationship distracts us from the pain of what we have lost: a direct 
experience of our connection to the vividness, vibrancy, and aliveness of the
rest of the natural world. 
..........
 The false promise at the core of addiction is the  possibility of experiencing
the vividness and immediacy of  real life without having to face the fear and
pain that are also part of it.  Our industrial civilization makes us a  
similiar promise: the pursuit of happiness and comfort is paramount, and the
consumption of an endless stream of  shiny new products is encouraged as the
best  way to  succeed in that pursuit.  The glittering promise of easy 
fulfillment is so seductive that we become willing, even  relieved, to forget
what we really feel and abandon the  search for authentic purpose and meaning
in our lives.
  But the promise is always false because the hunger for  authenticity remains.
In a healthy, balanced life, the  noisy chatter of our discourse with the
artificial world of our creation may distract us from the deeper rhythms of 
life, but it does not interrupt them.  In the pathology of addiction, this
dialogue becomes more than a noisy  diversion; as their lives move further out
of balance,  addicts invest increasing amounts of energy in their  
realationship to the objects of their addictions.  And once addicts focus on
false communion with substitutes for life, the rhythm of their dull and
deadening routine becomes  increasingly incompatible, discordant, and dissonant
with the natural harmony that entrains the music of life.  As  the dissonance
grows more violent and the clashes more  frequent, peaks of disharmony become
manifest in successive crises, each one more destrructive than the last.
..........
 Our relationship to the earth may never be healed until we are willing to stop
denying the destructive nature of the current pattern.  Our seemingly
compulsive need to control the natural world may hae derived from a feeling of
helplessness in the face of our deep and ancient fear of  "Nature red in tooth
and claw," but this compulsion has  driven us to the edge of disaster, for we
have become so  successful at controlling nature that we have lost our  
connections to it.   And we must also recognize that a new fear is now
deepening our addiction: even as we revel in  our success at controlling
nature, we have become  increasingly frightened of the consequences, and that
fear only drives us to ride this destructive cycle harder and faster.
 
 
....... Are the vice-presidential candidates allowed to run or do they just
follow the presidential candidate's lead????  I like the sound of the Honorable
Senator.