ALL THE THINGS THAT ARE
KILLING US
In the middle of February, 2025, Javier Milei, the president
of Argentina, presented Elon Musk with a huge chainsaw, probably inspired by
Musk carrying in a sink when he took over Twitter. How some boys love symbolism! Milei is a Trump supporter and the symbolic
gesture of handing over a huge chainsaw is his way of giving Elon Musk his
stamp of approval for Musk’s slash and burn strategy at the newly minted
department of DOGE. Over the top,
erratic behavior, has become the norm for some elected and non-elected
officials to showcase what? Balls? Backbone?
Determination? I am a real
man? Musk hired a small army of
promising youngsters (young and naïve enough to simply follow orders without
question) to execute his and Trump’s desire to dramatically cut government in
size and budgets. The whacking and
hacking commenced from day one. One
would assume that a smart businessman would have his team evaluate each
government department first; determine impact, cost, function and necessity
before a slash and burn would take place.
Wrong! Musk has shown over and
over again how his view of the world is all he and likeminded cronies care
about. Do as you’re told or I will fire
you. Trump’s little apprentice. Oh, how Trump must gloat to have the world’s
richest man dance to his tune and fulfill his wishes. The ultimate in sucking up. It doesn’t get any better.
Our energy needs are
killing us
How on earth did we get here?
And why is it picking up speed?
Throwing Ukraine and the Palestinians under the bus! Threats uttered around the globe, scare
tactics of trade wars and tariffs.
Political bluster flying high and fast.
Trump and ilk are symptomatic of what we and the planet are facing and
it’s not just politicians that are killing us.
I like to compare Earth to a lifeboat.
All of us are its passengers and whether your hand is at the tiller or
not makes little or no difference. We’re
all affected and nobody will escape. The
turbulence experienced is of our own making.
You can lay blame and point angry fingers at anything and everything,
but eventually, if honesty wins out, we need to crook that finger back at
ourselves.
In my novella, Energy & Origin, I explain how life is
created from energy and that basically all life can be reduced to energy as
without energy life will cease to exist.
All lifeforms consume energy and
the quality and the quantity of energy determines survival and success rate. A
lifeform such as ours consumes incredible quantities and it makes us vulnerable
to depletion and scarcity. As a direct
consequence superior lifeforms don’t take kindly to potential threats that will
impact on their existence and future.
You need to evaluate everything in this article from that
perspective. All the turmoil, all the
uncertainty, all the ramped up rhetoric, anger and bluster hails from the
impact of dwindling energy sources; everything that sustains humanity either keeps
going up in cost, is in short supply, or is vanishing at an alarming rate.
Our numbers are killing
us
Sometimes I need to go back to earlier articles or books and
refer to a statistic that serves as an eye opener to illustrate how our numbers
are stacking up, without delving headfirst into impact and consequences. Anthropologists estimate that around the year
1 AD the world human population numbered about half a billion. It took nearly two thousand years for it to
go up to nearly 2.5 billion based on a 1902 global census. Within a timespan of just over one hundred
years we have added another 6 billion people and human consumption habits
exploded in correlation. We have
literally started to devour planet Earth; from top to bottom, from continent to
continent, from sea to sea. Our appetite
for all things energy is astounding. We
share the planet with millions of other lifeforms, from microscopic to
huge. None of them are as destructive as
we are. None of them take more than they
need. None of them destroy their
surroundings like we do. Because of our
stupendous impact tensions around the world are once more reaching critical
mass. We are like a nuclear bomb ready
to detonate.
Progress is killing us
We were able to add a record 6 billion people due to
progress. It is that simple. Due to remarkable improvements in technology,
science and health our ability to reproduce now outpaces all our efforts to
kill and destroy. People used to die by
the millions from all kinds of diseases and viruses. Hardly anyone reached the ripe old age of 65,
a retirement date set by governments in the past as an easy election giveaway
because rarely anyone lived long enough to enjoy it. Fast forward to 2025 and people are living
well into their eighties and nineties. A
remarkable influx of wealth accompanied our increase in numbers and it tweaked
a social consciousness that included sharing some of that wealth with more
people.
Base human behavior is
killing us
In the natural world life plays out in similar ways to the
human world. All lifeforms require
energy to survive, whether it is extracted from the soil or from each
other. To put it in human terms we can
understand, “We’ve all got to eat.” One
thing that sets the natural world apart from humans is the simple fact that
none of them devour more than they can eat or need. There is no indiscriminate killing, no
gratuitous taking of life. Animals don’t
fight wars or engage in scorched earth tactics, ethnic cleansing and
genocide. Everything is geared to the
here and now and surviving. Living from
day to day and tomorrow is just another day.
The human species has evolved into a super predator that preys, devours
and destroys. Yes, there is a pecking
order and some of us even excel at murder and mayhem. At taking more! Way more!
None of us are excluded. We all
take part. This is our ship and we’re
all its passengers and no one is excluded.
Stephen Hawking referred to humanity in the last decade of his life as a
species that will do itself in through greed and stupidity.
Those of you who are familiar with my work will know that I
am a skeptic when it comes to human intelligence and that I shudder at the
often added adjective: superior! A truly
intelligent species would never take a sledge hammer approach to its one and
only home unless it had a guaranteed escape plan in hand to move elsewhere with
little or no problem. We don’t!
We are the exact opposite of intelligent, thoughtful, anticipatory,
smart and considerate. When we’re good
we can be absolutely marvelous, interesting and fascinating. But at our worst, we do the worst. I don’t believe in divine origin. I don’t believe that the best is yet to come
and that one day we will truly emerge as a benign, considerate and caring
species. We’re being rushed along by our
numbers, energy needs and momentum and then there is that phrase all of us are
familiar with: actions speak louder than words.
Our actions belie our humanity, and it shows in how we fail each other
time and time again. We don’t fit in and
it is but one of things that is killing us.
Dictators are killing
us
In 2025 we can only marvel at the resilience of embattled
Ukrainian leader Volodimyr Zelensky.
From the time he took office, Trump has leveled one insult after another
at Zelensky. This is an individual who
truly deserves the moniker “man”. He is
honest, steadfast and willing to lay his life on the line for his fellow
countrymen. Invaded by one dictator and
verbally harassed and threatened by another.
The honorific “A real man” doesn’t apply to those two. Putin and Trump can only be described as
untrustworthy, selfish and psychotic.
Dictators see enemies where there aren’t any and they excel at creating
new ones. Paranoid and distrustful,
dictators surround themselves with third-rate advisors whose main role is to
heap continual praise on the leader.
Dictators will never surround themselves with competent aides and
advisers as their competency is viewed as a potential threat to their personal
power. Key positions in Trump’s White
House entourage—I dread using the word cabinet, which would suggest capable
appointees—hail from some bizarre backgrounds, including news networks and show
business. Basically he will hire anyone
who bows and kowtows to his wishes.
Kleptocracies and
Kakistocracies: Governments run by the worst, least qualified and most
unscrupulous citizens
Dictators have a serious obsession with people who have
opposed them in the past and in Trump’s case, the mass firings of people in key
positions, in the judiciary and in law enforcement, is a clear sign that he is
fully engaged in the dictator’s syndrome.
The fact that he is sucking up to a tyrant like Putin is a surefire
indication that the Russian leader has some damning evidence on Trump that
would put him in an embarrassing spotlight.
Putin is a KGB product and the Russians have always been good at playing
the long game. Trump has done a lot of
stupid things, at home and abroad, and you don’t engage in sordid activities in
a Moscow hotel room and assume that it is not bugged by Russian security
services. He will sell out Ukraine to
stop Putin from releasing footage of his sordid proclivities. Trump is firmly ensconced in Putin’s pocket
and therefore a Russian stooge.
In bad times we elect
the worst and silence the best
Questionable leadership is gaining in popularity as the world
is struggling with the issues that are killing us. In troubling times we don’t reach out to the
best kind of leader, but to the worst, as they encourage a return to base human
instincts which includes lashing out at anything perceived as a threat. As if violence, discrimination, oppression
and even acts of war, will somehow remedy what ails the world. I can’t believe my ears when intelligent
people tell me that “a good war is what we need to fix things!” The deplorable leadership that emerges in
times of crisis responds neatly to the theory I have postulated in Energy &
Origin; when feeling threatened, faced with a loss of energy, of power and
security, we will resort to desperate measures to re-secure our position and
protect it from a potential loss of income/energy. The first casualty of war is our humanity and
it is all the way downhill from there on.
Ignoring the real
issues is killing us
Around the globe nations are struggling to meet the demands
of a burgeoning human population whose needs are far greater than what the
planet can realistically supply. We tend to forget that it is the planet
that provides, not politicians, industrialists, or real estate moguls. The current batch of dubious characters that
are tapping into growing levels of public frustration are well aware that
setting fire to the masses is all about pushing the right buttons: blame
government, excessive taxation, immigrants, illegals, homeless people, lazy
people, interest rates, housing and rent prices, groceries. If you can think of it, any issue will
do! Anything and everything gets the
blame. And why not take it out on
visible minorities and people of different cultures and religions! Above all, why not take it out on segments of
the population or on nations perceived as weak and not being able to fight
back?
Group behavior can be a
killer
A double-edged sword enters the equation when it comes to how
the human pendulum will swing and it is pertains to group behavior. Crowd mentality will determine the outcome of
where we’re headed. Individuals may have
a profound impact on group behavior, but in the end it is group momentum that decides. Trump may have sown the seeds of doubt, of
frustration and anger, but his election still hinged on getting enough
votes. He didn’t need a majority and
most people don’t realize that in politics you don’t need a fifty-one
percentage of the vote to win.
I subscribe to the rule of 3.
One third of all humans are intelligent, but they prefer to be left
alone and don’t want to get involved.
One third is intelligent and they do care and get involved. One third is absolutely stupid, open to
manipulation and they will believe and do anything if motivated to do so. January 6th, 2020 comes to mind. Within this volatile mix all you need is a
number of votes that comes close enough to one third to clinch a victory. Questionable leadership contenders would
never make it out of the gate if we were truly intelligent and engaged. Politicians count on our volatility, our
laziness, of not bothering to make an effort.
Manipulating the masses doesn’t require a degree in rocket science, all
you need to do is push the right buttons at the right time. We are gullible and impressionable.
Unbridled consumerism
is killing us
An awful lot of our industrial efforts focus on producing a
plethora of goods of absolutely no value.
Trinkets and toys to amuse us for a little while, many of them once-use
items, disposable and throwaways. We’re
flocking to those shelves like a murder of crows. We can’t get enough of junk. What we have created is not a consumer
nirvana but a consumption nightmare.
Waste disposal sites are a recent innovation to deal with the mountains
of garbage we accumulate on a daily basis.
Within record time waste disposal has become the biggest growth industry
and the biggest environmental headache. And
we’re not getting better, we’re getting worse.
We’re turning a deliberate blind eye to our excesses. Industry is catering to our wishes and
demands because it is profitable and our deliberate ignorance comes shining
through in our purchasing habits. How
many garages, sheds and basements are filled with accumulated junk? We’re no longer producing according to real
needs. Baseless and useless
manufacturing is gobbling up energy and resources that could be put to far more
productive uses. Those who can are
supersizing their lifestyles with careless abandon and millions of people who
are doing without are willing to sacrifice their lives to join us at the
troughs. We have abandoned
self-sustaining lifestyles and communities for a world filled with artifice,
lighting up the skies with flickering billboards, as if the images on our
handheld devices aren’t enough? All of
us are seduced by hedonistic promises, served up in copious amounts by
programmers and so-called influencers homing in on our simplistic desires to be
entertained by a deluge of bits and bytes.
We’re being killed by
what we produce and eat
Less than a century ago all the food we consumed was raised
and grown naturally and the only additive added to the soil was manure. The Industrial Revolution had a scientific
impact that went way beyond making products faster and cheaper. Innovation picked up speed and it hasn’t
stopped. A chemical revolution followed
on the heels of the Industrial Revolution to supply us with a bevy of consumer
goods. The foods we now eat are infused with compounds and additives to
increase shelf life, taste and looks. We
use herbicides and pesticides to get rid of pesky weeds and insects. Copious amounts of fertilizers to increase
yields. Livestock is injected with
antibiotics and growth hormones. And the
final straw: plastics! It is estimated
that by the year 2050—if we survive that long—there will be more plastic
floating around in our oceans, lakes and rivers than there are fish. Babies are now born with cells containing
microscopic bits of plastic. I don’t
think evolution designed bodies to act as chemical repositories. We’re lucky that most of what we consume
leaves our bodies naturally through the backdoor, but an awful lot remains
embedded in our system as our bodies aren’t capable of getting rid of chemical
residue. It was not designed to cope
with unnatural substances.
Pollution and contamination are killers
Our industrial processes are the main culprit for an increase
in pollution and the dumping of chemicals into our water systems. In less than a century we’ve come up with
more than 100,000 different chemicals.
Each year we add approximately another 1200 new chemicals, with some
disappearing because they have fallen out of favor, banned because they’re too
toxic and too dangerous for further use.
Almost all chemicals are carcinogens, meaning that they are considered
lethal and can cause cancer and other nasty diseases. Some of the chemicals we manufacture are
produced in minute volumes, but others are manufactured by the tanker
load. One of the least monitored
processes in all industries is the leaching of effluence; the residue of water
used in cooling down metals and materials used in manufacturing processes and
in the cleaning and rinsing of food products and production facilities. Rather than worrying about illegals crossing
borders and drugs being smuggled across, we should pay much greater attention
to all the groundwater flowing beneath our feet. Water knows no borders and it will flow
wherever it wants to go. We need water
as much as we need food. And our
polluted waters are killing us!
Stubborn, greedy and
stupid. Yes, that’s what’s killing us
too!
We don’t want our buying, consumption and viewing habits
challenged and everybody engages in this, from the poorest to the richest. Everybody engages in predatory habits based
on their own unique and personal circumstances.
I am as guilty as you are. I
could live in a much smaller home, adopt a better lifestyle, use less energy,
stop driving a car, develop consumer habits that are less wasteful and do a
much better job at recycling and repurposing.
We are tribal creatures and we adopt each other’s habits. If I lived in Mongolia amongst yak herders I
would probably live in a yurt, drink yak milk and dress like my fellow
tribesmen. I wouldn’t show up driving a
huge four-by-four towing an Airstream! We
go with the flow and such is the impact of energy and origin, of energy and
momentum. Monkey see, monkey do!
We only change if we
have to
In our personal lives downsizing upon reaching old age is a
given. When you hit those infamous
twilight years you realize that you can’t take it with you and you don’t really
need all that stuff. Once we unleashed
the Industrial Revolution at full throttle our entire attitude towards production
and consumption changed. Growth, market
share, competition, profits, the new buzzwords of the 19th and 20th
century. We figured out how to expand in
a hurry and it makes you wonder. Why
can’t we apply the same kind of enthusiasm and ingenuity to downsizing and
minimizing? Supply management is not
something new. When humanity numbered in
the millions we supplied the needs of those millions. At least we tried. We have developed market and production
strategies that are killing us. We are
no longer supplying real needs. We’re catering to wants and wishes and
marketing strategies focused on our greed, on wanting more, on scenarios of
bigger and grander. And all around
us nations feel left out. They are faced
with poverty, starvation, oppression and instability. Throughout human history mass migrations have
taken place and globally we have once more reached a boiling point and millions
want to get out. Nearly one hundred
million refugees are stranded in camps, millions more are fleeing and are willing
to undertake perilous ocean crossings to escape. The most prosperous nations on the planet are
now faced with millions of migrants attempting to cross their borders, to
either ask for asylum or to work for a pittance as illegals, because even a
pittance is better than what they’re escaping from. A lack of opportunity, of real jobs, of
safety and security.
It’s the numbers
stupid!
Not that long ago the Americas encouraged a massive influx of
immigrants, especially after slavery was abolished and free labor was no longer
a legal option. Some immigrants were
welcomed with open arms because they shared a commonality with the original
settlers; color, race, language, culture and customs. Others were reluctantly accepted,
discriminated against and treated poorly.
Those who came from the Far East were often treated no better than
indentured slaves.
We are the victims of
progress and success and it is killing us
In humanity’s past mass migrations often took place after a
once successful empire started to implode because it could no longer meet the
needs of the population. Setbacks were
often hastened because of droughts, persistent bad weather, poor farming
practices that exhausted the soil, systemic crop failures, invasions from
emerging new powers and even forced deportations. Our numbers and needs are pushing our backs
to the wall and wealthy nations are starting to push back. An existential crisis faced by a predatory
creature experiencing pressures that defy solutions and resolution.
We are starting to kill
each other
All living organisms are predatory, self-serving and greedy
by nature as all lifeforms are driven by energy and momentum. There is no reset button. No pause.
A lifeform has a choice, either it adapts and survives or it
perishes. In the natural world these
events take place without leaving a written or oral record. Because of our higher level of intelligence,
of intellectual awareness, we can experience our potential demise to its
fullest extent. We can even record
it. And it will be an experience that
can be interpreted on many different emotional levels. In part it explains why we are so ruthless
when cornered. We know what’s coming! When trouble comes knocking on our doors we
desperately search for a way out. We
always have! When faced with adversity our primordial instincts and behaviors
rise to the fore. Our sense of self, of
humanity, is so warped. Especially when
faced with the worst, with the unthinkable.
Too many negatives are
killing us
In some of my blog articles I have included images of large
crowds and crowded cities and every time I look at the multitudes I wonder why
we’re doing this to ourselves. Why don’t
we limit our numbers? Why not reduce
consumption and our numbers and remove some of the greatest stresses the planet
and ecosystems face? Why not leave room
for renewal? Earth has been a natural
marvel for billions of years and in record time humans have had an impact that
can only be described as a disaster.
We’re on the way out.
Crowd morality, crowd behavior
The biggest problem is not individual intelligence or
behavior, it is crowd behavior. Energy and momentum call the shots. We move with the crowd. Not against the crowd! We go with the numbers!
Crowd denial
We also engage in crowd denial and we have a nasty habit of
absolving ourselves from crimes committed as a group. In a warped sense we’re both predator and
victim. In times of prosperity crowd
morality can be incredibly impressive and positive and under optimum
circumstances the right kind of humanity comes shining through. However, when faced with adversity our best
qualities can evaporate in a heartbeat.
Adversity is killing us
And we’ve brought it on ourselves.
I could have included
many other issues that are killing us.
Illegal drugs, human trafficking, homelessness, obesity, famine. Around the world stockpiles of ancient
nuclear warheads are deteriorating to such an extent that proper disposal is in
jeopardy. An accident waiting to
happen. Species extinction has reached
record highs. Natural landscapes are
vanishing. Arable land is
threatened. Religious discord is
fracturing the human world. Democracies
are struggling and the sorry list of human ailments and shortcomings goes on
and on.
We have become the
super predators
There are only a few tribes left that live peaceful,
harmonious lives, people who are content to live off the bounty that their
surroundings offer. Most of them can be
found in extremely remote areas, far removed from what we call
civilization. Left in peace they may
survive! The rest of us, more than 8
billion, have become super predators. We
prey, devour and destroy. We don’t
contribute one iota to the welfare and wellbeing of the planet. The sad fact that some of us take way more
than others is simply a fact of life.
When we run out of energy and opportunity, momentum will take over and
it won’t spare anyone.
As a writer I observe and record. You’re free to agree or to disagree. I am under no illusion that my writing will
have a lasting impact or that it will survive the test of time. Time eventually reduces everything and
everybody to a mere echo. When I wrote
Energy & Origin I purposely kept it short.
I wanted you to understand the concept: life emerged from energy, life
is energy and energy and momentum are forces you can’t control and fight. In my blog articles I merely touch upon the
consequences of ignoring the impact of energy and momentum.
Energy & Origin by
W.M.A. Bes is available on Amazon.ca
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