Engagement

The death of manners in American society has been rather precipitous and jarring for me. In the last two decades, the general public behavior on American urban streets has deteriorated. This has accelerated with the public use of PDAs, iPods, iPhones, netbooks and mobiles. The advent of hip hop culture prior to onslaught of these devices laid a perfect groundwork for isolationism and marginal aggression in the public space.

I understand the seductiveness of earplugs in modern urban America. I travel subways and walk frequently through urban neighborhoods, which are jammed with cars, bicycles and baby strollers. I can see a day when pedestrians may be wearing hi-tech glasses, equipped with GPS and a virtual reality, projected on the inside of the lenses. These, combined with earplugs, would provide the perfect mobile womb.

I happen to believe that staying engaged, despite the annoyances, is an important part of being a practitioner of humanism. So, I venture out unplugged daily. I hold doors open for others. I say thank you to store clerks. I make eye contact and smile at people on the subway and sidewalk. This is an essential part of my humanist practice as I see it. This is my own way of taking responsibility for improving my environment. Retreating into technology, in my opinion, is an irresponsible and antisocial approach to the stresses of urban life. Regular, peaceful engagement in the public space, I believe, is a way of promoting greater peace in society.

Heat

As the temperature hovers in the high 90's Fahrenheit (30's Celsius), the unsustainability of the modern urban environment becomes glaringly obvious. A culture which relies on oil and coal to power air conditioners, cars and water purification plants is not prone to support a radical change to sustainable energy sources in any big hurry.

Black pavement, dark roofs and an absence of shade trees make the modern urban environment a solar heat collector. This requires greater artificial cooling to maintain human health in buildings poorly designed for hot weather. Not using air conditioning is a choice to sacrifice personal health for no measurable social or environment effect. Frankly, it is masochistic, since the price of an air conditioning unit is equivalent to what most families pay for one month's cable TV bill.

The problem is a big one and beyond the power of single individuals to solve. Industry obviously has no interest in solving it. Government, if constrained by corruption, will not fix it. This is not a hopeful scenario, but it is an accurate assessment of the status quo.

As global warming radically changes the environment with exponential effects of petrochemical addiction, great human suffering is predictable. This suffering will cut across socioeconomic lines. When the technological breaking point comes, there will be no refuge from heat or drought or famine. Only then will those who live in denial of science and history be forced to face the truth. Meanwhile, those us us who see the coming catastrophe must turn to some form of daily practice to maintain our sanity and personal optimism.

Technology

I heard a software developer speak yesterday on the radio. He was speculating on futuristic technology, such as the home fabrication of goods via the Internet. He was excited at the concept of being able to order a T-shirt on line and being able to physically download that T-shirt without leaving the house. Whatever floats your boat, I guess.

I was astounded by the level of worldly myopia in this man. I assume he is educated. I could not understand how this man was so oblivious to the problems of overpopulation and declining natural resources, when the interviewer asked him about the role of environmental factors in these predictions.

Then I remembered. Technology today is motivated by the same factors which motivated the technology which brought us the Industrial Revolution and the carbon economy. That motivation is associated with accommodating overpopulation, rather than addressing it. It is associated with compensation for environmental deterioration, rather than avoiding it.

Technology alone will not solve the problems of overpopulation and environmental disaster. A conscious revolution in the hearts and minds of the general human population may do this. That revolution begins with each person's awareness and commitment to the human species above governments and corporations. Wellness must become superior to wealth in the human consciousness.

Individual practice of this consciousness daily is like a beneficial virus, which spreads with contact to others. Infect the world with your practice of mindfulness and compassion by example.