PSA: Everything is Burning. . .

LA Just Happens to Be on Fire.

Here I Am Again. . .

The idea for Thought Lab came out of a recurring Saturday morning coffee with a fellow philosopher and friend. We’d sit around and lament the state of the world, imagining how we’d fix it if we were Kings. We called our gatherings the “Curmudgeon Circle.”

I finally pulled the trigger because I needed an outlet for what I considered the absurdity of the Here-4-the-Kids sit-in gun protest held in Denver in May of 2023. Our circle of two had grown too small to contain my incredulity. And I thought maybe, just maybe, my words would restore a little bit of sanity.

I never thought it would ultimately become a place to critically reflect on current political events. In my mind, it’d slowly become a platform for philosophical musings, but since the election, the naivete of that has become obvious.

And when I sit back and look over what I’ve written, it’s apparent to me now that what I actually do is neither and both. I’m an alchemist of sorts, blending the current with the philosophical. I don’t sit up on high and pontificate on obscure philosophical concepts, nor do I regurgitate the standard talking points about the issue of the day. I try to use the deeper, penetrative light of philosophy to offer up novel insights, and to ultimately problematize (there’s a 50 cent philosophical word for you) the all too often dichotomized thinking which animates modern discourse(s).

And so as Los Angeles burns, I have a few things to say.

It Should Be Said. . .

I have a rather unique perspective, one that’s informed by experience.

As my philosophical “career” wound down, I fled the hallowed halls of academia for the forests of Montana and the Western United States in general, where for the following 8ish years I fought wildfires for a living. The story of how this all transpired is a good one, one I hope to tell in what I’ve billed an “informational memoir” about the life, culture, and work of a “hotshot.” (If anyone out there, knows an agent who’d be interested in repping a book like that, don’t hesitate to put us in touch.) Suffice it to say, I know a thing or two about fires, as well as the political, ecological, and cultural issues surrounding them. I lived it, boots on the ground.

Over the past couple of days I’ve had a number of conversations about the fires in LA. I want to say clearly and unequivocally at the start that I empathize, sympathize, and pray for all the people who’ve had their lives forever and irrevocably altered by this catastrophe. No one deserves what’s happening to them regardless of their creed, color, gender, or class. And what’s to follow is in no way intended to diminish, dismiss, or deny the human toll. It’s heartbreaking. It’s devastating.

But, I Hate to Break it to You. . .

Here is the hard, unvarnished truth: there’s NO WAY to stop an established wind driven fire in the Southern California fuel model with the current wind speeds. None. Zippo. Nada. Zilch.

I mean that, literally. You could have the entirety of the Pacific Ocean available for water, and it wouldn’t amount to a drop in the bucket. That’s because it moves too fast. You can’t catch it. It also burns too hot. There’s not an effective way to fight it.

Okay. So, let that sink in.

Short of God on high Himself coming down to stop them, there’s no way to contain, control, or extinguish these fires, until the winds stop blowing.

I mention this, no I stress this, because I don’t think this message is getting out there. Just this morning I was talking with the other half of the Curmudgeon Circle and he, by his own admission, hadn’t heard anything like it. And he’s a smart, well-informed guy.

And it got me thinking. Why the hell not?

The Shit I’ve Heard. . .

Let it be said, there are no shortage of “explanations” floating around the interwebs as to why what’s happening is happening. I’m not going to waste our time covering all of them in detail. But, here’s what I will say about some of the more prevalent ones.

The vast majority of the things...not including that the fires have been lit as part of a conspiracy to achieve whatever...I’ve encountered from both the Left and Right media spheres have a hint of truth and/or relevance in there somewhere. I’d encourage you to try and find it, because if you think your side is the only one with an inside track on the truth...well, there would’ve been a time when I called you a name, or said something mean about you, but now I just feel sorry for you.

Yes, climate change has altered the landscape, both in terms of fuels and climate, to a degree where fires now burn differently. I saw this first hand over 15 years ago where fires were already burning hotter at night, at higher elevations, and at weirder times of the year than ever before.

But, ain’t nobody stopping a fire driven by 60, 80, or 100 mph winds, or even 30 mph for that matter. Perhaps in a different time and place ecologically, a fire like this doesn’t get started, but once it does, all bets are off. And the Santa Ana winds have always blown...hard. And, we can’t ignore that if we build cities in fire adapted ecosystems, well then, things are going to burn down from time to time regardless whatever the climate does. The fire was there before we showed up. It’ll be there after we’re gone.

Yes, environmental regulations, including bans on logging, limitations on prescribed burning, and protections for some threatened and endangered species, have slowed or completely halted efforts to protect the health of our forests and the communities which surround them.

But, these fires aren’t burning in the woods per se. These type of fires, which would’ve been termed Wildland-Urban Interface (WUI for short) in the past, are now a bit more urban than before. We saw a similar thing happen outside of Boulder in 2021, I believe. They’re kind of a new phenomenon, but that’s only because we increasingly developed these formerly wild lands. They’re likely to become more common. We’ve got to be smart about where and how we build in the future.

Yes, California fire fighting is a total shit show. A resource order to California when I worked for the Forest Service brought with it an assortment of eye rolls, groans, protestations, and the occasional hissy fit. As a rule, the national crews there think they are God’s gift to the Earth. And CalFire, née CDF (California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, or “Can’t Do Fire,” or “Coffee and Donuts First”...the list goes on, but you get the point) is one of the most overly bloated, wasteful, tactically questionable, and genuinely dangerous organizations you’ll ever come in contact with.

But, you know what? Most of us are sitting on our asses right now. We’re not out there, and those guys and girls are the ones risking their lives, sleeping in the dirt, eating shit food, breathing shit air, and collecting shit pay to save other people’s shit, so fuck anyone who doesn’t respect and support their sacrifice. I can talk a bit of trash, because I’ve been there. If you haven’t, kindly keep your mouth shut, unless you intend to say “Thank you.”

The fact that these are the main things people are hearing, debating, and passing back and forth, as opposed to the actual conditions on the ground, and the literal impossibility of success, is a sign that the PILs (Public Information Officers) aren’t really doing their jobs. Now, granted they’ve got a lot on their plates, and people have a lot of free time on their hands. A bunch more free time than someone’s whose job it is to communicate about a situation which changes so rapidly it’s impossible to keep up with it in real time.

But again this raises the question, and makes it all the more confusing as to why they don’t just simply say, “You know what folks, there isn’t anything we can do. This shit is out of our control.” In other words, why aren’t they just telling the truth?

Reality is Some Scary Shit Yo. . .

The simple answer, of course, is they can’t. They can’t because they think to do so would open them up to ridicule, charges of incompetence, dereliction of duty, and perhaps even an eruption of chaos.

They might be right.

And in their minds, I bet this is what they tell themselves, what they tell each other, and what allows them to sleep through the night. “The people can’t handle the truth.” But there’s more to it than that. There’s something below the surface of this, something they probably aren’t conscious of, and something they wouldn’t be comfortable acknowledging even if they were. They know it, we know it, but it doesn’t sit well with either of us, so nobody says it.

That is, quite simply, none of us are in control.

To admit that even if we had all the water, all the money, all the resources, all the manpower, all the equipment we could ever want that it still wouldn’t be enough to stop these fires is ultimately to admit that our modernist, materialistic, progression and dominance at all cost mindset is nothing more than a childish illusion. And I don’t mean “childish” in a derogatory way, but in the purest, most idealistic, imaginative, hopeful, blissfully ignorant, and wonderful sense possible. But an illusion nonetheless.

And that shit is scary. To look down the barrel of the reality that we have no control over the external influences on our lives, whether that be the fire storm breathing down our neck, our friends, our family, our kids, the traffic, our health, our bank accounts, the market, and yes, the time and place of our inevitable demise is not something we want to be reminded of on the evening news, nor while we struggle to grasp the enormity of the tragedy befalling people right now.

But, it’s there, everyday, every night, whether or not LA is on fire. It’s all burning, all the time. It’s just that sometimes we don’t notice...perhaps because its taken a break, or we’re too busy, or too distracted, or it’s happening across the street, or because we push it deep, deep down into the darkest places of our souls...but it’s always there.

Now, I know it’s easy to say all this sitting in my nice warm house, 3000 miles away from people who have lost, or are losing, everything. But, it’s true, and reality doesn’t give a shit whether we like it or not.

But, here’s the good news. When we acknowledge our vulnerability, when we embrace our sheer nakedness before the forces of nature, we can begin to recognize our true power; our ability to choose how we respond both internally and externally.

Catastrophes, whether it’s these fires, or some other natural or man-made disaster, are excellent at revealing the cracks between “our” world and “the” world. But, cracks are funny things. You can run around trying to patch them up, or you can use them as a catalyst to peer inside, to see through, to see differently. There isn’t a doubt in my mind that those who have lost all their material possessions are acutely aware of this.

In a strange way, they’re the “lucky” ones though. They aren’t fooled anymore. They’re wide awake to their total lack of control. Their hands have been forced. In the language of recovery, they’ve hit rock bottom, but there’s a freedom down there. We each just have to be willing to say “yes” to it.

Those of us on the outside are afforded a similar opportunity in these moments. When we wake up to the fact that everything’s burning, that our neighbor’s plight could be ours at the drop of a hat, we can choose to behold the humanity on display and participate in it, by giving, by praying, or by serving. We’ve seen this as the helpers, as Mr. Rogers referred to them, pour out into the streets, into the parking lots, and up to the fire stations to deliver whatever they can.

Of course, on the other hand, we can choose to remain oblivious. We can continue to pretend, deny, and just be a simple pain in the ass by casting blame, talking shit, or participating in echo chamber thinking. The choice truly is ours, and ours alone. I’d say it’s important to pay attention to which we choose if for no other reason than it says way more about us than it does anyone, or anything, else.

Lead, Follow, or Get the Fuck Out of the Way. . .

I’m not suggesting it’s the job of the PILs to get up there and say any of this. Don’t worry. They won’t. Obviously. They’re not philosophers. They’re just trying to do a job and help people. But, I think they’d be a whole lot more helpful if they gave it to us all straight...at least regarding the practicalities.

That’s what good leaders (teachers, guides, mentors) do. They tell us the truth, even when they know we’re not going to like the answer. This builds trust and creates a weird sense of calm. We’ve seen what happens in the recent past when the “adults in the room” think they know better. Piss poor communication and scientific paternalism was, and is, one of the biggest reasons trust and respect for government health agencies tanked during Pandemic, and remains in the gutter.

We need to have trust in our institutions. It’s our institutions’ responsibility to build that trust. The people of California deserve this much. Hell, we all deserve this much. Truth (as well as simplicity and clarity) is the cornerstone of trust. Without it, we’re all pretty much screwed. Without a foundation of truth anything we build will likely collapse at the first signs of trouble. And, it turns out, everything is already always collapsing, and sometimes it’s even on fire.