5.30.2013

#10 Many Individual Small Cables Make a Main Cable Strong, Many Ideas Make Solutions Possible

YIKES...Maintenance worker re-paints the metal jacket that covers a bridge's main cable and protects it from corrosion. 

There are 3 different structures that span the distance from abutment to abutment, the girder matrix, the deck on top of it and the main cables. Fortunately our mental communication bridge, unlike its metal counterpart, doesn't need painting and re-painting [apparently the re-painting job is never-ending on The Golden Gate Bridge]. Our metaphorical bridge's main cables, like the real GG's, complement the girders and deck by adding another important strong and flexible structural element to the bridge's load carrying capability.

A real bridge's huge main cable is actually made up of many smaller cables wound together. Our two main cables will be made strong and flexible by the myriad of ideas that connect us all, regardless of our differences of opinion, to our desire to find the real world solutions that can unite us. Each encampment, shrouded in the fog of their particular beliefs, envisions endemic solutions based on their worldview. Both encampments though understand that we are all in this together.

The Greenville folks often concentrate on cultural and systemic changes designed to ameliorate the broad environmental destruction our species is causing, including global warming. Greenville solutions often mention biodiversity and soils rich in organic matter as the best strategy for climate resilience and climate adaptation, growing and cooking organically, making the Great Transition back to carbon ranching by re-establishing perennial grasses, and eating far less meat as a route to sequestering 100 percent of greenhouse gas emissions. Greenville folks envision a world free of pesticides, petro-chemicals and fossil fuels. Unfortunately, Greenville folks are often idealists who find it increasingly difficult to walk that talk in a world of chaotic consumption.

The Growthton folks see the same reality but envision a bountiful future based on humanity's ability to cope, to overcome, to succeed by technological prowess as they believe it always has. Growthton folks know that, whatever the cause may be, that global warming exists. They believe that risk management, based on sound cost-benefit analysis is the prudent path forward. Growthton folks know that the western security establishments, including all arms of the US military, consider environmental degradation, including climate change, to be the #1 long term security threat they face.

The specifics details of how these widely divergent worldviews can be refocused into convergent solutions is the main agenda, the main reason for attempting to build a strong, flexible communication bridge based on a solid foundation of basic agreement. Tomorrow we'll work on the smaller suspender cables that run between the main cable and the girder matrix further enhancing the bridge's load dispersing strength and flexibility.