READY OR NOT, CHAOS IS UPON US
A dystopian vision.
Wouldn’t it be nice if I could write about a world that
sickens me because we’re constantly hugging each other, getting along to the
point that nobody ever fights or disagrees anymore and that love seems to drip
from everything, annoying me to such an extent that I’m begging to be punched
or provoked. Yah, that would truly
qualify as dystopian, the loving, not the punch in the nose. Instead, as a writer, a student of
philosophy, history and the humanities, I am once more forced to confront a
disturbing reality that humanity is getting ready for another global bruising.
The drums of war are beating louder, the escalation of
threats, a call to arms and political discourse and civility chucked aside and
discarded like an old unwanted T-shirt or a pair of worn-out shoes. For most people that humanity thing is
nothing more than a nuisance, having to behave while in reality you want
nothing more than to beat the living crap out of another human being, getting
away with murder and mayhem and not having to atone for anything.
There is an insane need within humanity that doesn’t exist in
lower lifeforms, and that is the urge to destroy and eradicate. Our entire human history is a tapestry of war
and conflict. Don’t stare yourself blind
at those grandiose human achievements; most were designed to dominate and
control other human beings, those thought of as lesser; better yet, deserving
of occupation and exploitation.
Let’s not get sidetracked by the odd piece of beautiful music
created, art touching our barbaric souls and reminding us of a possible softer
side in some of us, even redemption from all the ugliness we’re capable of
inflicting upon each other, even inventing absolution from sins; none are
enough to excuse our barbarity. Man, oh
man. The lengths we’re willing to go to,
to talk straight what is obviously crooked and for those who have suffered the
most at our hands there is always the promise of heaven. We’ve got you covered!
What is absolutely galling is the fact that we resign
ourselves to that fact that another global conflict is inevitable. There is such a self-destructive component
within us that when push comes to shove we sign up by the thousands and
willingly march to our deaths. War has
never solved anything. Ever! And yet we glorify battle, especially afterwards. I mean, we’re not exactly in the habit of
calling ourselves stupid and gullible, instead we’ll make sure that the
sacrifice of millions of lives will go down as heroic and is the price we pay
for freedom, or whatever. You’ve got to
come up with some sort of palatable reasoning and an ‘oh, boy, that was stupid’
just won’t cut it.
Around the world there is a call for increased defense
spending and troops are placed on high alert.
A fresh cabal of neurotic, autocratic leaders is leading the pack. According to this bunch diplomacy is wasted
on the unwashed and ignorant masses.
Peace is leaving people needy and weak.
A steady cycle of regular elections has only produced debt at a level
never seen before. Why spend good money
on a social safety net and guaranteed incomes when we can put a rifle in their
hands, send them to the front and back at home we will be running the armament
industries at full speed. People will be
so busy dying and providing for the war industry that all that whining and
complaining comes to a full stop. Standing
shoulder to shoulder at legions, toasting each other with tankards of the finest
malt and hop and congratulating each other on how we beat the crap out of that
enemy. Unless you lost the battle! Well, let’s not go there just yet.
Progress is killing us.
Success is killing us. A lot will
depend on YOUR interpretation of progress and success!
Up until the 18th century people used to die like
flies, by the millions; young and old; from infectious diseases, epidemics,
poverty, malnutrition, poor sanitation and medical treatments that defied
description and common sense. Growing old
and in good health was the purport of a lucky few. Anthropologists have estimated that the world
population at around 1 AD stood at approximately half a billion. A 1902 global population census pegged our
numbers at 2.5 billion, a remarkable, yet steady growth. Fast forward to 2025 and we’re sitting at
over 8.3 billion and counting. We have
added these record numbers in less than 125 years through progress and
innovation. Just to name a few to put
progress in perspective: steam power, coal fired turbines, electricity,
hydraulics, oil derivatives, mass transportation, nuclear energy, computers,
vaccines, antibiotics, herbicides and pesticides, fertilizers, preservatives,
nanotechnology and quantum computing and AI.
I am just scratching the surface here with a few examples. Progress is not slowing us down, it is
accelerating at a breakneck speed. But .
. . everything we do has a downside. In
my novel Energy & Origin I have explained in detail the nature and behavior
of energy and momentum, how energy created life and that life is energy, driven
by momentum. Our needs, and that
includes our energy needs and all other requirements, are in direct correlation
with the pace kept by innovation and progress.
A lot of what we consume and use hails mostly from artificial means,
from exploitation and extraction. Our
numbers and needs have surpassed what the planet can realistically supply and
we have now reached a stage where we’re literally devouring the planet as if it
were a pizza.
There is no pause button, no reset!
What we conveniently ignore in everything we do and construct
is its impact! We have been struggling
with our numbers for over a century. We
can’t afford to house and provide for billions of additional people. The opportunities are simply not there and
instead we’re turning billions of people into net-negative multipliers and
consumers. They are not an asset, but a
burden. Two world wars have not been able
to dislodge this alarming and growing reality and yet we’re about to try again. The trio that led us into World War II,
Hitler, Tojo and Mussolini, have been replaced by Trump, Putin and Ki. Scary in this entire repeat scenario is a
total absence of reason. It is not about
regime change, territorial acquisition or occupation, but a pure existential
threat and it can’t be solved by blowing everything to smithereens, but they
are going to try. Trump is a
vainglorious, ignorant, conservative buffoon who wants to take America back to
the hay-days of the 50s and 60s when America was predominantly white and the
sky seemed to be the limit. In reality
we went way beyond that and we thought that this crazy ride would never
end. But it has and reality has come
knocking on global doors. Everybody
wants what we have and we’re going to keep digging and exploiting until there
is nothing left. Momentum has taken over
and we can’t turn off over 8 billion people and go back to what?
An existential threat.
At the core of a potential world war III lies a principle
that defies everything in our toolboxes.
There is no easy fix! This time
around it is not about economic principles, about a redistribution of wealth,
about equality and fairness, about who owns the land and resources, about who
has access and who does not, who has the right to live and who does not. This is about existentialism in its purest
form. Do we have a right to live? To exist?
It is no longer a debatable philosophical concept of humans providing
life with essence, giving it meaning, but existence turning into a ludicrous
wished for concept that we have jeopardized with our out-of-control behavior
and activities. We are confronted with a
physical reality that could devastate humanity as a species and we can’t
philosophize our way out of it. Take an
honest and hard look at the political landscape. It is all about distortion, distraction, lies
and fabrications. The rule of law has
become whatever the person in charge wants it to be. There is only a semblance of order, of a
demand for justice. Token gestures and
words and the violence and carnage continues unabated and unchallenged. Momentum has turned all of us into a
rampaging, stampeding herd of beasts. We
have never been able to regulate our progress, our demands and needs, in
proportion to what the planet can reasonably provide. Paradise is a beautiful image of a life and
of lifestyles we will never enjoy, because it defies how we behave. We are what we are and it is, what it is. An unfortunate day of reckoning is upon us
and it won’t be pretty.
We will continue to lie and cheat, to distract and distort. Ultimately the deception is ours!
A new arms race is only accelerating the inevitable.
Conflicts galore and they are all competing for our attention
and once more the solution centers on arms, on weapons of mass destruction and
the deployment of troops in areas deemed critical and prone to invasion. Putin has painted himself in a corner and Ki
soft pedals Taiwan. And, America, with
Trump and company at the helm, in debt up to their eyeballs and desperate to
hold on to the number one superpower position, is fighting a losing battle, but
nobody has the balls to tell them. None
of them are willing to admit that we’re playing a losing game with nature, with
our planet and with the future of humanity as a species. We have turned ourselves into an unmitigated
disaster and we’re totally blind to our impact.
A quote from philosopher Arthur C. Clarke: “As our species is
in the process of proving, one cannot have superior science and inferior
morals. The combination is unstable and
self-destroying.”
All superior intelligence is inherently self-destructive and
therefore any attempt to alter its course is futile. We are the only species out of millions on
planet Earth that has evolved this way and everything we do and need is at the
expense of what remains on our planet, a finite object that doesn’t grow in
size or magically replaces what we blow up in smoke.
We’re driven by the power of momentum and you don’t need a
majority to infuse a nation with a negative vibe, or the world for that
matter. I hope that a simple example of
my own youth will suffice to illustrate the power of negativity. I attended a boarding school as a youngster
and one particular year, a few obnoxious students, mainly spoiled brats from
rich families, sabotaged an entire schoolyear with their rowdy and out of
control behavior. Two of our teachers
actually resigned during that year and left with a nervous breakdown. Academically we accomplished next to nothing
and it basically amounted to a wasted year.
Normal people don’t know how to deal with ‘abnormal’
behavior.
We don’t know how to deal with the obnoxious and out of
control behavior of rogue world leaders because they act out of the norm, of
what we’re used to, of what we expect from ‘normal’ leaders. We have been bending over backwards for those
leaders. Tried appeasement and an appeal
to common decency and common sense. The
world has been kissing Trump’s ass for over half a year and we’re at a total
loss as to how to deal with this loose cannon and his flip-flop approach to
governing. Appeasement didn’t work with
Hitler, with Tojo and Mussolini and it’s not working with Putin and Trump
either. Ki is smart enough to nudge and
elbow from the sidelines, hoping to snatch the worm those two chickens are
fighting over.
There is no worm, however.
Only thorny issues that defy solutions.
We are once more turning into a nasty, highly combustible pile of
resentment and anger. The problem is not
the kind of societies we have created, or the lopsided division of wealth. Our numbers are killing us. Our needs, demands and requirements are
killing us. Had we remained content to
stay in the jungle as cute, little apes, you and I wouldn’t be having this
conversation. We would be blissfully
unaware and this big, beautiful planet would be left to the elements and a
celestial fate.
We have turned into an existential threat because we are a
poor fit. A global war won’t solve a
thing, if anything, it will only hasten our demise. If we could only go back to that dystopian
image I painted in the introduction of this article, of the hugs and kisses and
all that loving.
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