WTF kind of thing is this to draw for a Sabbat? The Nine of Swords signifies an unreasoning fear, a feeling of dread, a sense of impending doom, agonizing over problems that might well be self-created in the first place, and exaggerated in the second. Sometimes I think these cards are more appropriate for my own personal use than they are for general reading on my blog, but I see where they can work both ways.
There are a lot of unreasoning fears out there in a general sense, some of which are certainly based on well-founded concerns, but might be nonetheless exaggerated.
Take Global Warming for instance. Note how when the trickster god of the North Wind started following Al Gore seemingly every place he went, it didn't take too long for people to say, "okay, now hold on here." Suddenly, you rarely hear the words Global Warming uttered. It's now "Global Climate Change."
And it is a real concern. The melting ice releases more moisture into the atmosphere, which in turn might influence the climate in a myriad of ways, depending on the individual locale. I get all that. The question remains, to what degree is manking responsible for this? What, regardless of the answer to that question, can we do about it? Finally, can we do anything about it. SHOULD we do anything about it?
Of course, that is just one of the many agonizing concerns afflicting mankind. There is poverty, health care, the overall state of the economy, global political instability and terrorism.
How much of these concerns are self-created? How many of them are exaggerated for political purposes? Will things eventually resolve themselves of their own accord, over time? Can we afford to wait that long? If we try to change them, what is the best way to go about that? Will we-are we-in many cases only making matters worse?
A good clue might be a study of history. It seems like one decades fears becomes almost a footnote two or three decades down the line. Most people don't spend a lot of time worrying about the Nazi or communist menace, while slavery and Jim Crow seem almost like something that happened on another dimensional plane of existence.
In other words, nothing stays the same for very long. It's commendable to express concern and to work for positive change, but it might be counterproductive to get hysterical about it.
2 comments:
I like to call it Global Weirdness; up here, anyway, the weather's just been bizarre for the last few years.
My feeling on it, as I've said before I think, is that it's stupid to pretend the problem doesn't exist, but it's also pretty stupid to imagine the governments will solve it. What will make the difference is technology and money- someone will figure out a way to produce energy that's totally clean and really cheap, and they'll probably make a fortune doing so. And, if they can offer me a well-priced car that has very low emissions and can get 100 miles/gallon, I'm fine with that as well. The solution is going to be that someone can get rich finding the solution.
Agreed. Also, it will help shore up our supplies of traditional energy reserves for the simple fact we won't have to use as much of them during any given period.
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