A sampling of those assumptions:
1) Owning and driving a car is a-okay.
2) Heating your home with the cheapest and most convenient fuel (natural gas, propane, oil, etc) is absolutely alright (hey, who doesn't?).
3) The only thing which should limit the size of your home or family is the amount of your salary.
4) Air travel for work or pleasure is a-okay, and good to encourage among friends & family.
5) Purchases of consumer goods should be limited only by the size of your bank account (or better yet, by the size of your credit limits).
6) Whatever the task at hand, it can be made easier and more efficient with the use of electricity, gasoline, or diesel.
7) Producing your own food is time consuming and not worth the effort. Purchase your food on price, taste, and convenience considerations. You needn't concern yourself with how it's grown or raised. (Only weird people do that!)
8) Your doctor (with the enthusiastic assistance of our altruistic pharmaceutical corporations) can fix any possible side effects of the above assumptions. Car accidents, diabetes, heart disease, mental illness... you name it!
9) "The Economy" is more important than "The Environment" (and you should vote accordingly, as do most Americans).
10) Technology will fix the problems it makes. If the technological fixes make worse problems, we'll use technology to fix those too. If those fixes create still more problems... Check out this "fix". Yes, we're going there. Things are going to be that bad.
Of course, rejecting any one of these assumptions is quite difficult without rejecting them all. I understand that very well, because I've tried to reject most of them at one point or another. Modern industrial society is a package deal, where getting rid of your car is likely to get rid of your employment, or where moving from a McMansion to a suitably sized abode is likely to bring a visit from the local building inspector, or perhaps Child Protective Services. While we'd be fooling ourselves to think that we can avert catastrophic climate change at this point, fighting this system has never been more important.
In most of my blog entries, you'll note a recurring theme of "if we don't change soon, we suffer the consequences". Well... we didn't change, and now the era of consequences has begun with a vengeance. The climate change rocket isn't just sitting on the launchpad while we debate its existence; we've recently achieved liftoff! We've triggered the feedback loops we were warned of decades ago. We've got an amazing front-row seat to watch while our world burns before us. Chances are we'll lose the ability to continue living. That won't seem like such a bad thing when the desire to continue living takes a serious beating as the beauty and joys of our world are extinguished. Was it all worth it? Have you figured out how you'll justify your inaction to the youngest in your family when they inevitably ask? Will you be able to look them in the eye and say (honestly) that you tried?
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