Praxis

I wrote a little bit after reading
w.h. auden's poem, "The Fall of Rome":

"Caesar's double-bed is warm
As an unimportant clerk
Writes I DO NOT LIKE MY WORK
On a pink official form."

Lauren's single-bed is soft and warm
as a wistful lyric expanding, unfurls,
does write itself: I DO NOT LIKE MY WORLD
on a pink and scented page it, worried, informs.

And here I start to consider the term 'Praxis' and how I function in
my world. As a semi-globally aware individual, I find myself increasingly
torn between maintaining my personal sanity and routinely letting the
horrors of the planet wash over and distract me from my homework.

There's an excellent American Indian proverb that goes as follows:
We do not inherit the Earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children.

And so while I'm still at the point in my life where I'm not thinking about my
progeny, I'm constantly frustrated by the nagging I am subjected to by my
parents about needing to fix my world. I certainly resent the defeatist
attitude that their generation seems to be promoting, though I can't say
for certain that they are a representative sample. Yet to see just two people
give up is enough for me to understand how easy it is for an entire society,
country, or planet to forcibly overlook the eminent disasters of this globe.
And I'd like to be generous and use the word 'forcibly' as I'd rather not
consider the kinds of individuals that enjoy or actively pursuit ignorance
for the sake of very vulnerable bliss.

Anyway, getting back to praxis...Personally, like many and most, I've developed or accepted numerous theories and beliefs concerning the world that surrounds me. My understanding
of factory farming, global warming, and needless animal cruelty, all motivate me
to actively follow a vegetarian diet. Yet praxis becomes a problem when we aren't
able to entirely adhere to our own outlines. Those individuals that opt for
ignorance or dis-concern do not have problems with praxis, nor do they struggle
with the shameful sense of hypocrisy when theories are bent and broken. But my
understanding of dairy farms producing in the factory fashion has not ceased my
intake of at least some dairy products (though in my defense, it's organic as often as I
can afford).

And while even my basic vegetarianism may make me feel a little less guilty about the amount
of damage I inflict on other beings and the environment, it still seems insufficient.
It's difficult to recognize these praxises flaws... and the frustration often builds to
the point where it seems that resorting to eco-terrorism or performing mass animal genocide (just to get humans to the point where they feel capable of starting over and investigating sustainable animal rearing) is the only way to make a recognizable difference.

It is certainly going to take a drastic global change to reinvent this miserable pattern,
but regardless of the affects, it should be openly accepted. Change is a necessary
evolution, an action that occurs because the present level is no longer sustainable
and no longer desirable.

Unfortunately, I see the change in the world-eye concerning the treatment/consumption of non-human animals as being one that is only going to be (effectively?) inspired by a
social fad. Trivial social fluctuation is a pathetic and insecure method of revolutionizing
the world, but at this point, we need to be grateful for what we can get. Even baby steps
move us closer to either an ideal world, or, well, a non-existent one.

I am most reminded of the 'green revolution' in which we may or may not be presently involved. But the only reason green industry has a whisp of a chance to survive is because corporate investors think it will be an extremely lucrative field. Though their motivation for financial investement is sadly misguided, or ill-guided, I cannot deny the world benefit of such developments. In this way Individual praxises that seem to disagree can find an agreeable point. The means to varied ends overlap and find an uncomfortable comprimise, but a compramise nonetheless.