Ben Cohen of Ben and Jerry's fame recently wrote as it relates to the current state of affairs, "Pete Seeger has told a little story about sand. He once told it to me when I was feeling down and without hope. And I’ll tell it to you.
Pete was walking along one day and he came upon a huge seesaw with a big heavy rock on the side that was down and a big bucket on the side that was up. There were all these little people scurrying around with teaspoons taking sand from a big pile and climbing up a ladder and dumping it in the bucket and then going back for more sand. But Pete noticed that there were holes in the bucket and the sand was running out as fast as they were putting it in. So he grabbed one of the guys with the teaspoons and said, “Don’t you see? The sand’s running out as fast as you’re putting it in. You’re never gonna get that seesaw to switch around.”
And the guy stopped for a moment, mopped his brow and said, “Oh, you don’t understand. There’s more of us with teaspoons all the time and sooner or later we’re gonna be putting sand into the bucket faster than it’s leaking out and then shwoop, the seesaw will switch, and people are gonna say, “How did that happen so fast?” and we’ll just say “us and our little teaspoons.”"
Pete was walking along one day and he came upon a huge seesaw with a big heavy rock on the side that was down and a big bucket on the side that was up. There were all these little people scurrying around with teaspoons taking sand from a big pile and climbing up a ladder and dumping it in the bucket and then going back for more sand. But Pete noticed that there were holes in the bucket and the sand was running out as fast as they were putting it in. So he grabbed one of the guys with the teaspoons and said, “Don’t you see? The sand’s running out as fast as you’re putting it in. You’re never gonna get that seesaw to switch around.”
And the guy stopped for a moment, mopped his brow and said, “Oh, you don’t understand. There’s more of us with teaspoons all the time and sooner or later we’re gonna be putting sand into the bucket faster than it’s leaking out and then shwoop, the seesaw will switch, and people are gonna say, “How did that happen so fast?” and we’ll just say “us and our little teaspoons.”"
That's how sometimes it feels to be a person in this world. So many problems, so little apparent progress. No wonder T.S. Eliot is so seemingly despondent in The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock when he says "I have measured out my life with coffee spoons." Still, as amazing as we are as human beings, nonetheless, we are only able to do so much with our tea/coffee spoons when we are working at cross-purposes from each other.
And there are actually really well-organized people working in concert with each other to push us against each other and our society's best interests. In politics and religion, in the arts, in business, even in parenting tips (free-range vs. traditionally-raised children), there are well-oiled operations trying to convince us that A is better than B. In politics, they call them wedge issues. In Psychological principles concerning behavior, attitudes, aspirations, and motivations are used to sell us everything from candy to cars.
The thing is, we as humans need our tribes, want to be liked (as Facebook is a testament to), and are joiners by design. So, even if our society is fractured, we still derive benefits from bringing our teaspoons out and scooping sand. We need to support ourselves through goods and service exchanges, we need to procreate the species, we need something to talk about that is unifying (the weather, for example).
A different question than "Why do we move sand around?" may be "Who built the seesaw?" or even "Do we need the seesaw?" When I consider the group of people who are readying a manned expedition to Mars and all the effort that entails, part of me wonders, is it our drive to explore or our drive to escape that pushes this mission forward? I have no doubt that this expedition will happen, but the larger question may be "Where does this leave us?"
The thing is, we as humans need our tribes, want to be liked (as Facebook is a testament to), and are joiners by design. So, even if our society is fractured, we still derive benefits from bringing our teaspoons out and scooping sand. We need to support ourselves through goods and service exchanges, we need to procreate the species, we need something to talk about that is unifying (the weather, for example).
A different question than "Why do we move sand around?" may be "Who built the seesaw?" or even "Do we need the seesaw?" When I consider the group of people who are readying a manned expedition to Mars and all the effort that entails, part of me wonders, is it our drive to explore or our drive to escape that pushes this mission forward? I have no doubt that this expedition will happen, but the larger question may be "Where does this leave us?"
Because, despite our shared humanity, there are traits that are not necessarily tribal. Some believe that we are survivors and that means we'll put our selfish needs ahead of others if it comes down to brass tacks (why brass tacks, who knows?). Obviously, when we do that, it is a zero-sum game. In the end, I am dead. If we are built to survive as a species, we may be somewhat selfish, but we are not stupid. If the earth is a better place to procreate than Mars (or the ship taking us there), we will procreate our asses off here and like it!
Back to our teaspoons, the "holy" bucket, and the boulder-ladened seesaw--we would be better off if everyone were loading up their teaspoons with sand and sprinting to shift the weight of the rock on the seesaw. However, because all this stuff is metaphorical and some folks hate metaphor, the chances of that being fully embraced is limited. Therefore, the only reasonable thing a teaspooner can do is to make sure there are way more of us than the people who punch holes in the bucket. Right now, there is a group of well-organized, financially-advantaged folks who are cooking up a pitch that highlights the incredible benefits of buckets with holes in them and the line is forming behind them... as they slouch toward Bethlehem.
Back to our teaspoons, the "holy" bucket, and the boulder-ladened seesaw--we would be better off if everyone were loading up their teaspoons with sand and sprinting to shift the weight of the rock on the seesaw. However, because all this stuff is metaphorical and some folks hate metaphor, the chances of that being fully embraced is limited. Therefore, the only reasonable thing a teaspooner can do is to make sure there are way more of us than the people who punch holes in the bucket. Right now, there is a group of well-organized, financially-advantaged folks who are cooking up a pitch that highlights the incredible benefits of buckets with holes in them and the line is forming behind them... as they slouch toward Bethlehem.
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