Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Back in NYC

Drinking Coffee and Taking it Easy

Back in NYC having driven up this morning.

Before leaving D.C. we got memento copies of The Washington Post to store away. Once we got here, I got Final copies of The New York Times, New York Post, and Newsday. The inauguration and I was there. *smiles* About which I will write my own story -- and many more -- once I've had time to let them sink in and simmer.

Of the hundreds and hundreds of people I've spoken to so far, many only briefly, NOT ONE has said having President Obama in office sucks, stinks, is bad, or even suggested it may not be all it's cracked up to be. The closest is someone today said that no one person could possibly measure up to all these expectations. Oh, wait... that was me.

It was n a conversation with a New York financial analyst (we were having lunch at a deli over by the main library; I had lox on a plain bagel plus tomato and lots of onion) who was worried about four years going by and what will people think if not everything is done?!! I reassured him the Obama team is keenly aware of the problem and is concentrated on what needs to be done NOW, not on everything which could possibly be done given unlimited money and time. Where is the most bang for the buck, given their concerns?

For me, the biggest bang is in shifting the fundamental basis of the dollar from being backed by petroleum (which is a scare commodity) to a dollar being backed by renewable "green" energy (which are abundant commodities, or will be as we develop and move the technologies for them from developmental technologies to production commodities with economies of scale.)

This will result in a contextual shift first to an economy in which the world's reserve currency is backed by abundance rather than by scarcity, to a world where people naturally THINK and then ARE, that is, a world in which people LIVE THEIR LIVES FROM ABUNDANCE as the default condition instead of a world in which people live their lives from scarcity by default. Changing the backing of the dollar -- the world's reserve currency -- from increasingly scare petroleum to renewable and increasingly abundant "green" energy WILL be as large a shift in human development and human rights as the invention of technology (tools) themselves.

Yes, I mean to make this large a claim. The creation of tools contextually arose along with the invention of identity, which brings with it that there is a "me" and there is "all you people." Which in turn brings into existence, especially given the conditions under which human beings lived 20,000-30,000 years ago, their smaller brains, the smaller linguistic space within which they invented their world... the world invented naturally and I assess inevitability, brought with it, scarcity. An "us" v. "them" world of competing for scarce, natural resources which man harvests from the heavens, the seas and the earths (which are infinite, even though the resources they contain ultimately may be scarce.)

Water is scarce. Food is scarce. Fertile virgin women of good families are scarce. Strong powerful men with property and wealth are scarce. Real estate is scarce. Oil, beaver pelts, tulips, cocaine, Percocet, votes, and rivers to build dams on are scarce.

Our economy, the very dollar itself, is build on hydro-carbons which while once seemingly black gold, an endless sea, are now obviously increasingly scarce.

The world-wide economy built from the time of early man till today, build on scarcity down to its very core, is crumbling, rumbling, cracking, crumbling. What we don't think through clearly is this: should the economy actually collapse, the half of the world which is dead broke would probably live. You and I (perhaps not literally you or I, but the so-called First World) would die by the billions. A world-wide economic collapse would produce a species die-off.

An economy built on scarcity has got us this far. Now the world must shift on its foundations. Revolution to the way "everyone knows it is" must occur or the world as we know it will end.

The context of money must change.

Enough For Everyone

This contextual shift means that for the first time since human beings invented tools, captured fire, learned how to slay animals at a distance, planted crops, and began to invent a future together, for the first time, there WILL BE ENOUGH FOR EVERYONE AND EVERYONE WILL KNOW THAT IS TRUE. Abundant energy as the backing of money means there is enough energy for everything for everyone, and the government backs the money supply with its guarantee. That the full faith and credit of the United States says THERE IS ENOUGH. So says the United States. Count on it.

Having dinner with Jen at 6 tonight.

MUCH more about the inauguration (and New York). Call it, LM and Jesse's excellent adventures... as we get them written. Plus PHOTOS and VIDEOS.

Including the best video GNB has EVER posted. True.

****

Just spent an hour or so in the the reading room at the Main Library. Then ZOOMED down 42nd with New York pedestrians JUMPING FOR THEIR LIVES as my scooter bore down on them. Muhahahaha.

Seriously. I scared the hell out of the mid-town insurance types. The nice ladies I went out of my way to be careful with. And the asshole's so busy on their phone they were knocking the little old ladies out of their way, I made jump for their lives. *smiles sweetly*

Aggressive? Who's aggressive? (*reaches into red bag and takes meds I should have taken last night and this morning. Checks* 'Hmm. Perhaps I forgot to take them. ' *takes meds for entire day...*)

Dropped off the scooter with Alex on the east side of Lexington between 42 & 41. I'll write more about Alex Wong and Big Apple Mobility later - he and his scooters are worth an entire wonderful post. Renting a scooter from Alex was one of the three best decisions of the entire trip. We'd have failed without the scooter, no question.

Walked back over to Park, and up towards 42nd. I'm in the Starbucks on the east side of Park, just short of 42nd.

More from me tomorrow. Today I'm relaxing from the intensity of the last six-seven days, laying back, catching up on a tiny tiny bit of my email, but mostly, relaxing and letting sink in what is happening.

Once it's started to sink in a bit, I'll start writing post after post after post about everything. So much happened, and I want to write. For the first time in a long time -- I've been really wiped out -- I have a need to sit down and pour out good posts.

Sitting here, reading, drinking an enormous coffee, then dinner with Jen tonight.

Talk with y'all soon.