Captain Future's Log

Focus

Dreaming Up Daily has evolved over the past month or so. Though there has been some intelligent design involved, the concentration on Katrina news especially was a response to very important events. Very important for the present and the future.

One of this site's core readers commented once on the "dreaming up daily" title that it reminded him of Shiva, the Indian Hindu goddess whose daily dance is the world. So the dance of events and especially the dance of stories make up our reality. But that dance, that reality and this site should be made up of more than so-called news. That's why there were posts here on books, DVD movies, and broader cultural issues, and there will be again.

Dreaming up the world also means finding meaning and direction, and that requires getting beyond the lockstep of events. "Dreaming up" was also always meant to be paired with the "going down" or the "Dark Ages Ahead" (Jane Jacob's book title) or the coming or current nightmares. The positive elements we need especially in such times come from purpose, spirituality, conviviality, memory and humor, among other possibilities. And they come from developing a better future, which is the great work of the present.

While I hope these elements have been here, to concentrate on these levels requires spending a lot of time writing and seeking out information, more time than the Captain has been able to devote. But I hope there's more balance possible here in the future.

It's been fun using the resources of the Internet to essentially publish a little newspaper or magazine every day. It seems to have attracted more visitors to the site. But I hope I can come up with a good combination of that, and what the site was originally intended to be.

There's a very interesting post over at daily kos, here, that in a way is a post I've been waiting for. It takes on the obsession with daily events, with political strategizing and so on, and demands some focus on the problems that are threatening people's lives---like the fatal costs of healthcare and now the extra pressure of high prices for the necessities of gasoline, heating oil, natural gas and electricity. Here in northern CA, our utility bills are set to nearly double.

We all need fun and games, and that's the level of a lot of discussion. While things like DeLay and the Plame investigation have real political meaning and consequences, let's face it---people are getting off on it. It's theatre and its revenge drama and all that, and it's fun, but we need to keep our eye on the ball as well.

This diary concentrates on the place where the rubber meets the road: real life. We do need to relate everything to this level, but we also need to look at the future. This is going to be the challenge of this generation, and generations to come.

Harry Hopkins told FDR about the long-range benefits of one of his programs, "People don't eat it the long term. They eat everyday." We need to be mindful of this.

Yet AT THE SAME TIME we need to be mindful of how things relate, and of consequences for the future. The example that immediately comes to mind right now is the oil issue. We're going to be hearing more and more about the high price of gasoline and heating oil and natural gas, and the additional pressure on peoples' ability to make it, because this is the latest and newest pressure. It's very real.

So inevitably we're also going to be hearing that the way out of this is drilling more oil wells where they haven't been allowed, and building more refineries fast, and damn the environmental regulations. And if all people are focused on is their current need, this will be listened to.

It happens to be wrong: wrong for the present, because it won't help, and wrong for the future. We need to be strong, demand financial relief, demand that windfall profits of oil companies be controlled and prices be controlled in some way. But we need to blow these pro-oil company proposals out of the water immediately. A major reason our health care bills are so high is because the environment is so full of toxins already. We continue to damage our present, and we are ruining the future.

We can't fall for the panic that the Repubs are already starting. We need to keep our heads, demand real solutions, for the clear and present needs of now, and of the future.
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