ENERGY, a good parameter when assessing DEVELOPMNENT

Among the ways to measure a country’s development, (if not the best, at least one of the better ones) is it to determine the average amount of energy that each one of its inhabitants consumes.

Anthropologist George Grant tells us: “The degree to which a society has become civilized, regardless of era, peoples, or group thereof, is measured by the amount of energy required to cover its developmental needs.  In furthering that concept, Leslie White, also an anthropologist, adds that a culture’s primary responsibility is to “provide and control energy for the benefit of all women and men in a given society.”

Biologist Howard Odum, one of the pioneers of natural energy systems, affirms that the greatest restriction in the development of a society is the lack of adequate amount of energy. Human creativity inevitably depends on the energy necessary to realize that which had been imagined.

From what these North American scientists have stated, one is able to deduce that countries that do not prioritize their energy potential for their own progress are hindering their integral development.

Energy abundant nations that may be in need of these resources for their own development, but instead elect to export it, are in fact betraying their own people while propelling the economies of the countries they serve.

This posture, to prioritize the development of foreign economies before your own, is characteristic of nations created by a foreign power, who, even after their independence, continue to exhibit permanent colonial traits. To eradicate such mentality requires an extraordinary effort of conscience.

The structural and organizational efforts required to maintain the flow of energy in a nation is the base of a permanent and integral development.  Alleged progress born of the commercialization of abundant natural resources, their inherent potential, and low cost of manual labour, are evidence of temporary development that only serve to relive dramas caused by wasted opportunities.

This ‘colonial trait’ keeps alive the thought, which with an aristocratic gesture, yields to the patron saint of only one faith: MONEY. A faith that scares away the chances for genuine development.
Spanish - English Translation by Renato Riva-Vercellotti

Possibility

The possibility to live in harmony exists, yet we continue to attack each other in such a manner that it would seem to have become a chronic ailment.

Analyzing the reasons that foster polarization will help reconsider arguments bogged down in mutual lack of understanding. Biased positions that further understanding and consensus, shine with their absence.

Archeologists suggest that the Neolithic Period (Stone Age Era starting in 9500 BC) was the most pacifist in human history. Evidence shows that few arms were utilzed. It was an era of matriarchy.  Women discovered agriculture.  For the most part, men were shepherds. There were found pots, basquets and trays that served to store left-over grains, these generating the holy surplus that propelled the economy. It is then that history returns to the mallet and the bludgeon thus giving peace a clubbing. 

The first societies with hydraulic agriculture (4000 BC) began to flourish.  Social structures were set up in a hierarchical fashion, with an autonomous leader. This resulted in the evolution of rich urban centres.  Smaller "hydraulic" societies strewned through the valleys were amalgamated by armed forces and conquered, giving birth to the first kingdoms. The predominant interest of manking changed.

Writer and economist Jeremy Rifkin, sustains that changes in the form of communication restructure the way in which the mind understands and organizes reality.

Rifkin tells us that "oral" cultures where the telling of stories was the sole way of propagating and affirming, heaped with mythological conciousness. "Written" cultures gave way to theological conciousness.  Cultures that surge with the printed word are accompanied by an ideological concience.  The first generation of the electronic era constitutes a new culture that opens the door to a sociological concience.  Each with its own forms and "enemies". He adds that to the mythological man, the "other" is either a non-human, or the devil, or a monster.  To him, it is the pagan or the infidel.  The cyber era is still unidentified and unnamed.

The fact that humanity does not march to the same drummer has resulted in the clash among the remnants of various cultures still in existence.  A collision of these was aided by the advances in communication: the satellite and Internet.  The inhuman, the devil, the pagan and infidel, the stupid, the crazy, and the "antagonist", whatever we opt to call the present "stranger", they are all present in our present cultural melting pot.

What's more, while this encounter of cultures should provide for a chance to exchange interesting and fruitful ideas, that simply is not happening repeating grave past errors, as is the sad and palpalable experience of the conquest of America by Europeans. The inscrupulous massive and educational misinformation, with which powerful economic groups and politicians convert the less fortunate in still "oral" environments, and I express it as such because the information they receive, systematically based on cliches, are sent back in time to reconnect with the predominant characteristics of that "oral" culture where there did not exist the possibility of introspective analysis (nothing come from within, it all comes from outside) that deprives them of spark, idea, and internal light. On the other hand those who are immune to this mental deterioration, product of the bombardment of hidden propaganda, develop their intellect availing themselves of abundant information and bibliography, which is common today, and are therefore able to maintain  introspective abilities.

This is what I believe is at the root of such incomprehension between peoples.

To take the power of massive imformation away from groups that waste opportunity to develop humankind for simple and misguided financial gain, is practically imposible because they have taken over all recourses with which men and women depend on;  still there is always a way out when one observes ingenious reality.

We have the ability of a collective re-encounter among ourselves regardless of the distance or isolation in which we are.  Let us make use of this our only arm at our disposal to join our efforts to change the course of history towards a bigger and greater renaissance.

The possibility exists, let's not waste it particularly for fear that we may displease the greedy.


Spanish - English Translation by Renato Riva-Vercellotti