That's because it seems to me that, in one significant sense, asking "what are we fighting for" is also reflected in the question "what are we living for." This in the sense of greater moral, or metaphysical concepts.
There is also the parallel connected to what used to be thought of, for "what are we fighting for," and why we would want to worry about extreme weather in the first place, and that is the natural desire to want to respond to threats to our existence.
As such, as we have been threatened by real enemies from without, over the past century, it has been our very great fortune that so many (even though it is so few in comparison to our population) have been willing to "stand the wall" (to paraphrase from the movie "A Few Good Men").
The problem, these days, with both of these better aspects of wanting to respond to threats, is that we are now so much more clear, on just how muddied up the picture can become (Capitalism just loves contradictions), when what we protect becomes ever more suspect. And why, you might ask, would they become more suspect?
Well, one big reason is that information is a commodity now. A very valuable commodity. More valuable even than the skill regurgitations of increasing numbers of human beings. As such, it doesn't get shared, out and about with what was supposed to be an informed electorate, anywhere even close to what was intended when the founders of this nation began creating it. It has, in fact, become a weapon itself. Which really isn't a good thing as well if you are one of the people who have always felt the call to serve your nation.
And if that wasn't enough, you then have the many, terrible competitions going on, by the very system that has made information the new gold. The competitions that mirror the one to get more, in every aspect that might make money, information; something we normally refer to as "research and development." Those other competitions revolve around the markets that this system uses to sell things in. The limited resource aspect of our planet. And then, because the of the first ones, the always ongoing need to get the new, bigger, and better, big stick, with which to do "War without end."
I will close by reminding you that the "what are we living for" aspect here is most tragically illustrated by the notion that we are about to surrender our ability to choose at all; to surrender the most fundamental aspects of what we should value for ourselves as both thoughtful, and loving creatures.
I can only hope now that you are clear on just how dirty things have gotten. And if you still value real choice then remember the dictum: "Use it or lose it."
Let's All Take A Breath And Read That 'Hothouse Earth' Paper
See Also:
[Post Note: And where do you suppose all of those folks, in all of the areas along the equator, are going to go when those areas even begin to be seen as unliveable? You think we have a refugee crisis now? You think trying to ignore the desperate need of others is going to be easier the more people that become desperate? J.V.]
Amr Abdallah Dalsh / Reuters file
GLOBAL HEAT WAVE
Searing heat could make North Africa, Arab Gulf countries unlivable
In the fertile Nile Delta, rising sea levels and a rising water table are already cutting into Egypt’s precious 4 percent of arable farmland.
[Post Note: What are we living for? Do we work to live, or do we live to work? J.V.]
DOING THE DIRTY WORK
Are Japan's Part-Time Employees Working Themselves To Death?
The country's labor policies, and a tight job market, have some people cobbling together 70-hour work weeks out of multiple jobs.
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