Define “spiritual” in context in a way that makes any kind of sense. Spiritual or spiritualism is a word that is bandied about by certain groups but they can never define what it means, and it always means different things to different people, because it doesn’t really mean anything at all. It’s just an airy fairy catch all term for people who have never really thought about what they are talking about.
Now tell me how those protesters got there. In pickups, cars, SUVs, almost all run by gasoline. Gasoline that largely got to it’s destination after travelling through pipelines. A single pipeline was shut down temporarily and gas shortages started in a large section of America.
It’s simply amazing how many people protest gas and oil pipelines after driving in their gas powered car several hundred miles and never consider the connection between the two.
Everyone hates pipelines but nobody wants to give up their SUVs, cars and two ton trucks. That’s what’s called being hypocrites. The author himself includes a picture of a camp full of cars, campers, trucks. The US economy would fall apart in week and millions of Americans would start starving if American pipelines were shutdown. Nor is there any better way to transport oil or gas. None of which means the pipeline industries are doing a good job of keeping them maintained, or building them to be as safe as they can be. With todays technology pipelines could be double walled and could shut themselves down by automatically detecting leaks. But nobody is demanding better pipelines, they want pipelines shut down, which is completely insane.
Completely insane and hypocritical.
And lets not forget there are entire countries full of disadvantaged brown people even poorer and more disadvantaged than “spiritual” natives. These foreigners are desperately trying to crawl out of some of the worst poverty in the world, into a first world economy which is largely based on cheap energy. But no, they can’t have it, because cheap gas and oil is OK for Americans of all sorts, including the “spiritual” ones, but not for poverty stricken brown people who live in another country. We call that being hypocritical too.
As for land being sacred, it’s only sacred when someone else is making the decisions. When natives are making the decisions on what to build, what to cut down, what to pave, it’s not so sacred, it’s just another resource for their use. So again, lets not be hypocritical.
What will save the USA is moving towards green renewable energy sources as fast as possible. A combination of wind, solar, hydro, nuclear, geothermal, all of which also clog up that sacred land. Our economy, the ability to afford cars and trucks and campers, along with homes on city size lots and acreages is entirely dependent on cheap energy. Cheap abundant energy powers our vehicles, heats our houses, powers our computers, our businesses where we work, our hospitals, our fishing boats, makes fertilizer that’s used to feed us. We can’t do without it. Nor can we do without petrochemicals. One third of oil in the USA is used for industrial purposes, made into chemicals, plastics and fertilizers. Fertilizers without which billions of people would starve, and countries would go back to warring over deposits of bat guano and bird crap. Plastics that go into those campers, cars and trucks.
We are never going to live in hunter gather societies again, not unless people are willing to cull the human population by some 6.5 billion people. I’m not willing to do that. We can’t live in a fantasy world, we need pragmatic solutions to real world problems. Natives aren’t looking out for the world, they are looking out for themselves. That’s fine, I have no problem with that. That is their right. But lets not pretend they are trying to save the world. They aren’t, they are consigning billions of people to living in some of the worst poverty on the face of the Earth. Don’t try to compare the two either. If you have a car and can afford to drive it, you are filthy rich compared to most people in China, India, Bangladesh and many other countries.
Pragmatism isn’t a dirty word. And unlike “spiritual”, I can give a real world definition that actually means something.
1.
a pragmatic attitude or policy.
a practical approach to problems and affairs.
2.
an approach that assesses the truth of meaning of theories or beliefs in terms of the success of their practical application.
