Light Pollution Reflection / Refraction Number 4

Posted on October 12, 2007

WARNING:

I guarantee my reflections and refractions will create controversy and confrontation; and quite likely I'll step on many toes, but it's time to be brutally honest. So if you are thin-skinned proceed accordingly--take your hand off the mouse and back away from the computer.

IT JUST NEVER ENDS! Part 2

WHY does light pollution exist? In Part 1 I fault THE SYSTEM Part 1.

THE SYSTEM is neither unique to America nor to any single -ism: capitalism, communism, fascism, etc. THE SYSTEM, the Establishment, the Firm, The Man, the Old Guard, the Ruling Class, the Powers-That-Be, Beadledom, Officialdom, is international; and it thrives everywhere there are Homosaps--my somewhat less-than-humane name for much of the species, Homo sapiens. IJNE!

THE SYSTEM and light pollution appear automatically wherever Homosaps get together and fancy themselves the ultimate species, uncritically accepting the specious assumption that Homosaps must conquer, control, colonize, exploit, dominate, subjugate, enthrall, enslave, manage and oppress everyone, everything and Earth itself. IJNE! In particular, the word manage is my favorite. Homosaps just cannot tolerate even the tiniest parcel of Earth UNmanaged! So, manage away, Bubbas, manage away!

TO affluent, upscale Homosaps, like you and me, the second reason light pollution exists is likely as invisible as a big black hole, but it surrounds us in all our opulent homes, workplaces, communities; it borders and bounds us, encircles and encloses us, defines and decribes us...

LIFESTYLE--Our affluent effluent.

IT’S not just the insatiable American LIFESTYLE, but the worldwide upscale lifestyle of obsessive wealth accumulation that causes out-of-control light pollution. Look at any image of worldwide light pollution and you’ll see the pattern generated by affluent Homosaps' lifestyles everywhere.

OF course, millions of people all over the planet have no choice, they are forced--surprise, surprise--by THE SYSTEM into lifestyles unimaginably painful.

AND, of course, some people choose a live-to-give lifestyle, returning more to Earth than taking from it, a lifestyle nearly impossible to live in 21st century America, where we are prisoners of... yep, you guessed it, THE SYSTEM...gotta keep that economic engine of growth and development chuggin’ down the tracks at full-throttle!

I’VE messed about trying to invent some simple nonscientific lifestyle scale, a 1-10 scale on which we could rank our individual lifestyle or a country’s lifestyle relative to others. Where would your own lifestyle fit on such a relative 1-10 scale? America’s overall lifestyle? Homosap’s lifestyle?

HOMOSAPS have hopelessly removed themselves from Earth for the sake of comfort, convenience and commercial crap, and very few Homosaps have any idea how Earth works except on the most superficial, shallow, uncritical level. And Homosaps have become so domesitcated that they have no clue how to do much of anything without detailed instructions or help from experts and machines: GPS devices, cars that park themselves, processed and packaged food, and thousands of other things--all of which come directly or indirectly from Earth, not that Homosaps would ever notice.

HOMOSAPS, bless your heart, you just don’t get it, do you? IJNE!

VERY few Homosaps, Americans especially, have a clue as to where their food and the other so-called “necessities” of their lifestyle come from. Challenge: Name one specific place on Earth where any of the dozens of materials come from that compose the computer upon which you’re reading this rant right now! Name, for example, the source point on Earth of just one of the many materials that make up the screen you’re peering at. Can’t do it, eh? I’m not surprised. But this is inexcusable! Aren’t we supposedly the most intelligent lifeforms on Earth? in the Cosmos? As a lifelong student of Earth and Cosmos and long-time earth sciences teacher, this is beyond inexcusable; it is just plain indefensible, inexpiable, intolerable, unforgivable, unpardonable! No wonder the sky reeks with light pollution! IJNE!

WORSE, ask people (Sheeple?) nowadays how Earth formed and developed and the answer will likely be: “God did it!” Again, not surprising; and most of those who respond this way can’t wait for the end times, the Apocalypse, when, POOF! Earth just up and disappears. IJNE!

SOMETIMES, especially when I’m cornered by a proselytizing firm believer, or I’m in a particularly curmudgeonly mood--which seems to be 24 - 7 - 365.25 these days--I think, sarcastically, why spend trillions of dollars on everything imaginable when we could simply adopt this three word phrase... “God did it!” Just think how much easier life would be if all we really needed to know in life (and we could learn it in kindergarten) is... “God did it!”

EDUCATION: our educational systems (part of THE SYSTEM) have become so technobuzzardly, so deluged by technology, that youngsters rarely get to actually touch, see, hear, taste, or smell Earth anymore. Instead, they’re herded into concrete, steel, and often glassless structures (prisons?) where they’re taught to follow the rules and learn whatever the current crop of corporate rulers in ‘Merica “need” to ensure they’ll have “good and docile” future “employees”. IJNE!

EVEN my local, so-called state-of-the-art (sic), world-class (sic) school district can’t afford anymore to take students on regular environmental education field trips around the surrounding county, despite all the evidence that confirms humans (not Homosaps) are best educated when they touch, taste, smell, etc. Earth from early on! Whatever. IJNE! But, by golly, there’s plenty of $$$$ in the hands of the Homosaps in the local community for the ever-growing upscale lifestyle, ever bigger McMansions, gated communities and more and bigger shopping experiences available on the outskirts of town where more and more of Earth must be plundered to pacify, appease, assuage, mollify and placate corporate and consumer needs(?) and lifestyles! Oh, don’t get me started!

OUR lives have become all but totally dependent on swiss-cheese Microsh_t software and browsers (like the Exploder...errr, Explorer you are likely using to see this website) and the computer hardware and all the other wireless gizmos and gadgets that fill our days and nights with endless, mostly worthless tripe! And of course, there are the Homosaps (again, Sheeple?) who just can’t wait for the so-called Singularity, the moment when we’re all “chipped.” They’re like the Sheeple who can’t wait for the Second Coming, the Apocalypse, Armageddon! The same deviant thinking, just different words! Whatever!

NOW, about the typical American Homosap lifestyle in particular. Obviously, it enables and encourages light pollution out the wazoo, but does little to prevent or eliminate it. IJNE!

CHALLENGE: Quickly make a mental inventory of your own lifestyle, all the stuff you’ve collected and possess, including all those “invisible” investments. I challenge you to think of just one thing you possess that is not an exploitation of Earth and was not extracted from Earth, much of it from parts of the planet where the people doing all the heavy lifting to bring it to you do not live your lifestyle and NEVER will live your lifestyle! Why? Read THE SYSTEM Part 1.

AND I challenge you to think of just one possession that did not cause and create vast amounts of light pollution when it was extracted, refined, designed, produced, manufactured, advertised, marketed, and delivered to you. Literally, it just NEVER seems to end!

POINT blank: We Americans are so hopelessly addicted to our gotta-have-it-now civilization (syphilization?), to all the trinkets and trash, gewgaws n’ gimcracks, bibelots n’ baubles, dingbats n’ doodads, knickknacks n’ bric-a-brac, that we are totally oblivious to how our lifestyle causes light pollution, that once upon a time, starlight filled the sky, but now cowers and kowtows in deference to the awesome power of Homosaps!

ASTRONOMERS, you must love light pollution, too. Oh, come on, astronomers, Hubble up! You may not actually love light pollution, but like most Americans, you certainly do love everything that comes along with it. You want every little gadget and gizmo, widget, wingnut n’ whatnot, dingus, doohickey, thingama-bob, -knob, n’ -Dob, every piece of technobuzzardry you can get your hands on to make your telescope and observing site...well, supposedly perfect! I must admit, I’ve never felt the need for more stuff to add on to the old telescope I’ve been using for decades, mostly to show my students the light-littered sky!

AND then there’s that constant, noxious nagging in the back of your brain: bigger is better, bigger is better, big... We all know in astronomy, size matters! And like all “good” ‘Mericans, we just gotta have the newest, biggest and best. THE SYSTEM (the educational / business system?) has done a thorough job of inculcating Homosaps with the “uncontrollable desire” to constantly want bigger, better(?) and more! Whether male or female: “Mine is / mine are bigger and better’n yours!” IJNE! Here again, I must admit, I’ve never suffered the dreadful and ghastly pain of aperture fever.

AND because Homosaps love their so-called civilized (syphilized?) and technofied lifestyle, all those starry cosmic candles compete (and lose) nightly amidst billions of excessive, expensive lights scattered all across upscale ‘Merica.

WHY all the excessive lights? Simple: to maintain and, well, secure that BIG upscale, affluent Homosap lifestyle!

IT Just Never Ends!

AGAIN, who is responsible for all the needless, wasteful, wanton light hovering over America and other parts of the planet? Us! You and me and all the rest of the Homosap residents of Richistan.

OUR affluent effluent is responsible for light pollution!

SO, what are you gonna do about it?

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