I recently interviewed political activist, writer, poet, singer Eleanor Goldfield on Politics Done Right. As usual, she always has a few prescient statements that speak very well to the current pathology of many in our body politic. This one on human adaptability is ringing for it is so true.
Ironically she used the frog in boiling water analogy I first heard used by Detroit activist Maureen Taylor who also discussed human adaptability. She gave a hell of a presentation at Netroots Nation in Detroit a few years ago.
Over the last 40 years, we have moved incrementally to create a society where we demand less and less of it. At the same time, they have been brainwashed us, read Powell Memo, into giving more and more of our wealth and the spoils of our intellect to the few. It has been happening for so long, and we are so far away from how things must be that many fear the path we must take to reclaim the goal. We have got to keep informing, educating, and enlightening.
Eleanor Goldfield’s is the host of the show Act Out! which is featured on Free Speech TV and at her website ArtKillingApathy.com.
Eleanor Goldfield talks Human Adaptability on Politics Done Right
Eleanor Goldfield: One of the most important things is to see how we’ve adapted. And I talked about this a lot too that human adaptability is what has gotten us this far. But now it’s killing us, ironically.
Egberto Willies: Wait. Explain that. I don’t quite follow that tell me a little bit more.
Eleanor Goldfield: So if you think evolutionarily speaking right, our ability to adapt to extreme situations is why humans have progressed. And yet now that adaptability has made us the frog in the boiling water. We’ve adapted to income inequality. We’ve adapted to no healthcare. We’ve adapted to longer working hours. We’ve adapted to perpetual war. You know we’ve adapted to the destruction of our environment. So this is the reality of the situation and again I think that you can definitely look back at history and see specific points where this really started to happen. You know and like in the 1980s. But I think overall, my focus now is, ‘Okay well how do I pull people out of that adaptability? How do I get people out of that comfort zone before they’re incredibly wrenched out of that comfort zone by rising sea waters or by the next financial crash or what have you?’