Situation hopeless, but not serious (and a ditty for today)

What is the meaning?

Where lies the point --?

Life is merely a game...

Ain't it amazing: you roll the dice,

Play your cards right, it can be very nice!

But,

What is the reason? 

What's it all for?

Nothing's ever the same --

All your great schemes explode into dreams:

It's chaos! But -- no one's to blame!
...Jen Downes

...I've just been having a bit of a rant on facebook. An associate posted that we need to be turning to biodegradables rather than filling the world with plastics, petrochemical derivatives ... very wise, very laudable indeed, and I shall stand up and applaud; though I also have to note that this one is so far off the "duh scale," unless you're preaching to the choir, you're highly likely to score a lot of giggle-face icons. And the next two stories I read, consecutively, effectively cut the foundations out from under any such laudable goals.

So I wrote this, in the comment field:

My brother and I were just having a discussion about how to recycle fiberglass windmill blades ... Might fiberglass fragments be bonded with tarmac, for enduring road surfaces?? Then the first things I see on Facebook ... Our government is going to clearcut more native habitat (after the fires???) and some absolute lunatic just handed out a permit for 200 wombats to be culled to convenience a farmer, who can't figure out how to drive AROUND them! Then, they're going to make the slaughter socially acceptable (!!??!!) by handing it off to the Aboriginal community ... who will STONE the animals to death, which is vile. On one hand, people like us are trying to recycle consumables; on the other hand, droves of other people can't see beyond clearcutting and slaughter! It makes you wonder if humans, en masse, will ever change. Because, if they don't, and soon...

...and therein lies the problem. Nothing people are doing or saying on an individual basis seems to move government; and unless government moves --

Well, it's all just business as usual, isn't it? The world will spin on for decades yet before the time arrives for the Big Crunch. The aged will have departed. Those like myself, who today are not quite young, not quite old, will by then be suspended in the gray "limbo" zone where old(er) folks exist while they become functionally invisible, like the older woman patronizing (or trying to) the stores and cafes of NYC. So at this moment?

No matter what happens, or who says what idiocy (and especially if he or she happens to be in politics!) it's "situation normal," because whacked-out-crazy has become our normality. To put it another way ...

"Situation hopeless, not serious."

That's a brilliant line -- and no, I didn't think of it first! The movie was made in 1965; and for those who're film or lit buffs, I can tell you that Robert Shaw developed early drafts of the screenplay from his novel, The Hiding Place.  Yes, Robert Shaw was an award-wining novelist before he was an award-winning actor --

And yes, this is the Robert Shaw I'm talking about. Quint, in Jaws. Henry VIII in A Man For All Seasons. That Russian who gave 007 a real run for his money. He was also a playwright (in fact, if you're interested, there's a terrific blog post from many years ago, still on line at this time of posting). Novels like The Flag, The Man in the Glass Booth, The Sun Doctor, A Card From Morocco ... they're forgotten now; I wish they weren't! It's hard enough to find his movies these days, much less his books! And yes, in case you still don't believe me, here he is on Goodreads!

I don't know if he came up with the line, but it certainly has his quirky Irish sense of humor, and it's more relevant today than ever. Our global predicament? Yep. Situation hopeless, but not serious. Well not yet. Not for maybe another twenty years. Then ... dang.