Balance

2 steps forward one step back. As a life long mountain climber this is often the addage as you move up a mountain. Often the top up to 10,000 feet but usually 3,000 to 4,000 feet it is something like this with shale or other kinds of loose rock or snow where as you go forward 2 steps you often slide back one.

I think what we are experiencing (if we all survive it) is something like this. We are sliding back a step like we did during the 1930s to 1950 or so. Then, there was amazing progress from around 1950 until I would say 9-11-2001 where we began to slide backwards once again as a world civilization. And even though there are backslides it doesn't mean our impetus for moving forward subsides because always we are moving forwards even if we are sliding back a little.

It is about overcoming entropy and immobility more than anything else. It is sort of like starting out in a car the hardest part is to begin moving at all. But, once you are moving at 1 mile and hour or more increasing speed is relatively easy. Even in the days of Horses and carriages starting up was hard especially when those teams of horses were dragging cannons for warfare which are very heavy. It is one of the reasons roundabouts were created starting in England and Europe so the horses didn't have to stop but could move forward at at least 1 mile and hour or more even at a roundabout. This saved a lot of dead and injured horses trying to get their cannon loads moving from a standing stop.

So, this is what I believe is happening more than anything else on earth right now. People are scared and too much movement forward is terrifying too many people on earth. Those most freaked out appear to be 12th century Muslims and of those people like ISIS and Al Qaeda are the most freaked out and terrified by progress.

One can say that progress is good or bad and even I could argue on both sides of this issue forever without running out of things to say both pro and con regarding progress.

Because if progress is just cutting down all trees on earth and polluting the air and water so most people die I'm not for progress either if this is going to be true.

So, even progress has to be balanced by keeping the trees and water here on earth so people actually Want to be alive still.

Many places like Beijing and New Delhi right now it isn't worth being alive just because of air quality that kills 7 million at least every year.

So, stopping to think about what we are actually doing to Mother Earth is important if we expect any humans to survive at all the next 200 years here on earth.