Iowans are scared, they don't know what is happening to this country. Iowans love their kids and want them to have a secure life filled with opportunity, This is why it is so challenging when Iowans, like many Americans, continue to embrace the things that will likely make us less secure, and reduce opportunity in the future. For instance, we embrace ethanol and CAFOs--both are terrible uses of resources because of the carbon dioxide and methane they produce. We embrace a monoculture in our fields and have 2.5% forested lands in our state--once again not great for reducing the effects of global climate change. Our jobless rate is at an all-time low, but jobs are more likely to make Iowans less food secure, more in debt, and more likely to rely on private transit to get to work. Again all things that don't bode well
So why do we continue down this path of what looks a lot like self-destruction? I have two notions a) We are believers in our ability to engineer ourselves out of any and all problems we and/or nature creates. b) We are fundamentally greedy and don't really care about what happens next. I suppose I could add a c) option: We are both fundamentally greedy AND we believe in our ability to engineer ourselves out of (or into) anything. But the guiding light behind these theories is we do things out of fear. Whether it is the fear of messing things up for our progeny or fear of living in a hellscape that maybe is our fault, it is fear that drives this bus.
If we go by each case, our fear of not succeeding in being the rulers of our own destiny if we can't engineer ourselves out of the problems we face would tantamount to saying the American Dream is a lie. Well, maybe it is. Maybe the ideals of a democracy in which everyone wins if they work hard enough left out a few folks and we are now fearful that "they" want reparations? But, what if even that isn't enough or isn't actually what "they" want? What if our fear is that the meek will inherit the earth--and they actually do? First, they came for the billionaires and I did nothing...
In the second case, what if people actually are self-indulgent narcissists who care about no one but themselves and a handful of others? Why should we care if the oceans rise and people are displaced? It isn't my fault, why should I feel bad? In this case, we fear what may be taken from us. All these things that we clawed our way forward to possess could as easily be taken from us in the form of taxes, tyranny, or economic downturn. Oh, and possible pandemic or alien invasion.
The third case is what I call the billionaire problem. Let's say you are a billionaire (go ahead imagine making $4,474,885 an hour like Jeff Bezos--let it soak in). Now imagine you are fearful the planet you live on might become uninhabitable in your lifetime (let's say like earth, right now). If you could create your own interplanetary escape plan, wouldn't you? And, if you could convince governments or investors that you'd cut them in, wouldn't that also be sweet? It's a win/win for both greed and engineering one's way out of a significant problem.
But, I am a faithful believer in actionable hope. It is my hope that, as we have shown in scenario after scenario, that we will do the best we can fo the most when we absolutely have to. We will recognize that we have to act in concert with others in the world, as we are doing right now with regard to world health around the Covid-19 virus. As we have seen in this outbreak, it is possible to spook the stock market, to spook our fellow human beings and yet, also to mount a worldwide public health campaign to reduce the risk of large-scale spreading and more deaths. Fear can serve a useful purpose, it can remind us of our commonalities and how intertwined we really are.
