I'm Kind Of Lonely Without The Industrialists

Like I said yesterday, Paul Krugman came out with a column, lambasting the industrialists.

He said, in part, and I quote:

modern technology and industry can all too easily inflict horrific damage on the planet.

That's powerful stuff. Coincidentally it's exactly what I myself have been saying for the last few weeks or month. That "modern technology and industry can all too easily inflict horrific damage on the planet." There's not a syllable in that phrase that I couldn't have said myself.

Indeed, you put the two together, modern technology and industry, and you've got a lethal combination. Because each one of these eschews a leash. Modern technology just rolls on. It's no accident that you can't buy the same thing twice, whether it's a computer, a radio, or a toaster. Two weeks after you buy it, that's model's been retired and they've gone on to something else. Just like Beanie Babies from a few years back, always "retiring" them. We've got a million Beanie Babies retired and on Social Security, and that's what's bankrupting our country.

Modern technology, simply put, is on a tear. Because we have so many people involved in it, making a killing. There's no holding it back, and no one's trying.

Then the other thing in Krugman's (and by extension, my pairing) is industry. Industry is entrenched. That's a basic fact. It's like thistles in a field, once rooted and spreading it's hard to kill. It becomes entangled in the affairs of each community, then too big to kill. Industry becomes very old, in the sense that it gets established. Then it's hard to regulate it because regulations seldom affect it, thanks to grandfathering provisions. So industry has many reasons why it can thumb its nose at us.

We've gone beyond the industrialists' demand that I apologize to them, and in part, I'm thinking, this is thanks to Krugman's column. Because they have felt something that they don't usually feel, which is shame. So they've pulled back and retracted their tentacles, at least temporarily. Out of shame, because Krugman has a voice that people listen to, even making presidents quake in their boots.

Anyway, all I know is that as soon as his column came out, the industrialists and their underlings were gone from my yard. And it's definitely true, there was nothing I could do to root them out previous to that. They were literally sleeping in my trees and monitoring my every move. They were shooting fireballs over my house, making me glad I didn't have a grass thatched roof.

Now, though, and I know this sounds crazy, I'm a little lonely for them. I was having some good times sneaking out and thwarting them. Now, though, just to step out in my empty yard and see nothing in the trees except leaves and tree sap, there's a real empty feeling to it.

But do I want to be terrorized by industrialists? No, of course not. Still, sometimes you get used to certain conditions, good or bad, and when they're changed, it's something to adjust to.