September 19th, 1998

Just Because You Can Doesn't Mean You Should.
By Jackie Alan Giuliano, Ph.D.

You can't always get what you want,
You can't always get what you want,
You can't always get what you want,
But if you try sometimes you just might find
You just might find
You'll get what you need.
-- Mick Jagger/Keith Richards

The U.S. has often been called the "land of opportunity," a place where dreams come true and everyone is entitled to, well, whatever they want. It is no wonder that it is difficult to get individuals or corporations to settle for just what is enough instead of always going for all they can get. How could it be otherwise in a culture where, since birth, our training has been based on an ethic that puts us at the center of the universe and confuses what we need with what we are told we want.

Rainforest path. (Photo (c) J.A. Giuliano 1998)

I attended today the first few hours of a conference put on by the Los Angeles-based Seeds of Simplicity organization. The conference, called "No Purchase Necessary: Building the Voluntary Simplicity Movement," was an opportunity to examine the idea of our needs being different from our perceived wants.

About 700 people showed up to this free conference, which was a problem for the conference organizers who had rented a venue at the University of Southern California that only held 500 people. This was quite a powerful showing in a town marketed to the world as one of the capitals of conspicuous consumption. Clearly, people want a change, even if they cannot articulate exactly what that change should be.

I have been thinking lately that maybe part of our dilemma comes from the fact that we have been taught to believe that we should always act on our thoughts. "Bring your dreams into reality" may be the mantra of all of Western culture.

But should we do everything we are able to do just because we can? This attitude could be at the heart of so many environmental and social problems that involve making a better something or other or building a bigger whatever. Healing our world may be about learning to be satisfied simply with what is and not demanding more. But that is treasonous thinking in our consumer based society.

Petrie dish. (Photo University of Illinois. http://www.life.uiuc.edu/biotech/transgenic.html)

Everyone is aware of Dolly the cloned sheep who made her debut in 1997. But cloning has been around a long time. In the early 1990s, Dr. Willadsen in Cambridge, England tried to produce the perfect milk-producing cows. He impregnated 1,000 cows with cloned embryos. About one in five cows was far too large, and about one in 19 was a virtual monster, about twice the size that it should have been. The project was deemed a failure.

Dr. Willmot, the creator of Dolly, tried unsuccessfully 270 times before he got it right. I shudder to think of the horrors he produced in the process. About 300 registered human fertility clinics across the U.S. have said they are going to use the kind of cloning that Dr. Willmot used. One in 270 is a lousy success ratio. What will we do with the human "mistakes?" Just because we can doesn't mean we should.

Companies are putting human and bovine genes into salmon in an attempt to produce super salmon. If these fish were released into the ecosystem, the "genetic pollution" they would introduce could destroy the species. Just because we can doesn't mean we should.

We manufacture bigger and better machinery every year to make clearing vast acres of forest easier. Only five percent of the old growth forests in the world remain. Just because we can doesn't mean we should.

We train many wild animals each year for parts in motion pictures. Cute programs appear on the wildlife cable channels telling the story of the grizzly bear and his trainer. Elephants' legs are chained after their performances for the circus. Just because we can doesn't mean we should.

As the Autumnal Equinox, or Mabon as it was called in the ancient times, approaches, we are called by the Earth to give thanks for the bounty of the harvest and to look ahead to the winter to come. It is a time to examine our hopes and to measure our dreams against our accomplishments. Maybe this year it should also be a time to ask ourselves what may be the most powerful question of our century and the next one to come: Just because we can, should we?

RESOURCES

1. Visit the Seeds of Simplicity web site at http://www.slnet.com/cip/seeds/default.htm

2. For a list of many websites on genetic engineering topics, visit http://www.natural-law.ca/genetic/othergewebsites.html

3. Get help reducing your own consuming through the Media Foundation at http://www.adbusters.org./main.html

4. Keep your eye on corporations through Corporate Watch at http://www.corpwatch.org/

5. Read a letter written to Bill Gates by Ralph Nader about wealth disparities at http://www.corpwatch.org/trac/corner/worldnews/other/189.html

6. Find out who your Congressional representatives are and e-mail them. Tell them to slow down the blank check approval of all corporate support proposals. Tell them to make corporations prove how their efforts support humanity like the crafters of the Constitution intended. If you know your Zip code, you can find them at http://www.visi.com/juan/congress/ziptoit.html or you can search by state at http://www.webslingerz.com/jhoffman/congress-email.html

7. Learn about the issues. Seek out books on the subject. A good source for used (and new) books is Powell’s Bookstore in Portland, Oregon at http://www.powells.com/cgi-bin/associate?assoc_id=212 where you will find a wonderful alternative to the massive chain bookstores taking over the market.

8. Bookmark this website. Visit it often for ways we can all Heal Our World.