Will We Repeat the Past?
At the end of the 13th century, the rivers of the Colorado Plateau nearly dried up. After a hundred-year drought, farming failed and over-population stressed depleting food supplies. To add insult to injury, tribes entered the Four Corners Region bringing with them war and cannibalism. In the water-less desert, the Ancestral Puebloan People were forced to abandon their homes, with their prayers left unanswered, in mass exodus. Are we on our way to a similar fate?
John Wesley Powell proclaimed to the Bureau of Reclamation that west of the 100th meridian was not suitable for large populations after his inaugural trip to map the unknown regions of the Colorado River in 1869. His plea fell on deaf ears as progress took on a life of its own. The Fathers of Industry directed prosperity while money lined their pockets and the poor paid with their blood. The Transcontinental Railway became a feat of the Industrial Revolution.
After the Mexican American war in 1848, Santa Ana’s second defeat, Manifest Destiny provoked westward expansion. The land of opportunity awaited those ready to weather hardships and pay the price. The Homesteaders Act rewarded 160 acres of land for $160 dollars with a commitment to improve the land for five years. What about the Indians? Need not worry. Eradicate all savages that stand in your way; they don’t really matter. The land is yours for the taking. Did we tell you that there is GOLD in the Hills?
By the late 1800s, the savages are placated and rounded up into “civilized” concentration camps, Mormons find Deseret, and the bounty of the West gets consumed. The Owens Valley is inundated for LA water, the 1920 Colorado River compact allocates more water to the upper and lower basins than exists, and the Salton Sea becomes California’s largest lake. WWI, The Roaring 20s, Prohibition, The Dust Bowl, The Great Depression, Civilian Conservation Corps—Build more Dams! Hoover Dam, Lake Mead. WWII. The Baby Boomers arrive. We need more recreation… Glen Canyon Dam, Lake Powell (he rolls in his grave), Navajo Dam, Flaming Gorge Dam, and too many more to mention. We become a Dam-nation! Add more families, add more homes with less water. The Salton Sea becomes too salinized for freshwater fish, stock Tilapia. While you are at it, add a straw to San Diego, they need more water. Vietnam.
Expand, expand, expand. Lakes stagnate, sediment builds behind man-made walls, water levels drop. Let’s pump more water into booming desert cities in the name of progress. Don’t worry about the chemicals, fertilizers, mine tailings, oil and gas pipelines spills in the water. Those downstream will die soon, they don’t need access to clean water. The temperature rises and we need more water for the affluent. Las Vegas, Tuscan, Phoenix, St. George, Los Angeles along with all of California demands more water. If Lake Mead drops too low, Arizona gets cut off of their water rights. Build more homes, more golf courses, more pools, more lawns, continue on—business as usual. Consume, consume, consume. The Salton Sea becomes a cesspool, no fish live only bones are left behind. The water is fetid and becomes an impending disaster threatening to poison our food supply with its toxic dust. 9/11.
Native Tribes oppose Big Business at Standing Rock to fight for their water and Ancestral Lands that we took away. They resist their inevitable doom. Arrested and silenced, their hope crushed and later poisoned as we fail to look into the rear view mirror. Add more wars into foreign lands in the guise of democracy, add more chemicals, more fertilizers, more frequencies, more GMOs, more bio-weapons, more geoengineering, more, more, always more. Take as much as we can get and leave nothing behind for our children or our children’s children. Our water is under siege. Only debt remains.
Ah yes, but you have everything you need. There is nothing to see over here. Enjoy your cell phones with endless live stream data, McDonalds, Pepsi, Facebook, sports, entertainment, recreation, and travel. You are not happy? Take this pill, you will be fine. This is freedom, right? You need more money, no problem. The shackles get fitted yet no one seems to notice they are in perfect lockstep. Sovereignty usurped, none the wiser. Dead pool status.
The stage is set to tighten the chains on the duped masses, a pandemic erupts. A virus plagues the collective mind on a global scale. How best to distract us from the world crumbling down? We are commanded to lockdown, quarantine, social distance, be compliant. Wear a mask or you might infect everyone around you, get a test, report your neighbor for violating orders, stand in line for your shot, do what you are told.
No touching, no kissing, no hugging, no dancing, no playing, no sitting, no standing, no shopping, no worshipping, no resisting.
We will turn off your utilities if you step out of line. Listen to the authorities, science knows best. Divide and separate, chaos and fear reign. Riots rage in the streets. The climate gets hotter and the water dries up.
Welcome to the digital age my friends. Get your digital identification, digital passport, digital currency, and your digital code to get your gallon of water per day. Do what we tell you to do and you will be rewarded. Be happy, you have everything you need. Do not worry about the toxic environment, do not worry about our social experiment, do not worry about the where your food comes from (we grow it in our labs), do not worry where your water comes from and what we add to it—we have your best interest at heart. Welcome to Second Life, your data is our commodity. Artificial intelligence takes over. Digital police enforce law and order. Water is under lock and key. We get uploaded into the machine…
How did we get here? How did we not learn from those who came before us? The circumstances of our worlds may seem unparalleled, yet we may share a similar fate. Will we have to leave our world as we know it behind? As we stand at the precipice of our world dissolving, I reflect on the failed attempts to change our course. Did we not realize the impacts of our consumption or did we get programmed not to see? How have we stood by and watched our world become imprisoned and our humanity get enslaved? When did we fail to remember that we are not separate from that which we have extracted? How did we forget that water is life? Our fortune may not be far from the Ancestors’ prayers echoing through the canyon walls….
