old behaviors

"I try to remind readers that the very concept of "solutions" does not apply in this situation, since it implies that we can keep running things in America just the way we are running them now, only by means other than oil. The truth, in my view, is that we have to run things very differently now, at different scales than the ones we're used to -- but we are too invested in our behavior of the past to move forward. This is certainly unfortunate, because we have everything to gain by letting go of our old habits and obsolete wishes." Jim Kunstler, The Ponzi-plus plan

The question is then, where do we start building new habits and new wishes? Neither Obama nor McCain seem to propose any fundamentally new behavior, so far. Neither mention that our way of life as we know it is ending and that we will have to imagine and build something new, not change something old. Do we just drive electric cars instead instead of burning oil? do we just make health care affordable without looking at the lifestyle that is affecting our health in the first place? do we repair our aging infrastructure without rethinking what kind of infrastructure is sustainable in today's world? Solutions are cheap, recognizing that we have entered an age of uncertainty where our models of thinking no longer hold is the beginning of an answer... or the end of all answers.