An Anekāntavāda Allegory, or, Seven Ways of Looking At An Energy Emergency
[As a preface or appendix to repair manual introduction/defamiliarization]
1.
Nothing but a Chinese communist conspiracy.
Or the eco-socialists.
Or feminists.
Anarchists.
Antifa.
Homosexuals.
Jews.
Muslims.
No, just the Palestinians.
No, no, the Greeks too.
Syrians.
Heathens.
the Liberals.
Quebeckers.
Quakers?
No, Quebeckers.
And Trudeau.
2.
Well, yes, things are
pretty bad
actually really bad,
yeah really, really bad
actually, but, you know
you have only yourself to blame
and, of course, your
neighbours and their
neighbours (you should all
just hold your breath)
but in the meantime
if you could just only be more thrifty
scrimp and save more efficiently
and responsibly
we have some sparkly
electric cars
speeding windmills, solar mirrors, and all the other things
you love
in green
for your bubble
or pod or whatever else
we gave you to
make you feel
special and speaking of
which we have some
very attractive investment opportunities
for you so
you too can feel
like us but
not quite so
evil.
3.
They came
and took everything
and set the rivers on fire
rivers that flow to the seas.
4.
From out of a hole in the ground
wiggling, sniffing like a mole, the shadow
fluttered and floated
and then soared like an angel
from eighty-four tera-joules to two hundred and forty thousand tera-joules to 576,000,000 tera-joules to . . .
and bombs dropping to the South like eagle shit.
5.
Lucky for you
if you can pass
for them
leave
through their gates of gold
leave on the waves of the dead ocean
for the light of dead stars, o
world leaders
of the law of white
lies.
6.
The chasm in the earth runs deep
on one side are the few who take
everything for themselves
and lay the land to waste
with their palaces and citadels
their drive-throughs and their fortresses
on the other side
where toxins flow with the tide
there and only there
regeneration springs.
7.
You have taken everything from the garden
and from the deeps
in return you send us your poisons and your terrors.
Even if you
don’t know
we know who
you are
you who are fastidious
with all your accounts.