.........................
So, I am chasing the vision.
Thats me. Nice to meet you.
I dont chase money.
I could care less.
I serve and invest in my visions.
Im a big dreamer. Thats me.
Its hard to be a big dreamer in a world
Of money chasers.
I dont get them.
I honestly dont get what makes them tick.
Im being honest.
The new AI craze that has gotten
The money chasers excited
Seems to be picking up steam.
I just heard on NPR that there a hundred and fifty
AI power generation-plants popping up around the country
To meet the massive energy demands of AI data centers,
Coming on line almost overnight
Riding a tsunami-like wave
Of investment in the AI industrys
New power plant technologies, especially nuclear.
The nascent AI boom is already straining
The U.S. power grid.
Data centers consume immense energy
For running computations and cooling equipment.
There is no vision behind this new infatuation
Of capitalists with AI.
They could care less what AI will contribute
To culture or society, or whether
It will benefit anyone at all.
This is business as usual folks!
Except its not! But they dont know that
And, they dont care if it represents a giant step
Into deep, unplumbed waters.
All they want to do is make money
Plain and simple.
Joanna Macy, who just died,
Taught that there are three stories
That people are telling themselves and living by these days:
One is the story of Business as Usual.
The other story is The Great Unravelling
(i.e., were doomed, so what the hell!)
And the third story is The Great Turning.
This third story is vision-based,
The story of the Great Turning
Fosters a commitment to act
For the sake of life on Earth, as well as the vision,
courage and solidarity to do so.
I was born with the third story hard-wired into my brain.
But the thing is, all three stories are spinning away,
Trying to pull us into the truth
Of the narrative they articulate.
Remember when the jets crashed into the towers?
What was junior Bushs advice? Remember?
He said, just go shopping!
Thats the caliber of our presidential picks.
They are talking heads for the story Business as Usual.
Not only do they lack vision,
They are actually anti-vision!
They prefer to keep the ship of state on course
To hit the iceberg, full steam.
They are utterly visionless but they are geniuses
At controlling the story.
As you can tell I am angry.
In fact I am really angry! Royally pissed.
For lots of reasons, but right now
What pisses me off the most
Is that AI, which is here, and will soon be everywhere
Is, at least for the next few critical years
Of the American waking nightmare,
Totally in the hands of people
Whose sole purpose in life is to make money!
If we dont feed the vision of commitment
To life on Earth,
We might as well just sit in a corner
And bite our nails
Worrying about the cost of living
And swallowing pills for our depressions.
I have nothing else to add
Except please,
Pay attention to the story you live by!
(Article changed on Sep 25, 2025 at 6:01 PM EDT)
