Shouting at the wind.

There is a phenomena that I call shouting at the wind. That is, saying how things should be but not doing any action to bring it about. It seems to be a national past time. Go ahead, try it. Go to your window and shout something such as, "I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it anymore!" Go ahead or don't. The result will be nearly the same. The action of ranting about how things should be can be by shouting or more quietly through blog writing as I'm doing now.

When it comes to really changing the world, it takes really good marketing of an idea.I say marketing since many people simultaneously may think of an idea but only a few make a living prognosticating an idea to the extent that it can truly change behavior. For example, in the peak oil world, James Kunstler's "end of suburbia" has caused some people to consider energy issues very seriously. It even changed my behavior such that I have moved to a semi-rural area that has good soil, good water and low-energy transportation in the form of a walkable community. There is just one major problem. There aren't too many jobs where I live....or are there?

Although I might be able to get a regular job where I live, there apparently is a larger opportunity earning money shouting at the wind - or better yet, shouting at an audience! For example, there is story about an engineer who produced wood gassifiers. The technology for energy production can convert wood to electricity. It has lots of potential but it tends to be very fussy, dirty, dangerous and expensive. Yet this engineer created a company and started producing some gassifier units. After a few years of doing that and failing to become filthy rich, he changed course. He took his knowledge of building them and started writing books and doing speaking engagements to tell about his problems encountered. When asked why he let his research stagnate rather than commercializing it, he was credited with saying, "There's lots more money talking about gassifiers than building them."

This pattern of describing a problem to the nth degree and then glossing over simplistic solutions is done over and over. Why does this work? Why are we suckered into going to theaters to see movies such as An Inconvenient Truth? The answer is simple. It's because imagining the benefits of doing any particular task is frequently more satisfying than getting one's hands dirty doing a task.