architecture - letter from the future

LETTER FROM THE FUTURE: Legacy—not a love story with the Earth

Last updated: March 19th, 2019

Hey there Mr. Prime Minister, President, King, Despot, Corporate Mogul and globally cloned counterparts—congratulations from the new century! The year is 2101 to be exact, 88 years from your present time. We notice that your policies and corporate acumen created a systematic cascade of failing ecosystems on planet Earth. This was a remarkable feat on your part, as you had all the science, studies and reports in front of you to stop the destruction. You may choose one of the hats we have designed for you—the dunce’s hat which is cone shaped with a large D painted on it. Or the Mad Hatter’s hat with a gold trim of question marks that doubt your competence and awareness. Choose your hat, you have earned it. Wear it proudly.

Remember the one liner from Bill Clinton that won him an election—“It’s the economy, stupid.” You surely must, as you have put it wholeheartedly into practice. Sorry Bill, Stephen, Barack, Monsanto and company—that is the wrong direction. Your dysfunctional global financial system lurched from one disaster to another throughout the century. May we remind you of the obvious: “It’s the ECOLOGY, stupid.” The economy is a mere subset of the mother-lode of ecology and you have successfully screwed that source up. On your watch not only did the financial collapse signal a dangerous global watershed, the world food system crashed as a consequence along with the train wreck of chaos brought in by climate change. Nobody did anything to rein in the usual suspects. Why the masters of capital and politics were not lynched in the streets is testimony to your very successful control, lies and doublespeak.

Come and see through eyes from 2101. Are you aware that by 2101 thousands of millions of people died from thirst, starvation and disease? With death arriving from every pestilence available, some of it created in your counter-intelligence labs? The countless millions who have died do not include the many wars waged over scarce resources. And the reason for such wars? Your greed for money, control and power led directly to the cascade of disintegrating ecosystems essential for the support of life. It was amazing how you silenced and muzzled the climate change scientists, the oceanographers screaming that the ocean ecosystems were disintegrating, and how you ignored citizens with the integrity to save the Earth. You had a different agenda and the power to implement it.

Maybe our species will be eliminated while it plays with distraction technologies. What a serendipitous aid for your ambitions to so distract the world’s populations from what was happening right under their noses. Folks did not realize that you were bringing them to the brink of elimination. Neither did you realize this. Our team from 2101 studied your minds yet did not find a species death wish lurking there—so whassup? Aaaah—our mistake—your minds were so tiny, without an ounce of generosity. Not what we expected to find. But there it was—you could not see beyond the next election, the next million dollars. It was our fault that we failed to see that you had inherited the Nero gene—fiddling while not just Rome burned, but the entire planet was allowed to burn.

Mr. Harper, you failed your country and the world—on the big things and the little things. What could you have done? Why did you not shift away from a carbon-based economy? Why did you not protect the bees by banning all pesticides that killed them? Agricultural systems in Canada and around the world collapsed as there was no pollination after the last beehive perished. The Global Marshall Plan created a blueprint for an eco-social market that would sustain the Earth, respect cultures and finance voluntary simplicity. Did you even read their brilliant manifesto? The list of your wrongdoings could go on for a hundred pages.

Mr. Prime Minister, President, CEO—who should you have listened to? You could have listened to Rachel Carson, rather than turn on the pharmaceutical industry jets in a carpet bombing campaign to discredit her. The extraordinary writers and campaigners for the Earth runs a very long gamut from Bateson, Suzuki, McKibben, Gore, Gladwell, Hawken, Korten, Lovelock, Anderson, Monbiot, Radermacher, Shiva, Wilson to the Union of Concerned Scientists. Prattis even entered the Earth gambit with his 2008 book Failsafe: Saving The Earth From Ourselves. David Suzuki endorsed it and wrote the foreword, aboriginal leaders delighted in his advocacy. His point was that in every mind there is a Failsafe that would activate when matters grew so bad that moving to a new mindset would be inevitable. He argued that the notion of innate Earth wisdom, when combined with tipping points in the mind and counterculture, would be sufficient to change our collective mentality in the direction of better Earth stewardship. But there was a huge obstacle in the way, not anticipated. That was YOU! Your shared Nero gene had circumvented any possibility of a Failsafe in consciousness from kicking in. Your manipulation of distraction technologies was a brilliant strategy to protect your interests.

You collectively figured out that distracted people don’t realize they’re in danger. Perhaps you can learn something from Rumi. He said: “Sit down and be quiet. You are drunk and this is the edge of the roof.” But your policies and greed forced humanity off the edge of the roof to occupy an ecosystem of distraction technologies. Add in the fear factor and suffering—then homo sapiens may indeed be toast. Turning on the switch of awakening in your timeframe seems to be a good idea right now, but that is not something you promote. This is what you promote.

In Canada, Stephen Harper and Big Oil ran an incredible promotion campaign for the Alberta Oil Sands project. They produced images of reforestation, utmost safety, deep concern for wildlife, populations and clean water. This played to a receptive audience throughout the country. Decades later the northern rivers and lakes had become a wasteland. It does not take long to destroy ecosystems. Oil derivatives and sludge-polluted lakes swiftly poured through interconnected waterways. Aboriginal populations that once augmented their households with fish and game are no more. They either relocated or died, for they could not drink the polluted water carrying the deadly toxins from tar sands oil production. While the northern ecosystem dies, the politicos and corporate CEO’s bask in power and wealth.

Mr. Harper, Prime Minister of Canada—do you remember in 2013 that 12 prominent Canadian climate scientists advised you to grow up? They took you to task for the wasted billions spent on expanding oil infrastructure. Your policies torpedoed the transition to an economy that could sustain us. Instead of finding a balance you chose to use the atmosphere as a waste dump for carbon. We all breathe the same air Mr. Harper. Are you even aware of the legacy you left for your great grandchildren? Certainly you and your global clones created well provided bunkers for your families—but sad to say the power ran out some time ago, along with the synthetic food. Your descendants are waiting to die from the next wave of pestilence. Do you think for one moment that they look kindly on your legacy? They do not. And indeed hold you responsible for their miserable life on planet Earth.

Our team has communicated with global citizens and encouraged them to hold all political and corporate ghouls to account. Where can they begin?

    1. Citizens must think globally, be aware of the bigger picture and step beyond the smaller pictures of themselves created from the disempowerment you so cleverly dispense.

    1. They must also act locally with great vigour in families and communities. Intentions then spread as ripples from a pebble dropped in still water.

  1. In addition to holding officials, politicians and corporate culture to account, citizens can begin with the small things that everyone can do. Such as implement a lifestyle of voluntary simplicity, reduce meat consumption, walk/cycle more, drive less, create an organic garden, plant a tree—just do it! Reduce the ecological footprint by conserving energy with an eco-friendly act every day, then global consciousness as a collective human phenomenon may change. Different questions will be asked and different solutions found, as a new mindset of shared consciousness emerges to make the necessary decisions for change.

  2. At the same time, as voters and consumers deeply concerned about the planet and your location on it, alert political and corporate decision-makers that you mean business.

Respond in the short term and do not check out in the long term. “Boycott all Monsanto products and vote for new leaders!” is the immediate rallying cry. Citizens must make it clear to political and corporate leaders that the violence and disorder committed in their name is no longer acceptable.

Citizens of the world, please hold your leaders to account with clarity, wisdom and courage! The actions taken now shape the possibilities for generations to come. The future is now! When the collective will changes, we will have new leaders who act differently.

In writing to present political and corporate leaders from the future of 2101, we realize that you are all dead now. Some assassinated, others rotted away in prison, while the remainder died shallow deaths in gated communities. Please note that the prophecy for your 2013 legacy was provided in 1971 by Stanley Kubrick’s A Clockwork Orange. Watch the movie Mr. Prime Minister, President, CEO—then think!

Read more about climate change in INNER INERTIA: Climate change and the need to overcome internal obstacles

[su_panel background=”#f2f2f2″ color=”#000000″ border=”0px none #ffffff” shadow=”0px 0px 0px #ffffff”]by Dr. Ian Prattis, Professor Emeritus, Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada.