Watch This:The American Future By Simon Schama On BBC Knowledge

I’ve long been fascinated by the American lifestyle of bigger is better and Don’t Mess With Texas! Jokes, but I have honestly been fascinated by how blindly they live. Sure, not all Americans. But for a good number of Americans, they don’t seem to see any problems with the world. Driving a Ford F50 to go to the shops? Nothing wrong with it in their minds. They do seem to have some sort of belief that the earths resources are infinite, and if they don’t get their way, they’ll fight for it. I’ve watched loads of documentaries on peak oil and read hundreds of articles on the topic, seen Zeitgeist and all the Michael Moore stuff. And I’ve always found these hugely interesting, because one of my great interests is the future of the planet.

It’s not that I worry about climate change killing me, or the planet. One day, hundreds of years after humans have been erased from the earth for whatever reason, the ecosystem will return to normal. Seasons will stabilize. Animals will proliferate. New species will emerge. The planet works in mysterious ways, and it works to take care of itself. At the moment natural disasters are taking their toll and killing people, because people are killing the planet. We’re being wiped out by the planet so that it can save itself. And I’m cool with that.

I just find it fascinating that so many of us don’t see the damage we’re doing. All we care about is the next car we’re getting, what clothes we’re going to buy and all the rest that comes from superficialdom. Not that I’m one of those hippies who completely hates anything commercial, but I just think we need some balance and fair views. We still need to live life and have fun, but maybe, you know, also just think a little about the lives we live and the damage we’re causing.

I’m sure a lot of you are reading this bored out of your mind, and there are probably a lot more of you that never got this far. I’m cool with that. If you want to read the article/watch the YouTube video all the other blogs are showing, then I’m cool with that too. If you’re this far, well then you’re different. You can stay!

Anyway, this program is a bit older and was shot on the backdrop of the presidential election. But it still stands true today because it looks way into the past of America.

“The series saw Schama travelling through the United States as he investigated the conflicts from its past in order to understand the country’s contemporary political situation”

So I can’t comment on the whole series, but it’s very interesting based on the first episode, so you should catch it on Wednesdays at 20:30 on BBC Knowledge. Here’s a little YouTube on it:

Make sure you watch it if this sort of thing interests you, I’ve got the PVR on it.