By James Wallace Harris, Tuesday, November 25, 2014
Do not read this if you are depressed or are easily depressed. I’m not kidding. I hope I’m proven wrong. I really do.
I write this on the day I turn 63 while thinking about the future. Usually, I’m extremely positive about the future, probably because I love science fiction. However, if I wrote a science fiction novel today I’m afraid it would be a pessimistic apocalyptic novel. Normally I hate being cynical, but I thought for this essay I’d let it all hang out. I’ve spent my whole life assuming we were getting smarter and we’d become a rational species before we made ourselves extinct. I now think I’m wrong. We’re going to cross the finish line before we can get our shit together. Up until a century ago, the world was safe because there wasn’t enough of us, and the Earth’s carrying capacity could absorb our endless acts of stupidity. My bet is those saving graces will run out in the next one or two hundred years. We won’t go extinct, but our global civilization will be stillborn and collapse. The once mighty homo sapiens will end up being subsistence farmers and fishing folk, and the industrial civilization will fade into distant myths. So it goes.
I doubt many people will read this essay, and I beg anyone with a depressive nature not to read these cases I present to make my point because they are truly depressing. Since I am not a true cynic, I hope I am proven wrong. These essays are just random articles I’ve run across recently, in no particular order, but taken as a whole paint a very bleak picture for the human race. And it’s so sad because most people are good, and many people are smart, and we should be much better than our collective self.
I think there will be a number of reasons for our downfall, and they roughly fall into these categories:
- Pollution. The byproducts of billions of human lives are overwhelming the ecosystem. Rising CO2 levels is just one of many indicators that we are self-destructing.
- Scarcity. We’re using everything up.
- Theocracy. If it wasn’t for Islamic fundamentalism the globe would be mostly quiet regarding wars. But the more we work to stop worldwide terrorism it’s pretty obvious that’s there is an unresolvable conflict between democracy and theocracy. Even in America, there is an upwelling for theocracy. I believe such movements are causing civil wars around the globe, and we’re seeing the emergence of World War III. Theocracy is the evil our Founding Fathers feared when they created the Constitution.
- Inequality. Social order breaks down when there is too much inequality, and inequality is on a sharp increase.
- Corruption. Wealth and plutocracy protect the few against the many and this undermines order.
- Crime. As the population density increases, resources dwindle, inequality grows, humans attack each other.
- Extinction. We are currently in another mass extinction event. There have been several in the history of Earth. Humans are the cause of this one.
- Hate. As our problems grow with more and more fellow humans sharing the planet, we lash out at each other.
- Tyranny. As long as billions are oppressed by political and social injustice then we haven’t developed a practical political system to support humans on Earth.
- Misogyny. Hatred of women is so deep rooted in all the cultures of the world that for many, including women, it’s hard to see. As we approach the world’s first global civilization freedom for women is on the rise. Sadly, this freedom will be the first to go when things fall apart.
- Prejudice. For all the enlightenment we’ve achieved in the last fifty years over race and sexual orientation there are strong indications that many people are still ignorant of the scopes of their prejudices.
- Xenophobia. Many among us can’t get over their tribal instincts.
- Disease. Drug-resistant diseases are on the rise, and the global spread of dangerous diseases because of transportation and warming climates indicate the revenge of mother nature is near.
- Denial. There are too many reality deniers among us. Up to now, we’ve been able to deny the gloom and doom of the population bomb, our inherent stupidity, and greed, because the Earth could absorb our mistakes. We deluded ourselves into believing we could always beat the system. Well, the bill is coming due, and we can’t pay the check.
These are some of our main Achilles heels that will bring about our downfall. People used to think God would save us, many still do. More recently, we thought we could save ourselves, especially with science and technology. I use to think that. I wish I still did. Most people live with their heads in the sand, cramming their minds with sports statistics, shopping for new cars, planning a wedding, buying Christmas presents, and ignoring all the dying canaries falling from the sky. If you think I’m wrong read just a fraction of the articles I list below. I firmly believe we know enough to solve our problems, I just doubt we have the collective will to work together to get the job done.
- “Falling apart: America’s neglected infrastructure” – 60 Minutes. It’s not that we can’t fix these problems, we’re just too cheap and short-sighted to do so.
- “A Rape on Campus: A Brutal Assault and Struggle for Justice at UVA” – Rolling Stone. Some men don’t have a clue to how evil they are to women. If this is the best and the brightest, at what is supposed to be an institution of higher learning, then I rest my case. [This article has been proven false, but the whole story behind that is another reason for depression.]
- “Depleting the water” – 60 Minutes. Jared Diamond wrote a huge book about past collapsing civilizations. Even when older civilizations saw the end coming they didn’t change course. Neither are we.
- “Dismembering History: The Shady Online Trade in Ancient Texts” – The Daily Beast. Greed and self-interest know no bounds.
- “Stop Trying to Save the World” – The New Republic. No matter how hard we try to do good we seem to fail. Do-gooders just can’t outwit stupidity and bad guys.
- “Iran Nuke Deal: A Matter of War or Peace” – The Daily Beast. It’s not the war on terror, but the war of theocracy v. democracy. Three great religions claim to have the same God. Do their animosities end when they die and go to heaven, or does God segregate paradise by faith?
- “The ‘Caliphate’s’ Colonies: Islamic State’s Gradual Expansion into North Africa” – Der Spiegel. Didn’t believe my point in #6? Try this one, and wonder if WWIII hasn’t already started.
- “Hell is Other People” – GQ (British). This is what happens when civilization collapses. That seems to be happening a lot lately. This is what humans are really like when there’s no big government to rule them. Yeah, that’s a fuck you to my Tea Party friends.
- “Extreme Wealth Is Bad for Everyone – Especially the Wealthy” – The New Republic. Everyone should read Thomas Piketty.
- “The Unbelievable Skepticism of the Amazing Randi” – The New York Times. With all the money we spend on education, with all the discoveries of science, why do so many people still embrace bullshit ideas?
- “Inside the Vigilante Fight Against Boko Haram” – The New York Times. Without big government guys with guns rule. Is this what the NRA means when it says “An armed society is a polite society?”
- “In Brazilian city, homeless face ‘extermination’” – Aljazeera America. As our population grows, and we compete for less and less, we seem to lose our higher natures.
- “Groundwater declines across U.S. South over past decade” – Climate.gov. New NASA satellites can measure ground water, and we’re using it up so fast that ground is sinking all around the world.
- “The Horror Before the Beheadings” – The New York Times. From another front of WWIII.
- “Poor teeth” – aeon. Is this how a great nation takes care of its citizens? As long as the “I’ve got mine, fuck you” attitude prevails in America, we’re heading downhill.
- “”Hurt That Bitch”: What Undercover Investigators Saw Inside a Factory Farm.” – Mother Jones. What if the survival of our species depends on how kind we are to animals? A certain percentage of humans are evil to other humans – is that the same folks who are evil to animals? Or do we have two problem groups to deal with?
- “The Ebola Wars” – The New Yorker. Ebola can be easily contained if you have a big government. Science can destroy Ebola if we have a big government that supports science. You know the next line I would write.
- “The Future Of The Culture Wars Is Here, And It’s Gamergate” – Deadspin. Some men just don’t have a clue about women. Their minds have never evolved out of the Neolithic, yet they are a product of the 21st-century education and culture. When civilization starts circling the drain, I advise women to kill all the men and take up cloning for reproduction.
- “Where the Tea Party Rules” – The Rolling Stone. America is coming undone, and it’s not because people are bad. Most Americans are good, salt of the Earth folk who do the best they can. But things keep falling apart. We can’t go back, and we can’t work together to go forward.
- “My Terrifying Night With Afghanistan’s Only Female Warlord” – New Republic. The real Katniss Everdeen who fights the dystopian world order called democracy. If you had the choice between dystopia and chaos, which would you pick? The decisions we have to make are very complicated.
- “George Clooney, South Sudan and How the World’s Newest Nation Imploded” – Newsweek. Report from another front in WWIII. This war is not going to come to an armistice.
- “Louisiana Has a Wild Plan to Save Itself from Global Warming” – New Republic. We could solve the global warming problem, it’s why we don’t that’s the real problem with our species. Climate change is another world war, one we’re ignoring. You can’t win if you don’t fight.
- “A Hundred Women” – The New Yorker. One measure of how civilization is succeeding is to study how women are being treated around the world.
- “Inside the New York Fed: Secret Recordings and a Culture Clash” – Pro Publica. As long as we have a plutocracy we’re not going to solve many of our problems because money always trumps common good.
- “The Fight of Their Lives” – The New Yorker. Strangely, many Kurds are Sunni, just like ISIL/ISIS, yet they want to destroy each other. Not all Islamic people are the same. The ones we call terrorists do not believe in borders. They are a threat to everyone that does not believe exactly like they do. Their brand of Islam is now spreading across the world. How do you have a global civilization that requires a choice between independent democratic nation states versus a borderless theocratic world rule?
- “Self-Segregation: Why It’s So Hard for Whites to Understand Ferguson” – The Atlantic. Why does skin color divide us so? The color of our skin is about as important as the color of our shirts. What drives this senseless hatred?
- “Was Moses a Founding Father?” – The Atlantic. How different is this from the Taliban or ISIS?
- “The Case for Reparations” – The Atlantic. They say Christianity teaches compassion. Does this sound like a nation of Christians?
- “Zero Percent Water” – Medium. Like CO2, H20 is one strong indicator of our future.
- “Meet the College Women Who Are Starting a Revolution Against Campus Sexual Assault” – New York. How can this problem exist if these are our daughters – and sons?
- “Young Carlos” – New York. Conservatives won’t do anything about climate change, but also hate new folks moving in. Being a climate change denier means learning to live with the side-effects of the thing you refuse to see. Maybe you’ll change your mind when all those people from out west moves east to find water. People move to America now because there’s less population, more equality, more opportunity. The I’ve got mine, fuck you philosophy fails us ultimately because if we have it good and everyone else doesn’t, they are going to come check us out. Think global, act locally.
- “China, the Climate and the Fate of the Planet” – Rolling Stone. How can we say “Don’t be like us.”
- “Nuclear Tourism” – National Geographic. Is Chernobyl the portrait of Earth without people?
- “The Afghan Girls Who Live as Boys” – The Atlantic. The title says it all.
- “Will Misogyny Bring Down the Atheist Movement?” – BuzzFeed. Even the sons of the Enlightenment treat women badly.
- “Zoonotic Diseases” – National Geographic. The complexity of the biosphere is astounding. But our ignorance and cruelty are more astounding.
- “Hell in the Hot Zone” – Vanity Fair. Ebola is not the scariest thing about the outbreak, it’s us.
- “Son, Men Don’t Get Raped” – GQ. The lack of empathy in some humans compared to the compassion in others illustrates how far we have to go to change and save ourselves. You decide if we can make it.
- “Dignity” – The New Yorker. Another report from the front on inequality.
- “The Forsaken: A Rising Number of Homeless Gay Teens Are Being Cast Out by Religious Families” – Rolling Stone. I should have put “Intolerance” on the list above. If you’re not part of the solution, then you’re part of the problem. It’s a shame that religion is often not the solution.
- “Why not kill them all?” – London Review of Books. What if America was like this? It will be like big government breaks down.
- “How Libya Blew Billions and Its Best Chance at Democracy” – Businessweek. Sometimes an evil dictator is better than chaos. It’s hard to start a democracy.
- “Putin Dreams of Empire” – New Yorker. Why is it still about alpha males?
- “The Race to Stop Africa’s Elephant Poachers” – Smithsonian. If humans lack empathy for other humans, why expect them to feel for animals?
- “The Social Laboratory” – Foreign Policy. Will it require Big Brother to bring about law and order?
- “Gambling with Civilization” – The New York Review of Books. By denying reality to preserve their self-interests, aren’t Republicans gambling with our future?
- “Two degrees” – Vox. CO2 is how we set the global thermostat. Changing it two degrees will have untold consequences. It’s not nice to mess with Mother Nature.
- “A Convenient Excuse” – The Phoenix. Addicts are great a rationalizing another fix.
- “Climate Change and the End of Australia” – Rolling Stone. It’s one thing to deny what might happen, it’s a whole other thing to deny what’s right in front of us.
- “The Battle Over Climate Science” – Popular Science. Don’t kill the messenger. The real reason why we won’t survive is too many of us are reality deniers. We rationalize, we put off, we shirk, we ignore, we pretend, we lie, we escape in fantasies.
Happy Birthday to me. Tomorrow is another day. I’ll go back to being positive.
[I wrote an update to this essay for my 64th Birthday.]
[The only book I’ve read since writing this that has given me hope is Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow by Yuval Noah Harari. 3/10/17]
Auxiliary Memory 
First, happy birthday Jim. I do hope you can find comfort in the fact that you’re still here, that many of us enjoy reading your insights, and appreciate that you share your wisdom with us. 🙂
This post has struck a chord with me because I was considering writing something very similar this week (have been for quite some time actually). The problem is that the more one thinks about human behavior and progress (past, present and possible futures), our failings as a species become readily apparent. In the grand scheme of things, we are insignificant and deeply flawed beings. Much of what you have written has become clear to me as well over the past couple of years and I expect my cynicism will only deepen as I grow older. The world has always been a scary place but the seemingly self-destructive nature of the human race seems to be accelerating with each passing day as does our collective ignorance. I think it may be more worthwhile to just focus on making the most of the time we have left because I don’t think things will improve nor do I think we can be saved from ourselves as you have discussed above. This is all the more tragic because we have the capacity to be so much more. Depressing indeed.
Maybe the world is always the same, always at the brink of self-destruction, but always muddling through. Maybe we become more cynical about our prospects as we get older – the Mark Twain effect, as I like to call it. Twain was his most cynical as he got old. I hope I don’t become as bitter as Twain does, but then his beloved wife and two daughters died before he did, and that’s a lot to take.
The Earth will go on without us. So will the universe. There are always beginnings, middles and ends. I just thought the human race would have a much longer middle. And humanity will go on. It’s just going to be a lot different than what I wished for growing up. It’s amazing how life doesn’t repeat itself in the history of evolution on Earth.
A lot of people fear artificial intelligence, but I wonder if intelligent machines won’t be our replacements, and they will remember us like we remember the dinosaurs.
great idea james,,and maybe we wont be remembered
at all
ohh buy the way this is an excellent article,,,im glad to know others think as i ,,most people barely have enough thought to open there eyes in the morning,,like george carlin has said people are f ‘n stupid,,,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R3U30wSAV4Q Isaac Asimov reading his short story, “The Last Question.” You sound like you’d enjoy it. At 70, with the losses of friends and family, I understand Twain’s cynicism, but wonder if something like what happens in this dark but hopeful story might, in fact, approach the truth.
That’s a great story. I had forgotten it. It’s a variation of a famous joke in the 1950s.
It’s funny, but he does imagine a micro-computer.
You speak of man as they are,yet you are arrogant as well. You tale of “do-gooders “as mistakes, yet you lie on caring. If you miss my point,then you are human, and I will have justice to humanity. I am 10 and have my fathers computer,and I preach as though I am not of said age.My name is a joke for it is Roman and I care for the planet Earth and if it means destroying part of huma ity to save the planet,then I am human,so be it.Yet I agree. They are an arrogent bunch aren’t they.Thank you James but, there has always been perpetrators and heists,and thats why hope is key.
I’m 62 myself and agree with most of what you said except that I’m not as negative or pessimistic simply because I chose several years ago to STOP watching 90% of television and never listen to the radio or read the newspaper, nor do I subscribe to magazines because I know how detrimental those things have become to society as a whole! It has become demeaning, mind numbing, desensitizing, brain washing, over exaggeration and out right lies. Most of it has become just plain immoral and that doesn’t include addictions like video games and gambling which make life even harder to understand why society has become in most cases just plain STUPID!
I know if I watch the local news I get depressed and scared about violence in my community. So I don’t watch it. Maybe if I stopped watching the national news I feel more positive about the state of the world. However, not knowing doesn’t change reality for the better.
Here’s a nice quote for you about being an optimist.
“Anyone who’s happy in a world this fucked-up has some serious psychological issues. You think I’m crazy because I see things as they are. You’d rather put on Disneyland goggles and watch TV and pretend this is all just dandy. It’s not crazy if I see monsters when I live in a fucking nightmare”
I’m sure this won’t get printed so it’s a gift just for you.
Couldn’t have put it better myself
I call all of this the Frankenstein Effect. Race is a social construct and yet we live with this lie as if is truthful. Religion is another destruction that we have become accustom to accept as a way of life. I really don’t have a problem with religion if people would live according to the codes and commandments. Politics is another evil that is killing the human species. I agree that women are the givers of life and all men should put women right where they belong which should be our top priority to protect. We have adapted into accepting the ideologies of narcissistic men who are cowards and weaklings that implemented their oppressive teachings during the 17th century and still being carried out today. Science has taught us that this is all false and yet people still believes it is true. How dumb can anyone be? When you have been shown the truth and yet you still want to remain living the lie, says that the human species are that dumb.
Race is indeed a social construct. A one tenth of a percent allele variation accounts for all the phenotypical differences that cause White people to view Black people as a race. More differences can as easily exist between two Caucasians than between a White and Black man. Yet many Black men were viciously tortured and killed by Whites for being Black.
Men are controlling toward women and even misogynistic because of separation trauma caused by their mother moving away a little from their infancy.
One of American’s politicians recently killed something like a half-million people over a stupid mistake.
All of these kinds of oppression are caused by the average intelligence of mankind not being smart enough to be understanding, educated and civil.
The biggest causality of all from this “stupidity” is the planet being strangled by overpopulation.
you got a 14 year old to read this.
too tell you the truth, it seems like everyone these days are just too oblivious and manipulative, people just believe the first thing that is told to them, even though they know it’s not true. However, people just want to fit in with one another.
Oh, my, James! You are fortunate to have not faced this “dilemma” earlier in life. Sadly, I became a public middle school teacher 35 years ago and figured-out, after teaching 10 years, that this train we’re on is about to hit a wall. I am 66, now and have had my realization of dread for 25 years. That’s why I cringe when I watch the “comedy” movie “Ideocracy”. I could see this was destined to come true and my depression set in-and has never left.
Out of all the main causes you put forward there was one you forgot-or are blind to. Most people are blind to it! And this is exactly why humanity is happily chugging toward destruction. The Ultimate Darwin Award 🥇 Don’t think anyone wants to hear what that cause is?…..
@Chris Kebbel, Ooh, I do, I do!
You forgot 1 thing: Karen. Not spongebob Karen, and not people named Karen, I mean KAREN
That is a distinct possibility, but it is a good thing. The age of the Cyborg. Thinking better should produce better decisions, better results.
Nice! 😀 .
Roman Thomas. Yeah you sound like you’re ten (10). There’s a reason why there are only elders in politics and not inexperienced children.
Think about what you said, so self-righteously, I quote:
“and I care for the planet Earth and if it means destroying part of humanity to save the planet, then I am human, so be it.”
This here, has many names. In politics, one can refer to Fascism. For Biology, Eugenics. And you’re being “human” excuses you of making the decision of who lives and dies? This here is the basis of Atheistic thought. Moral relativism in its light.
I assure you child, you will be met with resistance. Best of luck with your studies.
I didn’t see Roman Thomas’ ? post. Neuronal firings in part of my brain agree with him. That part would be happy to see some sort of pestilence wipe out six billion people and then die out itself.
To me the planet was in optimal balance in the fifties, with between two and three billion humans, when the Congo was the Congo, oceans swarmed with fish, and Las Vegas shined as a diamond in the desert.
In other DNA, an ironic survival mechanism condemns overpopulation awareness by use of epithets.
I didn’t seem Roman Thomas either, but I wonder if the writer was thinking of you.
I think planet Earth would be much better off if the human population was below 1 billion. Although I don’t want 6 billion people wiped out. I think we need to manage our population. But then I don’t think that will happen either. You and I both know we’ll just run things into the ground and civilization will collapse on its own.
doops, every day our “civilization” is destroying part of humanity, for greed and so-called “gods,” and most of us have next to no say about it. and destroying the planet. Roman wants to save the earth and at least part of humanity… tell me again who’s fascist?
That was an ignorant reply. Learn to spell before criticizing others’ intelligence.
You’re the ignorant one.
I agree with Jason, quit criticizing before you learn to understand.
Well, first of all, I see every one of the reasons listed in the article as having been in effect all throughout history. Just in different form or intensity.
The ONE reason James left out of his list (in my opinion) is Free Will. Imagine our world exactly like Eden- perfect and complete. But, remove Free Will and nothing would have changed. Perfect people, perfect environment.
Sounds rather boring to me. So, which would we really want? To be like robots-no imagination, no wonder, no feeling. BUT the earth itself would be perfect and unpolluted! We would have no danger or disease.
Oh, my- looks like I am describing the Red Pill/Blue Pill phenomena derived from The Matrix.
Mankind certainly did not create this world, so what makes him think he can save it? His intense drive to be in control is why he can’t ( or won’t) believe in God. If he did believe inGod he would have to deal with the very idea of someone else running his life.
Obviously, God chose to give us Free Will and it certainly cost Him dearly! I suppose creating creatures who can love you in return was worth it for Him.
So, to wrap-up this piece, I will say that man’s overwhelming desire to have HIS way has been the driving force of the extinction-Free Will.
Certainly a lot of the things James mentions have been issues throughout history. I think that’s part of his point, though – we have proven unable to overcome a lot of our faults. And the problem for many of these issues now is definitely their intensity, as you mentioned. Those faults have become magnified to a societal and planetary scale. Things like pollution are manageable if you’re a small tribe or village polluting a river. But when that happens on a nation-wide scale, and then a planetary scale like we see now, it becomes an issue of survival for many species, including ultimately our own.
As for Free Will, is that a separate issue? Or is it something underlying most of the reasons given? I guess it depends on how you think of it.
Speaking of which, it raises the question of whether we even have Free Will? Does such a thing exist? There are many people who think it doesn’t. For example, here’s a link to a video presenting a simple argument against Free Will, and he links to other videos as well. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OwaXqep-bpk
Personally, I think that whether we have Free Will or not, it doesn’t affect whether we can have imagination, wonder, or a feeling of awe. I see no reason why those experiences couldn’t still be present in a fully deterministic Universe.
Regarding our world being like Eden, it never was. It has always been an amazing mix of variables – natural forces like cosmic rays, gravitational tides, seasons, climate, weather, earthquakes, volcanos, different atmospheric gases, meteor impacts, and all the crazy life on Earth, from single-celled organisms to giant predators. These variables would inevitably cause change and evolution, and force people into conflict. This would have occurred whether or not we have Free Will. One has merely to look at the struggle for survival of any other species to see ample evidence of this. I don’t think we could have avoided traveling down a similar path to the one we’re on. Is the bleak future suggested by James equally inevitable? Maybe it is. It certainly seems like it to me.
More than two billion humans are already suffering horribly due to pollution and lack of resources, such as potable water, and that number is growing quickly. Humans have already desecrated the planet.
The whole world was never an Eden, but I don’t think Adam and Eve would have hung out in Antarctica. I knew Eden. Miniatures are enough. At ten years old, I had a ten-year-old girlfriend, who to this day, after many other girlfriends, remains in my memory as the prettiest. We romped naked among the vines at the edge of the Erie Canal, and played with wild animals. The girl told her older brother about us having sex and he told the girl’s parents. She was forbidden to play with me anymore, so I got to experience The Fall, too.
We have hybrid free will, heuristic. Thoughts originate in our unconscious minds, so we do not will them. But when we become conscious of them it influences how others originate. And they spiral into partially conscious intention.
I don’t call people stupid, only relative to me and other people with superior intelligence. They are just normal, but normal isn’t smart enough to save the planet. Only one of my friends has any children. I calculated that we (those without any) will have polluted and used up resources 1/16th as much as a regular person with two children, whose progeny follows suit for three generations. We don’t add to the population problem, either, of course. But you can’t tell people they can’t have kids, for long anyway.
Lastly, who cares if we destroy the planet in terms of comfortable civilizations? We are all going to die anyway, and many of us in pain. I formed my philosophy of life in the 1960’s, in Berkeley. Ken Kesey and his band of Merry Pranksters were performing at an antiwar rally, full of drugs, of course. They were just playing this crazy music wearing head phones so they heard what they had just played a 20th of a second after they played it, and riffed off of that producing a cacophony, which to Kesey symbolized that you can’t really live in the present, so why try. Impatient onlookers started shouting, “What about the war?” After a while Ken took off his phones and said, “This is what I think about the war. I think we should take one long, last look at it, turn our backs, and say f—k it.” And the band went back to their cacophony now chanting “f—k it.”
This is not Mike. I am just commenting on your comments to Mike (which were comments about MY earlier comments…)Anyway, I just don’t get the population think. I would say history has culled world population quite amazingly- let’s see-
Ancient Wars- 32 million
Medieval Wars-87 million
Modern Wars (1500-up) 1trillion 500 million
Then, we have the millions killed by Mao, Stalin/Lenin, Hitler, China, etc.
Add the number of abortions-America 60 million + rest of the world
Who will be left to run the machinery, plant the food, build and clean, care for the sick (YOU in 50 years)if these families with kids (you vilify) stop producing the machinists, farmers, construction workers, doctors and nurses, and every blessed person WE NEED-THEY GIVE BACK. They’re not just useless flotsam.
I’m not going to comment other than to say that I lived in the 1940’s, when there were barely more people on the planet than are now dying in abject misery from overpopulation, and I have a different perspective than you have. Also, I will likely be dead within a year, and I won’t have anyone take care of me. When my wife lay dying and I finally needed someone other than I to relieve my care, the flotsam stole her $30K engagement ring and about $20K worth of other stuff.
Never trust a Prankster. I will say one other thing. Shinzo Abe came up with an economic system that didn’t require new arrivals into the workforce, but the people were too (please excuse the term) stupid to recognize its magnificence.
Mr.Harris
You have broken my heart. Just shows how it’s so easy to pontificate on the nature of life, earth and humanity.
In the end, each person is precious. Just one person at a time.
I am sorry about your dear wife and the loss of companionship, financial support and your obvious sadness. Wish you were my neighbor because then I would help take care of you! Just like I have for my aunt, mother-in-law, stepfather and up to last August, my mom. It is so very hard to care for elderly, but my heart just won’t let me stop caring.
Alas, instead I will pray for you whether you approve or not. My choice.
Chris, thank you for your thoughts. You have a kind heart and I appreciate it.
You bring up good points, Mike. The Free Will issue is a sticky wicket.
If we DON’T have free will, then how do we earn responsibility? If there is no responsibility then what are laws, driving tickets, citations, 911 calls, law suits, prisons… all about? You cannot hold responsible anyone for anything they do??? That is certainly the way our world acts, today.
I do know Calvinists don’t believe we have free will before God. Never met one that never locked his doors at night or stood and watched while his loved one was murdered.
As far as the Earth being in peril, I’d say wait until nature itself decides it’s time to end things. There will be no mistaking that time.
And, no, man is not too STUPID to survive but he is too selfish and lazy.
I expect this comment to get a lot of hate from xenophobes out there.
If the world went vegan it would make solving food scarcity orders of magnitude easier.
Most of the ecological destruction on the planet is related to animal agriculture.
I highly recommend Cowspiracy on Netflix for the environmental perspective and Earthlings on YouTube for the ethical.
Have a nice day!
I’m am working to be vegan. I’ve been vegetarian since 1969. I’m almost there. I too believe it would help the world and the health of people if people chose to eat a plant-based diet.
There is no food scarcity. Plenty of food to go around, just greed that keeps it from being distributed. veganism benefits the planet, true, but also gives false hope. likely you won’t like to hear that, and maybe you’re one of the ones who truly ‘gets it,’ but like sustainable energies, veganism can lessen but not solve the problem…while allowing people to think there’s a solution if they just eat right and cover the roof with [toxic to the environment] solar panels. There are simply many times too many of us. And we’re not likely to solve that in any peaceful way anytime soon. The vast majority of efforts made to control population are racist and/or imperialist, and don’t really work. What really works to limit population increase? Educating and empowering women. Well, we all know how well THAT flies in today’s world.
indigenous folks all across this planet have been warning about how effed up western culture is for centuries looks like you just got the memo
plants are toxic
Animal domination, over consumption & cruelty. We act like we are the only species that counts. Humans are a cruel & callous in our treatment of animals. We perform unnecessary experiments on animals because it’s a money making racket. We kill off entire species like elephants for ivory so people can have unnecessary trinkets. People spends fortunes on canned hunts just to stick a head on the wall for bragging rights. “The greatness of a nation can be judged by the way its animals are treated.” – Mahatma Gandhi
“Humans are cruel & callous in our treatment of animals.” Entirely agree with you… humans suck.
The only way we can “improve” ourselves is to live a vegan lifestyle (not just being vegan but a lifestyle in itself).
Very well put Mr. Harris. Most of this is a refreshment of what i routinely broken record-like think daily as well. What was more refreshing was the diversity in words you used to.. touch on a lot of problems. One thing in revelation I noticed myself at the age of 25 is that of the lack of emotion or consideration/ respect for one another humanity ( something before my time ) I argue its the rise in population that voids us as a whole to function. I only suggest its another thing out of whack and an accelerate for the demise of us as we know.. Harsh times are for harsh thoughts. I hope this find you and yours in good health and good times. To all, take care.
Another thing i feel we fail as a society in all cultures perhaps is the proper way to access history or the right questions for the problems. Recently as well I’ve noticed the majority spins off more questions generally than answer. Whilst in the same breath speaking with such audaciousness and adamant tones. I merely don’t know myself anymore and i do not suggest to know. We have had poor teachers recently that i do know and that we need to change (:
Cameron, you are thoughtful and insightful for a person of your age.
I chime in on this thread from time to time, so I’ll say hello this morning.
I am 74 years old and hastening my death, in “Leaving Las Vegas” style. I’m lying in bed at the moment in tropical Florida looking out my rented condo bedroom window at the Atlantic Ocean crashing below. I’ll take a quick walk on the beach in a few minutes. When I was a boy living on the ocean it smelled fecund with seaweed and shellfish washed onto the beach, but today with most of erstwhile sea life dead, there is no odor at all. All that washes onto the beach are medical waste and such. I watch fishermen stand at the edge all day long and I never see one catch anything. When I was a boy you couldn’t toss in a line without pulling out a nice fish.
Water tables around the world are almost sucked dry, and rain water doesn’t replenish them. It’s close to Armageddon time, folks. China isn’t going to go thirsty. There are going to be nasty times.
My metaphor of the planet is that of a bursting balloon. While almost all the air is exploding out, there are a few molecules that are fighting their way in. It’s a matter of physics one learns in college.
To me girls represent those widdershin molecules. While almost everything else has turned to shit, girls are better than ever. Prettier and with better hygiene (you know, dental and such).
My beloved wife of 51 years of marriage died in May. I remain an emotional mess. I have no personal ego, we shared an ego. There is no I, only we who are dead. So I am letting my body die, too, with drugs and alcohol; and if that doesn’t work I’ll just put an end to it by more conventional means.
In the meantime I am enjoying wonderful weather, wine and dining, and three young women (and I’m acquiring two more) who hang around with me and sleep with me, because of the plush living I provide for them. They are soft and pretty beyond description, and smell delicious. They are the molecules going into the balloon. Who needs an ocean?
P.S. I had no children, so I am absolved from any responsibility for the mess.
I’m sorry to hear about your wife Covert, and can’t imagine your loneliness (although you shouldn’t be so lonely with all those young women). I’ve been married for forty years, but we are both very independent. We’ve never been that one-soul kind of person.
I know you see things from what I call the old bitter Mark Twain perspective. You have always argued against hope here. But I still feel there is some. I’ve recently been reading Enlightenment Now by Steven Pinker who effectively contradicts everything I say here, and makes a great case with logic, statistics, and evidence. Give it a try. I’m curious if it would change your mind.
I agree with almost all of the items listed above I have a radical fix what if we culled 80% of the worlds population even if I am to be deleted with the unfortunate ones she (the earth) would heal no doubt if we really care about the future of the human race and the planet it would be a small price to pay to ensure the future as long as we laid down strict laws against pollution and weapons of mass destruction we also have the technology to not harvest fossil fuel in a relatively short time the earth will be cleaner than it has in 300 years but no politition would sign off on such a radical plan and personal selfishness goes before the end of our planet so we wander blindly into the poisoning and destruction of humanity earth and all thats good and green ecosystems, rainforests, grass plains, rare animals all killed and depleted another 150 years and these things will only be seen in videos…… So sad and I say again even my life is a small price to pay for a future if only😳
Well, I read it. Depressing indeed. I feel this way often, and especially the past couple of days. However, looking at history is somewhat helpful in seeing the ebb and flow of stupidity. Problem is, there are so many more of us now. God help us! Or maybe we should begin helping ourselves.
I think the only help we’ll get is from ourselves. And I believe there are millions of people out there trying to save the world, and I salute their efforts. Right now, most of the people in Lifeboat Earth are scrambling to eat up all the rations and rocking the boat. We need to settle down, take stock of things, and work together. Don’t think that will happen, but we can hope, and for those who pray, they should.
We’re in the Anthropoicene Epoch. Sixth Wave of Mass Extinction. Homosapiens, collectively won’t be much longer of this Earth, and don’t deserve to. This is the price we’ll pay for the abject cruelty and exploitation we’ve relentlessly and systematically perpetrated on every other species on the planet, in their own ecosystems and habitats, and in our manmade constructs to enslave them.
Reblogged this on Sally Ember, Ed.D. and commented:
Chilling. Pun intended. My misanthropic nature is in high alert this time of year, anyway. Sigh
Chilling. Pun intended. My misanthropic nature is in high alert this time of year, anyway. Sigh Reblogged.
Reblogged this on thecutelittlebasketcase.
wow its good to hear from some thinking beings,,,humans will be just another failed species,,,,another tick of nature gone bad,,,will we ever get it rite,,,,,,,,dont think so its the nature of things
“A rape on campus” is a false and discredited report
Yes, that’s true. But there’s still real rapes on campus. That false story did real damage to making that issue a primary issue.
Thank you for you article its a timely and entirely legitimate piece, we only have a couple of years maximum, a nuclear war can only be avoided by our intervention, and in Australia it won’t happen…I am disgusted with humanity. We murder people domestically and over seas and its all for profit, or to protect profits and we allow it. I have been using this article for 3 years, people get the implications and don’t care about anyone but themselves , and they have to be right about everything….its stupid and childish its bewildering http://www.whatistobedonevl.com/417155784
James,
I tend to be a pragmatic pessimist. The fundamentally animal nature of humans drives them to do things that the ‘civilized’ forebrain finds distasteful. And yet, some of us are capable of feats of great compassion and ingenuity (though I tend to think that those remarkable individuals are really just permitting the dead weight to stay afloat). It seems to me that it would be a terrible-but-imminent shame if our species failed to make it to heat death, and the part of my mind that hates both drudgery and boredom is attracted to the problem of how to ensure that what is best in our civilization survives to inform possible future civilizations as well as bear witness to the end of the universe.
Could we perhaps bifurcate the species? Might we not endeavour to build a cultural ark somewhere here in the solar system as a hedge against the bad behaviour of the cognitively deficient supermajority?
Additionally, do you ever wonder what might happen in a world with abundant very-low-carbon energy supplies?
There is always the possibility that renewable energy systems could make big changes. I saw a story this morning about how wind energy in Texas was selling for negative amounts at a certain time of day when demand was low and production was greater than the grid needed. We are seeing more stories about the success of wind and solar power around the world. That could turn into a paradigm shift.
I think we’re already seeing a “bifurcated” species with liberals and conservatives. I think their differences are more than opinions, and each represent genetic differences, although subtle, that cause them to see reality differently.
I’d like to see us colonize the Moon and Mars, but I’m not sure if it will happen. Have you read Aurora, Kim Stanley Robinson’s new SF novel? I think it points to the way in which the dreams of the final frontier might not work out.
I love KSR’s work, and thought that Aurora put forward a hypothesis that definitely merits testing. I tend not to subscribe the extraordinarily optimistic view of non-terrestrial colonisation described in the Martian series, but I regard the notion of life on one world being fundamentally incapable of adaptation to conditions on another world with some skepticism.
Do you think that the differences between the brains of conservatives and liberals are primarily epigenetic, or do you think those differences are ‘hard-coded’? Might there be a genetic predisposition toward moderation?
Dean, I have no scientific evidence that our political polarization is genetic, but it’s an interesting hunch. I’m not a religious person, but I don’t think it’s because I made a rational decision to avoid religion. I think I don’t have the genetic makeup to be a religious person. I’ve always felt my religious friends had an innate disposition to be religious. My mother tried awful hard to train me to be religious, but I think I inherited my fathers indifference. Proving this is epigenetic or genetic would be impossible at this time. Ditto for politics. And I would hypothesize that the genes for religion tend to also make people conservative.
I’ve been reading a lot about transgender children. Back in the 1960s when a new wave of feminists began appearing, some of them asserted the male and female gender identity came from culture, and not genetics. This sounded logical at the time. We wanted to believe society was forcing girls to play with Barbies rather than believe it was hard coded. But reading about transgender kids make me wonder if gender identity isn’t hardwired. We’ve already concluded that sexual identity is hardwired, so why not gender identity. And if those are true, why not political and religious identity? It might be subtle, but it might be true. I’m sure a geneticist would freak out over such idle speculation.
Will conservatives and liberals one day split off into separate species that can no longer mate with each other? Something like the Eloi and Morlocks in The Time Machine? That would be interesting, but how long would it take? Probably religion and politics if they are genetic traits are no more significant than orange and gray tabby cats.
Thanks for this article. Thanks for someone thinking like me. Oddly enough, I am not bothered to go if that is what the future holds. All my life I only wanted to help others. Now all I can see is that we have passed our use-by date, and the sooner we are gone, the better off the planet will be.
I wish the human race would grow up, get its shit together, take responsibility, and do something great with the planet. Something radically transformational might come along to help us change, but I doubt it.
I always thought the answer is to have one person rule the world, preferably me since I believe that if I had all the power I could make this world a little better, then again I would probably just end up as another tyrant, Great article though I am disgusted at what we have become especially after what just happened in France and Lebanon, Is this the beginnings of the end of our world? Why are we making the same mistakes that our ancestors made? I guess the only thing we can do is keep grinding everyday.
Erick, I just wrote a more positive essay in response to this one. I think we need to find hope.
I’m not alone when I think this. People tend to hate me when they barley even know me. I’m 14 and I have been called allot of irrational things. I feel that Hate and misunderstandings WILL be the downfall of the human race. Not everyone but some people in the world just hate people for no real reason. Then we are always too quick to jump to conclusions. People have called me racist and sexist when haven’t even exhibited any racist are sexist behavior. I just really wish that we could improve to be smarter. I think if humans were to stop fighting and hating other people for little to no reason that we could advance in technology and wisdom in general. And that people could worship their God in peace without being hated on.
(I’m sorry, it’s just the way I think. Please don’t hate.)
If we could solve the hate problem, we could solve most other problems.
Humans are too stupid to be trusted. Sad but true
Wonderful!
Don’t worry about the problems of this earth my friend. Our knowledge is a blessing and a curse. Ultimately the earth is going to discard us and maybe, after billions of years life might start again. Humans are not perfect. Even if we by some chance attain a perfect system, our imperfections will tip that balance. So don’t worry…just know that everything is happening the way it is meant to happen.
Bobsky, have you read The World Without Us by Alan Weisman? I find great comfort in it. I also find comfort in AI. Maybe if we can’t make ourselves smart enough, then we could at least create machines that are smarter than us.
Sir…I shudder at the creation of AI smarter than us. What would be the point if the human species itself does not survive? AI cannot replace human intelligence and creativity-in the rare cases when we have such. People today would hate the idea of AI dictating their lives, or at least I would. Your article is well written, by the way.
I understand, Jordan. Most people fear AI. But humans can’t be the crown of creation forever. Everything in existence gets replaced sooner or later.
God is a con, destiny in a word not a real thing. Sorry pal, you are just not that intelligent.
32 years old and I’m at the same level. But one should wonder if humans are this kind of species should humans that are able to save the species – WANT to save this species.
The more my head gets into science the more I realise humans aren’t even a blimp in the universe. Is doesn’t really matter if the species, and for what it’s worth the earth or even our solar system survives. In the scope of the universe we, and the planet have the size of a bacteria. So putting things in perspective; who or what will miss us?
Should the planet survive it’s better of without us. Live would florish.
In the end there is no meaning to our lives. And in that sense I envy the fools. Since they enjoy the days that were given to them without the worries of how to save mankind, nature and so on. They don’t care about other human beings and therefor they don’t deserve saving or surviving.
Slaves to money and corporations.
I even dare to go one step beyond yours; humans have overcome natural selection, and with this decreased the chance of survival. There are simply to many.
To many stuffing their mouths full of MacDonalds and waisting the 70 points of IQ they received with dumb television and following celebrities. What’s the use of keeping them alive? In an animal world they wouldn’t…
I’m struggling to write a counter-essay to this one, 50 Reasons for Hope. It’s hard, but if we do search, there are signs for hope. I think there are people out there with the intelligence and know how to solve our problems. In other words, solutions do exist. The challenge is convincing the majority that we need to work on our problems. Too many people want to pretend our problems don’t exist and focus on their immediate wants and desires. If humanity wants to survive then we have escape our personal fantasies and face up to reality.
i think the biggest problem is education. The leaders we have in the world today are just greedy bastards who want more for themselves and none for everyone else. the education we have does not create people who are capable of logical or critical thinking. its either that, or more than 99% of humans are really just that fucking stupid…..
Yeah, but how do we get a better education system? I think the K-12 system works for some, but not all, or even most. I’m hoping self-study online courses will help some people. But we really should make an effort to offer a variety of education systems suitable for different personality types. I wish each academic discipline would offer a rating system, like the chess ratings, and then require people to have specific ratings in the various subject areas to equal a high school degree, college degree, master’s or doctorate. Then let people find whatever learning method they prefer. So homeschooling might work for some, or self-study other, or group study, or classroom study, etc. Separate grading from education. Then jobs could require things like a 2250 on the International Math Scale, or 1475 from the American Accounting Society, etc.
Yes, but that may be a mere extension of our current hierarchical system. If too many people seek a degree as a factor of guaranteed success, will said degree be worth anything?
Unfortunately, we have produced just way too many humans for this planet. We’ve been just too successful with our reproductive strategy.
Maybe I’m playing devil’s advocate in what I’m about to say, but I’m going to say it anyway because it’s something that often comes into my mind these days, and I’ve not seen it anywhere else.
What if rather than doing something bad or wrong, we humans are simply doing the only thing we can do; or to put it another way, exactly what we we’ve evolved to do? Humans are the only (living) species to my knowledge that seems to be unable to live in harmony with its (our) environment (or at least it seems this way, if we think our purpose in the ecosystem is the same as that of other animals). Our special abilities (compared with other creatures) have allowed us to grow like a virus, defeating every predator that challenges us, and to find ways to extend our lives and our numbers enormously, and we’ve done this even though we are perfectly capable of understanding that this is not sustainable, and that by doing so we are destroying everything (including ourselves).
What if human beings are actually agents of decay, rather than growth? What if our purpose in the ecosystem is to destroy as much of the rest of it as we possibly can?
Looked at this way, we’d have to admit we’re doing a damned good job so far…
That’s an interesting take on things Automaton. And you might be right. Maybe our purpose is to use up the planet while evolving machine intelligence. Suns live and die to produce elements for making life. Maybe the purpose of biological life is to create machine life.
Automation,…I believe you are really close to what is actually happening. We as a species are acting and behaving in the only way possible given our makeup. It’s our acquisition of self awareness, or Full Theory of Mind that is causing all of the confusion, as in,…if we are so smart, why are we doing things detrimental to our existence,…etc,etc. The notion of agency or free will only serves to compound the confusion. Our technology has all but eliminated scarcity. Which has been the ultimate check on reproductive capacity for any species in any particular eco-system. Our extraordinary rate of reproduction is testament to our ‘success’ as a species. However given that the biosphere (earth) itself is a limited. Overcoming scarcity has become the proverbial double edged sword. Will our technology enable us to manage continued existence on the edge if you will, or will we be lost at the tipping point?
AI is a fascinating concept. Are we actually pre-disposed to create our successors? Will our ultimate achievement be to eliminate biological reproduction as the only means to continuity of existence. Maybe mechanical reproduction is the secret. No longer tied to the constraints of our biosphere, AI can live and ‘reproduce’ in any environment, including other planets in our solar system and beyond.
I assume/hope machines will leave us alone, and maybe even help us create a sustainable society for living on Earth, but I assume machines will be true colonists for the final frontier.
Here is a Truth , many humans will Demand that AI take over and run their lives.
I blame Donald Trump.
Donald Trump is not the cause of our stupidity, but he is a product of it. The way I see there are two forces at play. One, are the people that want to solve our problems. We have the know how and technology, it’s a matter of will. The other force, are people who want to ignore the problems, either hoping the problems will go away, or they’ll die before things get bad enough to effect them. Trump is campaigning for the second. We can’t go backwards. Whatever way America was great 50 or 100 years ago can’t be recreated today. To solve our problems requires moving forward, not backwards.
It gives me hope that our problems are solvable. It depresses me that we choose not to. The current election is all about self-interests. As long as our primary drive is self-interest we’re doomed.
Just came across this post. Humans for the most part are ignorant to most things (including myself), cause war and suffering for self-interest, and have and still do commit horrible acts against humanity everyday. While it is true that the human species is in fact lacking in many areas that are critical to our survival, it is also true that the world is becoming a generally safer/smarter place. Death rates have gone down dramatically in the past few hundred years, birthrates have started to steadily decline and are predicted to level out, and the earth is estimated to have about 4,500 years of resources left at our current rate of consumption (rate of consumption is estimated to decrease as technology advances). Technology will advance exponentially, and if given enough time it is my personal belief that humans might even become completely self-sustaining and independent of this planet. The hard part is trying to get people to focus on empathy, love, and understanding for each other. Without these traits it is my personal belief that the human species will not survive and instead be clouded by self-interest and apathy. I believe that we can do it but that it will take constant and active work, and that it will literally take hundreds of millions of people coming together in order to change the world and snuff out ignorance, corruption, greed, etc. My advice to anyone reading my post is to try to be kinder to people, be more understanding of others and their situations, and try to love instead of hate. I honestly believe that these are the building blocks of progress, and just because the task might seem daunting it doesn’t mean that we can’t at least try to make a positive change in both ourselves and the world. There is a movement brewing of people that are fighting against complacency, against greed, and against hatred and ignorance. I personally try to get myself and others involved in local politics and advocate for reform and regulation of unjust and crooked legislature. But it will take millions of people to come together and start a change, and the change of our nation and the world will have to be based off of love and respect instead of war and revolution.
I’m glad to read your positive view. The tragic thing about our situation is we are smart enough to solve our problems — we just can’t agree to work together.
These days especially which God Can’t even help us anymore.
I have to agree 100%
Hi there
I concur with you on your essay – it’s difficult for me to interact with humans nowadays because of their selfish ways etc. I’ve got myself a farm and have set up an animal sanctuary. My way of trying to wake up the human race is to get them real to how bad we are treating our farm animals – it’s getting worse and worse as we get further into intensive farming. We were much more civilised in our treatment of farm animals centuries ago. What frustrates me mostly is how humans concern themselves over petty issues in their lives as if they are the be all and end all, and yet are happy to have farm animals suffer terribly so that they can feed their faces with protein they don’t need. I’ve done many workshops and there are people out there who are waking up, but it’s a slow process. People aren’t happy, and you can tell when you go into the city, but they aren’t doing anything about changing that – well not quickly. Admittedly I’ve always been quite out there – but if I can do this – others can. I’m single, I’m a woman, I’m in my 50th year and I’ve bought a farm and look after 40 animals (give them a wonderful life), and look after the land and nature, all on a meagre wage from 2 days work a week. I love my life – but very few would do this because they are so attached to their comforts. There is so little compassion out there – people care when they hear about something happening to a toddler because it reminds them of their toddler, but they don’t care about things they can’t relate to – suffering experienced by animals for instance – suffering that is ultimately the responsibility of the humans that buy the food – we can’t abdicate responsibility.
I hope that people can become less selfish and put more back – in fact put a lot back because they have to make up for all they’ve taken in the past over and above what should have been taken i.e. un-sustainable practises. But I do find humans not only selfish but stupid. They are so absorbed in the small shit, they can’t stand back and look at the painting that is created. They can’t see that what they are doing isn’t sustainable and that it’s all down to us as individuals. If we make sure our balance sheet is in the black and then give a bit more, we would all be in a much better state as a human race. It’s like people think someone or something will save them, well it’s really down to us to safe us and we do that one human at a time. Start from “me” and work outwards. Live an ethical, conscious life and that will then emanate outwards. It’s so simple really – I can’t understand why people can’t see this. Religions such as Buddhism and Hinduism have much in them that pertains to this gentle lifestyle – which is so satisfying when it’s encompassed into your life. I’m not saying be religious and don’t question – but we don’t have to reinvent the wheel – there has been so many enlightened beings in our human race which have left much material to read in their wakes.
So I’m not sure what will happen to the human race – god knows why I should care – I have no offspring – most of these selfish humans have kids and grandkids – so why is it they don’t care and I do – go figure! But I do care, and I probably care more for the animals and plant life than for the proliferation of the human race. I think there are people out there who are good ambassadors for the human race and by that I mean they live sustainably and act as custodians of the animals and plants on this planet – but we need more of these people. If the shit hits the proverbial fan then hopefully some of these people will survive, if they don’t well lets hope that the animals survive. I think the PLANET which everyone worries about – will be fine – it’s ironic when people say “SAVE THE PLANET”, do they mean “SAVE THE PLANET FROM HUMANS!” because you can bet your bottom dollar – the planet will be fine – it’s the survival of humans that is at risk here – but I guess it’s a bit too close to the truth to say “SAVE THE HUMANS!” and we as humans have got very good at hiding our heads in the sand to contend with such a close the bone statement as this!
Life in your little pocket – somewhere in nature if possible, surround yourself with good people, and enjoy your life – ignore the news and all that crap and if the human race is coming to an end – lets enjoy it here while we can – anyway for most of us here today, the world might become more difficult to live in but I think we will die before the human race goes extinct – so if we do our bit and try and influence others, but also enjoy our time here whilst we have it.
The other day I read something basic that’s very telling. The guy said people fall into two kinds, those who think about themselves, and those who think about everyone. I think everyone should include the animals. I’ve been a vegetarian since the 1960s. We need to design an economy that is sustainable, and that means making room for everyone.
Great comment. I used to dream of owning a farm.
Go back to school son.
Big typo that you need to correct because it destroys the meaning of the sentence completely:
“Dismembering History: The Shady Online Trade in Ancient Tests” – The Daily Beast. Greed and self interest know no bounds.
TESTS. It should be TEXTS. I almost ignored that link completely because “tests” made no sense.
Thanks sndo! I can’t believe after all these years that someone hasn’t noticed that before. Thanks for taking the time to point it out.
James, you have certainly put a lot of energy into addressing the overpopulation issue. I am assuming that you have children, otherwise you could have summed it up easily like I did. I bought into “The Population Bomb” warning in the sixties. Of course deniers have forsaken the idea since civilization didn’t crash quite as fast as Ehrlich and others projected. But I got it and didn’t have any kids. In the sixties I also attended a rally in Berkeley where Ken Kesey spoke. In reference to the war, another aspect of stupidity, he said the only thing one can do is take one last look, turn the back, and say f—k it. That’s the answer if one isn’t saddled with the guilt of having whelped progeny into the abject horror to come – and let’s not miss the fact that about 2 billion people are already suffering the effects – hardly fewer people than existed when I was born.
People who suggest that other people are starting to think about the problem, or whatever, are in the same denial as the really stupid people who don’t see any problem – about 99 out of 100, at least, I would guess, from having talked with people.
Just for the hell of it I calculated the effect of me personally having “done my part.” By not having children over three hypothetical generations I will have polluted and used up resources 1/16th as much as a person having two kids, with his children following suit, and 1/22nd as much as a bloke with three.
My goal in all of this, though, is Diogenesian: I walk around with my little lantern looking for an honest man; i.e., anyone who acknowledges that civilization as we want it is cooked. That’s all I require, since the problem can’t be solved. So far I have found only a couple. I don’t count any people who cite the problem but hedge it with a statement ringing in some kind of hope. There is none – unless one is banking on some minute probability akin to winning Powerball.
And I will add in closing that not having kids is similar to winning Powerball. I pretended I was financing my children and instead invested the money it would have required. Now I am wealthy and enjoy pretty much the same luxuries I would have after a Powerball win. You don’t need $500 million to be as happy as possible, just a couple, really. I wish I could preach this to high school kids before they fall over the Salingerian cliff and have children. But, as I said, they can’t get it. There is no hope.
Earl, my wife and I didn’t have kids either – or grand kids, or great grand kids… Have you read Countdown by Alan Weisman? It’s a modern version of The Population Bomb. Weisman also wrote the beautiful A World Without Us. Weisman goes around the world in Countdown to chronicle the efforts to curb population. Some people are learning. Some nations have even done something, but those that have, have learned the slowing population growth impacts economic growth. You can’t win for losing.
No, there is no hope. We’d need a black swan to save us. Oh, have you read The Black Swan by Nassim Nicholas Taleb? Weisman claims The Green Revolution only delayed the inevitable, so a black swan might not help.
James, thank you for the reply. I read a while back that Shinzo Abe was commissioning an economic model for sustainability in a declining population, but saw nothing in follow-up. A core tenet was that most of the people, even the retired elderly, would contribute in ways they could. I’m sure models could be developed, but where there is lacking appreciation, the will trails off. People are just not smart enough to understand that while increasing populations fueled economic growth or sustainability up to this point, the strategy is not viable going forward.
I apologize for accusing you of having kids. I should have known from the fact that you’re not in denial. My wife and I just celebrated our 50th Anniversary. We give all of our love to each other. Every person with kids I know has stated or implied that he or she loves her children most. You and I can be grateful for this lagniappe, as well as for free time. How many people with children would ever have the time to learn what “lagniappe” means?
So thank you for the recommendations, but I am done wasting valuable time I have left reading about this world’s biggest atrocity when nothing can be done about it. Reading about the mechanism of denial, though, helped me get off of preaching. Neural connections are not there to receive the message. It’s like trying to turn a lamp on umpteen times with its cord cut. As I mentioned, the only thing about the subject that interests me now is very occasionally finding an honest man (or woman) vis-à-vis the deluded multitudes, so that I don’t feel so marginalized. Without knowing people like you exist, I would devolve into total misanthropy and cynicism; my little lantern found you. And thank God for fine wine.
Especially the ones that are out there nowadays Unfortunately.
All true, but collapse has happened before and just like rabbit populations that overeat the vegetation and have a mass die off, there are always a few left that start things off again. Maybe if who we are is much bigger than our physical/material existence then in the bigger scheme of things its not that important. Just have fun, have respect for all other living things. make the best of your own life and help others where you can. Finally the bigger picture view allows us to be amused and not take life too seriously.
All true, and all true. My biggest issue is loneliness in that everybody but a handful of people on earth is in total denial about the ravaged state of the planet resulting from overpopulation, and the hopelessness for most of civilization; yes, there will be pockets that survive. And I only get glimpses of that sentient handful on the Internet; there’s nobody locally that I know who sees a problem. I feel as though I am living amongst a different subspecies.
That’s how I feel too Earl. Why is such an obvious problem so universally ignored? Solutions to all our problems are known, we just collectively refuse to get down to business and apply them. We are not rationale creatures, but rationalizing beings. Everyone is a genius at justifying their immediate urges.
I took this from a website quoting George Marshall, Executive Director Climate Outreach Information Network Oxford, UK. It addresses climate change, but the same psychology can be applied to the denial of all the consequences of overpopulation. (I edited some bad grammar in the statement.)
“Failure of the ‘risk thermostat.’ Our response is strongest to threats that are: Visible with historical precedent Immediate; with simple causality caused by another ‘tribe’; and have direct personal impacts. Climate change is: Invisible; unprecedented; drawn out with complex causality; caused by all of us; and has unpredictable and indirect personal impacts.”
Thus denial of overpopulation is automatic for common people, I suppose, who do not have strong science backgrounds, which would have exposed them to evidence-based logic to supersede personal experience from which to form conclusions. And the average IQ in the world is somewhere in the 90s (70s and 80s in some highly populated regions), whereas many “thinking people” surpass this common level by 30 points and more. And the very problem, birthing children, also takes up the time a person might otherwise extend toward education, which might introduce him or her to the nature and gravity of the issue. Many people haven’t even learned which side of the road one should walk on. I think it’s futile to expect common people to think critically or do anything different. So avoiding having children (for those who can check themselves in time), and ignoring the future of Planet Earth, as effectively as possible, and just enjoying what one can, is probably the best cocktail for intelligent and educated individuals who are also saddled with existential sentience.
I agree Earl, more people need to choose not to have children. That only happens with greater education and economic opportunity. The trouble is countries around the world that have negative population growth also have negative economic growth. The U.S. population would be in decline if not for immigration. We need to fix capitalism so it’s not tied to continual population growth. Robert Reich has some ideas in his book, Saving Capitalism. Bernie Sanders had many good ideas, but he wasn’t popular enough. Did you read Countdown by Alan Weisman? He went all over the world investigating population growth, and the few places he found that were doing something have been undermined by other factors.
See my latest post about climate change and human migration. All countries that survive climate change better than other countries will attract climate change refuges, which will increase their populations. It’s doubtful we’ll control population growth any time soon, unless it’s through the old methods brought about by the four horsemen, and we don’t want to wish them on anyone.
Same here. I live in a “liberal” buddhist oriented town and a more closed minded ignorant bunch I would hate to imagine. I can’t imagine what living in Kentucky would be like. The good part is you have to learn to be your own best friend and take your own advice. Plus you need justify your suicide to no one but yourself. All good things.
This article is the pinnacle of what a regressive is. The stupid people think like this. You can’t dress up feminist propaganda with global warming and expect to still be respected. There is too much wrong with this list to mention briefly so I’ll put it this way. The stupid in this world are stupid because they think the way James here does. One can only hope he hasn’t got a large following. We don’t need cultural Marxists.
Brendan, you are proof that people see the same reality and make vastly different assumptions. I’m amused that you think because I’m a feminist and worry about climate change that implies I’m a Marxist. Only moldy academics worry about Marxist theory anymore, not even the communists. We know Marxism doesn’t work, and we’re learning that free market Capitalism won’t work either. Everyone seems to be working on a variation of socialized capitalism. Read Saving Capitalism by Robert Reich.
Thanks, James. I’ll pick up “Countdown,” for the academic interest in it. But I think anyone who thinks there’s a chance that a world with average humanoid IQs measuring not that far north of Gibbons can come to grasp a need to stop having babies is in as much denial as they are.
Shinzo Abe was supposedly working on an economic model for Japan that didn’t include expanding population, but I haven’t heard anything more about it. I know there could be models, but because people would never comply, there’s probably no compelling reason to spend much time developing them.
My wife says the only purpose of mankind is to have babies, and I pretty much agree with that. But the planet has evolved past the point where that is still a good practice for survival, so poo-tee-weet.
Earl, I believe you are even more cynical about the future than I am. I think our species is very good at adapting. Of course we might destroy the entire ecosystem in the process. The percentage of the population that is liberal and educated is growing, so there’s always a chance we’ll reach a critical mass of intelligence and save ourselves before its too late. I’d put that chance at 20%.
James, when someone’s in denial, there is nothing another person can say to bring him out of it. You’re an intelligent man, and I know you’ve seen the scientific evidence regarding the state of the seas, water tables, number of people who have already lost any semblance of “civilization” (two billion), and the estimated number of people the planet can sustain in perpetuity (two billion). You’ve also seen how many politicians have mentioned the problem of overpopulation (zero, to my score). When I graph trend lines, the probability of some kind of chimeric turnaround looks to be less than 1%. How, for example, are you going to get rid of six billion people?
I don’t know if the term “cynical” squarely applies to a man simply looking at overwhelming scientific evidence and calmly making an intelligent and rational conclusion from it. And I see aspects of the planet that are more beautiful today than ever before. Women, for one example, at least in developed countries – Japan is probably the best example. They were wonderful when I was a young man, but dental hygiene was not at the advanced state that it is today, where many women now have zero cavities and perfectly healthy mouths to go with the perfect rest of them, which did exist when I was young. I know that is an eccentric thing to say, but I just wanted to acknowledge that not everything is a downer in our declining civilization. Wine is better, too. Just like when a balloon explodes from a pin prick, most of the air molecules go rushing out, but still there are some moving in.
I guess I’ll have to take my little lantern and look elsewhere for the world’s second honest man.
Maybe YOU’re not as smart as you think, you do realize that death is not the end do you ? And we live in a multiverse, do you even understand what that means ? That every possible reality exist :P, so why worry. There are multiple realities where the earth is destroyed, as there are many that we survive. ETC ETC
Multiverse I’m not sure that hypotheses has been proven multidimention for the most part has but I do agree death is not the end in human understanding, entropy, and science energy never dies just changes form as do we mabee even rotating back to life but enough of that we should laugh smile be happy and enjoy life brother stay lucky pal and let’s not dwell on unfixable problems l… Peace🙏
Mr. Harris,
I do believe you are wrong. Now before you ignore me, hear me out. The human race is not stupid. Far from it. We are ridiculously intelligent, our brain is capable of so so many things. Regret, curiosity, wanderlust. Those are all things that other creatures show no signs of feeling. It’s a remarkable thing, really, our inherent self-awareness. A blessing and a curse, as some would say. If we were so stupid, would we have gotten so far? Yes, it is our ability to think for ourselves that is our worst fault. We are selfish and our self-preservation instinct still prevails after all this time. We would, in the back of our mind, rather protect and prolong our one self. I’ll get back to this in just a moment. This ties in with our self-awareness. We, as a population, are immensely aware of ourselves and others around us. We are aware of our existence in such a way that reinforces our natural fear of death. The self-preservation, like I mentioned before. A pessimist might say that it’s a vicious cycle. We are scared of death, so we learn, search, and find. We try and avoid death. We become increasingly more aware of this over time and that reinstates the fear. You could say, the only reason we’ve gotten this far is because we’re scared. But the human race is brilliant! We are finding new ways to survive and push through. The human race does not go out without a fight. In November of 1918, the deadliest month in recorded human history, and a few of the following months, 50 million people died. Five percent of the human population was wiped out. And by what? A virus. A microbe! H1N1. The flu. The same flu that’s around today. Why’d it kill so many people? Why’d we keep on working to find a cure when there was no hope in sight? When we had to make coughing and sneezing illegal? I don’t know. People are known to give up. That is true, but we do not give up without a fight. We kept on fighting through the deadliest war in history, then a sickness with a death toll of almost five times that of the war. We kept on fighting through the next war, the next epidemic. We’re coming across an environmental issue right now. We’ve done this before. We’re fixing the Thames River. That river was so nasty people actually DIED. Not from drinking it, even! And sea life is returning to the water!
In summary, good sir, we’re probably going to do just fine. The division and alienation of people who are different than oneself are dropping. We’re in the midst of a social revolution. We’re in the midst of a medical revolution. We find our problems. We fix them. Out of fear of death, love of life, it’s all the same. There are bad people, yes, there’s always been bad people but they don’t ruin the good in the world. Chin up, Mr. Harris, we’ve got a long way to go, but we’re making good progress.
Like the old Timex commercial, we take a beating and keep on ticking. I don’t think the human race will come to an end anytime soon. Like you say, we have tremendous survival skills. I worry about all the other species that aren’t surviving because of us. If we end up with just us and the cockroaches, have we really survived?
Things are getting better. The trouble is there’s too many of us, and our numbers are growing, and we don’t share well with the rest of the life forms on this planet.
You really took your time on this and it shows. I think about all of this almost every single day and it is really painful. I am majoring in environmental science to join the people that are trying to save the earth but I am still years away from a degree and I’m scared by then it will be too late. You wrote this two years ago and since then things have gotten so much worse. Sometimes I truly feel it would be better if we just got wiped out.
I think we have the knowledge and technology to solve all our problems. It’s a matter of us collectively getting to work. There’s always a chance this will happen. And there’s always a chance of a black swan. No use packing it in until it happens. Besides, there will be all kinds of fascinating events that will happen before civilization collapses.
Evolve into someone that is amused by the good and the bad (yes bad not evil) of the human race. Somehow I think that I am not alone. We are all here on a media site, “well what’s new” If the down fall of the human race is the cause of anything at all, it would have to be “The human race has only one really effective weapon, and this is laughter” (Mark Twain)
It is a coping strategy that we put in place becoming wiser practicing an idealistic endeavour like humility, empathy, sympathy and patience.
The sunset was wonderful, but the fact that another inhumane act was done upon another under that wonderful sunset is more media driven.
So we go forward in ignorance within a limited ability to create an illusion of unconditional love and it seems to work or is it more so media driven information overload reinforcing bliss in ignorance that in turn feeds arrogance.
INVENT AN UNBIASED SANDBOX FOR ALL OF OUR BIASED MIND SETS THROUGHOUT ALL SITUATIONS IN LIFE. Then the human race might have a chance to be humane. Where life exists there is always hope of change.
I’m not sure I believe in evil either, since I don’t believe in the divine.
And I know what you mean by the media. As long as I don’t watch the news, life seems wonderful.
I like to think our problem is everyone models reality different. If we had more consensus with our modeling, we might succeed.
“And I know what you mean by the media. As long as I don’t watch the news, life seems wonderful.” ‘Seems’ is the key word here.
I’ll be the first to admit my distrust and dislike of the media, but we need to know the troubles in our world. We need to know them so that we know how to help solve them. I see that as incumbent upon us as a human family. Overly passive people do much harm by their lack of compassion towards the cries of help from others. And when social decay is bad enough to begin affecting them, they might just give in to it with relative ease but the problem is that they never tried to help. They were too self-absorbed, too selfish; part of the problem by turning a blind eye to the world. When someone is lying on the street, it is obvious isn’t it that our duty is to assist them?
The depressing thing about our problems is we know what to do, we just don’t do it. We are paralyzed by political polarization. Our species is smart enough, and has all the technology we need to solve our problems, yet we refuse to act by working together.
Well, whenever you take all the evidence ‘against’ something, on the surface your argument will seem compelling. You may look then to Sci Fi not as predictive, albeit deliberate exaggeration, but as an impossible leap of the imagination to arrive at a stable enough world to give us the stability required for a leap to there. And when we begin scoring the good side of the tally on how things have indeed improved for the human race, we find plenty of evidence but the waters are not familiar. We’re too used to being pessimistic, a result of the fear inherit in living in social systems where life and liberty are not guarantees.
But you are not entitled to list all of these things and then crawl back in your corner. If you are capable of identifying problems, you are capable of ‘doing something’ about them. Your task is not to analyze doom, but to fix what’s wrong. It’s a responsibility we all share but few accept. Obviously, you can’t work on everything you’ve listed here- so I would advise you to get to work on the problems you feel are gravest or that you are the most passionate about.
One last thing: you did not specifically list nuclear war as a category in itself but I think by far that is the greatest to humanity. It is also acute and the most volatile in terms of being unable to predict it or stop it if it begins. So I think a lot of us need to be working on disarmament. It’s not like we’re an ant hive getting good orderly direction from the queen here folks. We have to think as individuals and influence others individually. It’s a lot of work but it is definitely worth it. I look at the potential of homo sapiens with a resounding affirmative response. You should too.
Yes, we really can.
Philip I agree with you that we must all do something and stop hiding. I’m working on a new essay about 100 save-the-world books to read. Most of us feel powerless to help solve the world’s problems, but at minimum I think we should at least be aware of them.
I desire to run away comes when I’m worn down.
Hi James. I’m sure we all have battle fatigue. I too keep chipping away at what seems like volcanic mountain of problems that could blow at any time. It’s unnerving, unsettling. It can be depressing and sometimes you can feel like giving up.
But I think that is indicative to rest, recuperate, and recharge. While our duty is to our fellows, we also owe good spiritual and mental health to ourselves.
Thanks for the exchange. It’s encouraging. I’m looking forward to that list.
Survival of the richest– the new prophecy amongst humans. Love is only a material phenomenon to many, a social ticket to the so called heaven of materialism and bullying. If we cannot be genuine at any point in our interaction then mother earth will also reciprocate not with love but with difficulty in survival conditions. We are creators of our own problems and destructors of own self. Yes humans are stupid 🙂 They prove it countless times. But who is to blame- Choices or circumstances ? I guess choices more.
Interesting Raveena. I agree. We have made a long series of bad choices. But could we have made different ones? There is a new book out called, Are We Smart Enough To Know How Smart Animals Are? I have to ask if we’re smart enough to know ourselves.
Are we smart enough to know ourselves? The answer of “no” is contained in the question, because it asks the wrong question. Smart is a function of the 5% of our brain’s functioning in the cerebral cortex. Most of who we are resides in the 95% that remains unconscious to that thinking 5%. We can get a sense of unconscious motivation by reading Carl Jung, from the past, and neuroscientists of the present. Otherwise we walk around as blind schmucks thinking we are the captains of our behavior when in reality our unconscious minds are calling most of the shots. When we know that we can learn to recognize the triggers of untoward actions and stop ourselves from going there.
Interesting angle. I’m a big fan of the unconscious mind too – especially the book, Thinking Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman. I take a different tack than you because I believe our unconscious minds are already smarter than our conscious minds. But that’s not saying much because other than a brilliance for selfishness, neither mind has the aptitude for cooperation.
So I got into an argument with my muslim classmates online we have a group, one of my friend post a note about Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump are Dajjal (Antichrist) and I was infuriated that they would make a smear campaign by making fitna (sedition, civil strife) without realizing that they can’t even know that, with their logic that my friends already knew that their God only knows when the “Dajjal al-masih” appears, wow beliefs that seeks to amaze me with their BS assertion, and not making BS claims about the two….not only that I actually asked a good question about their islamic community (ummah) and their sect(mazhab) sunni,shia,Ibadi,sufi, and ahmadiyya if their religion is for all humanity why are they separated and attack each other because they have different teachings, all of my classmates are sunnis I’m the only atheist. On top of that, my muslim friends insult me because I showed them this ( https://c2.staticflickr.com/6/5344/30243232573_770616603e_o.jpg ) and went full out calling it a kafir ideology because they saw apes becoming humans because they don’t believe in evolution, when it’s clearly about Donald Trump wining and we fucked it up….seriously my friends are so hypocritical they’re way worst than iblis (devils).
P.S I live in Malaysia
This is great!
I know lol….
yes..perfect! Go back! You being by saying this article is depressing. yet i see hope in the idea that our civilization will destroy itself. It needs to go. Sure, i feel a lot of anxiety over what will happen during the rest of my lifetime, and the next few generations. It’s not like i WANT it all to fall apart. But a thousand years from now humankind and our home will be better off with our “civilization” gone. if we don’t only care about ourselves, but about the next generation, then we care about the seventh [Native American concept, credit where credit due] and the seventeenth. Framing it that way, the sooner our nasty civ goes, the better.
i love post-apoc fiction because it helps me visualize how it might happen.
Childe’s 10 criteria for ‘civilization’ include class-stratified society, full-time specialists in nonsubsistence activities, and concentration of wealth. Why would a society need to be stratified to be ‘civilized?’ (surely classes will exist, but why not as equals?) And the way the latter two have played out is a leisure class and capitalist greed. It’s a definition that deliberately excludes exactly what we ought to return to…Danubian culture, pre-hellenistic Crete, the many peaceable tribal cultures wiped out by european expansionism.
the one thing that depresses me is our nuclear capabilities. yet even if the buttons get pushed, there’s a really good chance that we won’t *entirely* destroy the earth. likewise, Global warming, i believe, will leave the earth alive. Possibly not humanity, and my selfish genes sure don’t like that idea. But this here discussion is a nice proof that we’re more than that. and SF has helped me think in terms of millenia, not just my meagre decades.
thanks for the delightful website
depressed: that really wasn’t so bad. great read in fact. truthfully, I’ve heeded your warning but in truth this is actually very gentle natured and tame compared to what people actually say to me both on the internet and in real life yet fundamentally the truth.
Ellen, I worry about bumming people out. I want us to think about our problems and contemplate solutions – if they are possible.
Then you worry too much. People don’t contemplate much besides which restaurant they will go to tonight. You have absolutely no real impact on stupidity or action I can assure you. Your article cheers me. I need to keep reminding myself why I want to escape humanity altogether and face the unknown as in the Stoics “open door policy”. There is really only one thing of value a human who cares can do IMO and that is become Antinatalist. If you do that one thing you only need to refrain from doing direct harm to others to be a most perfected soul. If you don’t, recycling and buying an electric car only makes you a hypocrite at best.
depressed: that really wasn’t so bad. great read in fact. truthfully, I’ve heeded your warning but in truth this is actually very gentle natured and tame compared to what people actually say to me both on the internet and in real life yet fundamentally the truth.
Especially the ones on the Road that like to speed and tailgate all the time which they really Do have very Severe Mental Issues unfortunately. And what makes it very sad is that Most of them are Women today that do it. Get a life already since You do need Help very badly.
Don’t you worry. There are lots of people in the Western world refusing to have children now and in the future. Then, we just have to fill our population rosters with foreigners (that are indeed having children), and destroy Western civilisation and identity as it has been the dream of some sinister people all along.
Just consider it -when you’re living a good enough life, and you’re somewhat rich and have property to protect, you are maybe too busy to have children. For poor people, on the other hand, children is a great part of all they have. That’s why the poor were called “proletarians” -from the Latin for “offspring”. They always had many children, since some of them were bound to die and not reach adulthood.
Anyway, if anyone doesn’t hold faith in Mankind, he/she might as well get the fuck out, and stop consuming our precious resources. We’re trying to build some serious-business world here, don’t interrupt us. Besides, we have to see yet if it’s doable or not, but technology can significantly improve life support on this Earth and even grant our survival. So far, there has been a significant amount of progress in many countries from the 19th century onwards that’s made people live longer and better. If we continue the trend, we probably could save all (or most). And do you know what’s the driving force behind such progress? Right -the dreaded capitalism that people are all to eager to bash.
Other alternatives to capitalism haven’t fared so well. Economy is important. Private property is important. Comfort is important. Living for other things apart from reproduction, eating and working is important. I laugh badly everytime I see a demagogic statement saying that, “we’re destroying our own planet, and when we’re done, we won’t be able to eat our money”. That’s missing the point completely.
If I had to say anything, I’d say that Mankind is doing just fine; there are lots of problems but we still have a chance to overcome them. We have to be aware and make an effort though. Without hope for the future, we might as well put a bullet through our head, don’t we?
It’s still not unfathomable that the world reverts back to the Iron Age. But, if we resign and let things decay, it’s a self-fulfilling prophecy. The future is, and always have been, in our hands.
I didn’t have any children because I was convinced at an early age that polite civilization (as we in the best part of the developed world have had it for the last few years) will be overrun by the thirsty and hungry, due to overpopulation sucking the water tables irreplaceably dry. I did my part. By not having children I calculated that over three generations my wife and I will pollute and use up resources 1/16th as much as a couple having two kids, with their progeny following suit, and 1/22nd as much as a couple having three.
I have an education in the sciences, as well as in economics, and I see zero hope for mankind to prevent comfortable civilization from spiraling into oblivion. People who declare that technology will do something about the mess might be insensitive to the billion wretched people who are already barely surviving without enough potable water, and the 2-1/2 billion people living without sanitation – more people than existed on the planet when I was born. There will of course still be pockets of humans alive around the world after the apocalypse. I don’t need to put a bullet in my head because I will very likely be comfortable until I die naturally, which is not that far away, thank gods, whatever they may be.
Those who put their faith in God for their well being are deluded fools. All of them.
Ignorence enough said
I actually want to be obducted by aliens. Get me off of this fu@&$?! Planet. I live my life with one true friend and my family. I don’t need nor do I want anyone else in my life. I witness human stupidity every day and it’s very irritating. I want to smash someone in the face every day for being stupid. It’s not getting better. People are not learning. People cut corners and like to find the quick easy way through life. I like fighting for the hard road. A little bit of pain let’s me know I’m still alive. The saying “It’s so hard to find good help” is exactly what it says because good help is so far gone these days. Well, I’m going to shut up. Merry Christmas everyone!
Jonathan, your comment reminds me of a story by James Tiptree, Jr. It’s about a woman who chooses to go off with aliens rather than stay on Earth and be subjugated by men. See:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Women_Men_Don%27t_See
James, this is a personal question. So only if you care to comment. Do you have a type of OC personality disorder? Citing 50 causes for something doesn’t make sense, scientifically. And I believe people sense this intuitively, even if they don’t have a scientific background, and they will tend to avoid the discussion. I have my own brand of personality disorder, so I am wont to jumping in.
If one could conduct a multivariate regression analysis of the independent variables associated with the destruction of comfortable civilization as an outcome, something like three to five variables would be all s/he would need to identify the relevant culprits.
Psychologist Daniel Goleman, author of “Emotional Intelligence,” and Alun Anderson, former Editor-in-Chief and Publishing Director, “New Scientist,” came up with the same number one (“R-Squared”) independent variable predicting the problem: that threat detection in human evolution stopped (with societal protection) at the point that recognized only immediate threats, such as a growl in the bushes, or a snake in the path. Incremental, insidious changes don’t register neurologically. So, if a person isn’t a scientist who understands evidence-based analysis, s/he won’t see a problem with water running out, or what have you, until it runs out.
It is too late to save the planet, anyway. William Calvin, theoretical neurobiologist; Emeritus Professor, U. of WA., School of Medicine, and author of “Global Fever: How to Treat Climate Change,” calculated that if every proposed climate initiative were enacted, the coming problems cited would be delayed only nineteen years. The problem is too many people, and we are already five billion over the sustainable limit. Killing them is not an option.
The 50 number was just a random number I picked. I read many articles like these every week. I was able to easily find 50 that made my point. If I had the persistence, I could find 100, or even 1,001 reasons. Like you well know, the evidence is overwhelming.
I tend to believe there’s little chance of changing things, but I also think we should at least try. Just giving up seems rather weak. Homo sapiens have been doing the same thing for 200,000 years, so why assume we’ll change? I find better odds that we’ll produce our replacements, rather than evolve into them.
Who’s we? I did something about it, as I mentioned before, by not having kids, but billions of others are having two, five; and, in Pakistan, as many as 50. I can easily extrapolate that nothing is going to be done about the issues, other than cleaning up some pollution here and there, while it exacerbates in other areas. China just came off its one baby policy, and people over there can’t even breath the air. Trump doesn’t believe there is any problem at all, and appointed a bloke to run the EPA with his opinion. There was more talk on the Internet about it five years ago than today, by my perception. I’ve probably talked to 200 people about the problems, and not one thought about it for more than a minute or two, when I was talking about it. If you feel better by believing it makes sense to try, God bless you, not that there is one, of course. I think the smartest approach is to be authentic to one’s self and admit that nothing can be done, and then enjoy what he can while there are still nice golf courses, fine wine, and pretty women.
We didn’t have children. Most of my friends didn’t have children. But that’s not enough. We might handle the population growth if we all became vegans – but that’s doubtful, and it would only help for a short while. We’d all have to live like monks to get control of the garbage we produce – but that won’t happen either. We could get back to 350ppm CO2 if we recreated industrial society to be hyper-efficient – and that could happen, but our past momentum is against us. More than likely, we’ll see the eroding of nature and civilization as we get older, and after we die, things will get worse even faster for the generations after us. Our species will wring every last resource out of the planet. If we don’t develop self-aware AI before then, complex societies around the world will collapse, and what we’re seeing in Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, Sudan, Yemen, etc. will spread across the world. When things do break down, future civilizations will have a tough time recreating an advanced civilization because we’ve used up all the easily available resources.
I’m currently reading Hillbilly Elegy by J. D. Vance, and it’s a weathervane. It shows that some people can overcome the problems we face, but they are outliers.
But you seem annoyed by my last vestiges of hope. You give humanity zero chance. I’m never that certain. You and I could be wrong. A black swan might swoop down and surprise us. Our evolution is part of a long line of anti-entropic events. Luck has been with us for 13.78 billion years, maybe longer, because we don’t know how many universes preceded this one. All we have to do to succeed is spin off one more level of complexity. That doesn’t mean we succeed and survive, we just need to survive long enough to produce the next stage of evolutionary development. That will be AI. AI could be the black swan that invalidates all our pessimism.
Thanks for the dialogue, James. Now I’m sorry for my gratuitous OC remark.
I see the whole thing biologically, and consider that the passing of civilization as we now know it is simply biological succession, as we know it. The only horror to me is that human beings can feel horrible pain, consciously, and that other human beings are eager to inflict it in horrible ways.
My rumination is aesthetic, stemming from the fifties and early sixties, when oceans had just about as many fish as always and Africa still had its wonderful jungle and animals intact. Looking back, I think things were in good ecological balance, then, and life was fun.
But, as I said, I don’t think things are all bad. I have a wonderful relationship with my wife of fifty years; golf courses are in better shape than ever; French wine is better than ever; and I think girls, especially Tokyo kawaii pop idols, are cute as hell. And I won’t live to see Armageddon.
This is stupid, James, but I just thought of something I will do for your Christmas present. I’ll bet you don’t pay any attention to Tokyo idols, so I am going to link a video. You won’t appreciate it, probably, because I have shared similar videos with many Americans, who saw zero in them, similar to the 200 who didn’t agree about the state of the planet. What is contrary to the death spiral is the girls’ vibrant love and enthusiasm. Here they are singing about running at their school track out of love they feel for their fans. They shout out, “I love you” near the end. They all took a pledge of celibacy and even no dating as long as they are idols, so that every boy or man fan is as close to them as any other boy or man in the universe. A very cool concept, I thought. (It’s the 4:44 min video.)
I realized after linking the video that I had sent you something similar before. As I said, it will seem stupid, or, more accurately eccentric. But these girls truly represent a bright spot to me that defies and transcends the crap. I try to share my joy in them; but, as I said, it hasn’t taken with anybody I know, yet. So I guess I apologize for mucking up the thread with the obtuse theme.
That’s cool. I love seeing into various pop subcultures. It’s fascinating what we become fascinated with. When I was growing up, we most shared the same TV shows, movies, and pop music. Since then, everyone has gone into a million different directions. Everyone one of my friends has very different favorite things. I guess that’s how we cope with reality.
Thanks for your gracious acceptance, James. I’m glad you didn’t find posting the video to be crazy. My idols are indeed a coping mechanism for me.
Don’t you think it ironic Covert that your idols are children? You and your wife chose not to have children, but you find pleasure in admiring these girls. If we didn’t have overpopulation, wouldn’t you have loved to have had kids?
James, you are going to make me admit that in addition to being respectful of the planet, I was also from an early age mercenary, and jealous of my time on earth. Kids rob one of money and free time. I do get along fine with kids, though, and they like me.
The idols, who are teenagers and in their early 20’s, are a special combined breed of song and dance talent, athleticism, grace, dedication, drive, pulchritude and sex appeal. Thousands of girls try out for each rarified opening in the troupe I linked, as the women reaching their mid-twenties are expected to “graduate.” New recruits have to demonstrate specified categories of specialness. I appreciate the girls more like I might winning thoroughbred fillies, than as cute children. But cute they also delightfully are, and cuteness (kawaii) in just about everything is highly prized in Tokyo.
I’m sure you like kids, or you wouldn’t ask me that question. And it is obvious that you are kind hearted.
Just add antinatalism and you’re about perfect.
Last belated thing about this, but never trust a Prankster. I want to take back as best as I can my horse comparison. The girls are magnificent human beings. And as cynical as I am about the human race, I value human beings above other species, at least aesthetically and emotionally. And I love these girls as humans, not simply as animals, which they also are in the wider sense, of course. The beautiful retro-concept of this troupe of performing schoolgirls was born from impromptu girl bands who sang on street corners in the wake of the American WWII bombings to try to cheer up a devastated nation. They function in a similar vein today, but applied toward soothing a more diffused tension.
I think the only solution is nuclear war. Reduce the population and create nuclear winter to cool the planet.
I’d like a solution that’s a bit less destructive than that. Why should all the animals have to pay for our sins?
Hi James,…just wanted to respond to two of your dot points…Scarcity reflects the natural limitations that the environment imposes on life. The issue for our particular species is that, through our technology (the ability to modify our environment) we have overcome scarcity, and therefore have been able to proliferate to the extent we have since the beginning of agriculture and animal husbandry about 10,000 years ago. Of course, the downside of overcoming scarcity, is that we are now in a different race to out ‘tech’ the negative implications for our biosphere. Given that the biosphere is a closed system, the supreme irony here is that our overwhelming success as a species, which is the whole point of survival in the first place, is now working against us.
The second point is denial, which some leading social anthropologists contend is the innate capability of the brain to focus on the immediate response necessary based on sensory input from the environment. This evolutionary trait is manifested in the ‘fight or flight’ response which has served us well through the early stages of our development and comes to our rescue even to day when stepping off the curb at the wrong moment etc…That said our brain’s have become much more dense complex and sophisticated processors that have manufactured responses, that our reflective awareness interprets as belief systems,…such as religion which becomes an elaborate mental state in which to sift the endless stream of causality in the real world, including the knowledge of our own mortality. The myriad of belief systems we hold, including so called religious beliefs, enable us to function in spite of this knowledge and therefore head off the path of nihilism and despair. So again the supreme irony here is that Denial is a good thing 🙂
Both are excellent points. Denial can be a good thing until it’s a bad thing. I guess we need selective denial. We can deny anything as long as it doesn’t threaten our existence, either individually or collectively.
The problem with our efficiency at overcoming scarcity comes from not having a natural predator. We’re able to kill everything that comes our way and consume everything we can get our hands on. We’re too successful as a species.
To me it is 100%, not 99.9%, obvious that nothing will or can be done about the destruction of this planet before civilizations experience disasters, leaving only pockets still in existence, looking much different from today.
However, since we all die, the entire universe disappears for each and every earthling, leaving the issue of Planet Earth taking a merciless beating less significant. Therefore I have adopted the philosophy of what will be will be, and part of that is myself enjoying living as usual on the last residuals of resources. It’s like an irresponsible bloke who eats everything he likes and develops artery plaque. Until it builds to almost totally blocking coronary arteries, he won’t feel it, notwithstanding erectile dysfunction, if he doesn’t exert himself, and just takes it easy. A cat scan of my arteries shows zero plaque, because I am responsible, so I should be able to enjoy life longer than most, squeezing the last drop out of my portion of the lemon. Poo-tee-weet.
Well, Covert, I’m the bloke that ate badly and now have clogged arteries. But I did switch to a plant-based diet to survive longer, so logical living won out eventually.
I’m still going with the 99.9% because I know black swans can surprise us. For example, some speculate the era of antibiotics is nearing its end. What if that causes a significant drop in average lifespan, and we see a quick decline in population over the next century. Nothing dramatic, but just a thinning of the population. If you combine that with several technological changes, it might be possible for us to maintain a complex civilization and move forward.
Possibly, but China is running out of water fast, and they have nukes, and now there’s a trump card.
Through the fruits of evolution we recoil upon seeing a snake in our path, because at one time if a man weren’t bothered he might be bitten and die before he could reproduce his blasé DNA. But technology stopped natural selection matching threat detection with the times cold, so that today a guy with a mindset to drive a Hummer is just as protected as one preferring a Prius. Watching water tables in China, and elsewhere, get sucked down permanently so many feet a year doesn’t register as a threat. One-and-a-half billion people without any water to drink shouldn’t bother anybody, right? Hopefully for neighbors Russia can pipe some down for a while.
Of course denial is what it is and serves the purpose that evolution has seen seen fit to select for. It’s only our conscious awareness that assigns the value of good or bad or neutral (disinterested). The fact that we assign value at all is a reflective notion of how our brains determine what is worthy of our attention, which of courses arises from events that may have the potential to affect our survival, and/or increase our opportunity for reproduction. All which points to the dilemma outlined in your original post as whether to take an optimistic or pessimistic view of the future. The brain allows for this permissive and casual reflection because there is no immediate response required for survival. In fact, some current research points to our brains acquisition of full theory of mind (conscious awareness) as simply a luxury, extraneous to our base instincts of survival. In other words as individual security increased (fewer threats, including your mention of no natural predators,…bacteria/viruses not with standing) the brain was left to pursue colaborate efforts with other brains on ways and means to secure even further efficiencies in their day to day activities, which we call technology. The cumulative affect of this ongoing success brings us to the present condition
In summary, the dilemma is of no worry as their is no immediate threat to our existence. Therefore our brain is at rest, and in turn allows for our conscious awareness to muse and reflect. ((Rest assured if someone entered your space right now with a pistol in hand…your brain would leap into action with the full capability of millions of years of evolution to survive this event…there would be no more contemplation of future events at this critical moment)) How the future unfolds (the endless stream of causality in our particular expanding universe) is unknown to our brains. Further depending on whether one believes (…denial at work again) that there is a positive direction for human existence in the future (denial in full bloom) or not (a failure of denial) …the point is denial gives us the very human perspective of hope. The ability, in spite of the knowledge of our own mortality , to continue with our lives, and experience all the possibilities that the the future may bring.
Brian, I accept what you are saying as an explanation for why things are the way they are now. But what if we’re collectively threatened by dangers we don’t directly perceive? Have you read Collapsed by Jared Diamond. Past civilizations have a perfect score of failure. Their citizens for some reason failed to act, waited too late, or maybe never saw it coming.
I think the current population of the U.S. and even the world feel an underlying anxiety about many dangers. Yes, we are in denial mode most of the time, but at some level, we still sense the threat.
I feel more anxious about the future than any time in my life. I don’t know if that is because I’m getting older, or things are actually worse.
Hi James,…just wanted to respond to two of your dot points…Scarcity reflects the natural limitations that the environment imposes on life. The issue for our particular species is that, through our technology (the ability to modify our environment) we have overcome scarcity, and therefore have been able to proliferate to the extent we have since the beginning of agriculture and animal husbandry about 10,000 years ago. Of course, the downside of overcoming scarcity, is that we are now in a different race to out ‘tech’ the negative implications for our biosphere. Given that the biosphere is a closed system, the supreme irony here is that our overwhelming success as a species, which is the whole point of survival in the first place, is now working against us.
The second point is denial, which some leading social anthropologists contend is the innate capability of the brain to focus on the immediate response necessary based on sensory input from the environment. This evolutionary trait is manifested in the ‘fight or flight’ response which has served us well through the early stages of our development and comes to our rescue even to day when stepping off the curb at the wrong moment etc…That said our brain’s have become much more dense complex and sophisticated processors that have manufactured responses, that our reflective awareness interprets as belief systems,…such as religion which becomes an elaborate mental state in which to sift the endless stream of causality in the real world, including the knowledge of our own mortality. The myriad of belief systems we hold, including so called religious beliefs, enable us to function in spite of this knowledge and therefore head off the path of nihilism and despair. So again the supreme irony here is that Denial is a good thing 🙂 🙂
Denial is not good. God and all his magic friends are the flag bearers of delusional thinking. Religion keeps us stupid and encourages denial of reality. Until God is truly dead we are all headed for a global crash. Oh and Jesus will not be coming back to save us.
James, you made a distinction between an individual’s imperative to respond, and our historic ‘failure’ to respond collectively, and thus the collapse of civilizations. I’ve read all of Jared Diamond’s work. His thorough and impeccable research is required reading for anyone interested in the historical record and the evidence presented.What is telling on the cover of “Collapse” is the use of the word choose. Individuals and societies don’t choose to do anything. The outcomes are the result of our individual brains acting and behaving in basically the same manner as they always have. Societies have collapsed through out time, some spectacularly, some have just worn away through attrition and neglect. No matter, something always comes along to replace it. That is the nature of competitive advantage. We are still here.
In the final analysis, I imagine that humans have always felt angst about the future (That darn conscious awareness again!) Denial gives us hope. Our only bulwark against the unknown. To be sure our success has wreaked unprecedented negative impacts on our fellow life forms, not to mention the biosphere. Mind you if we could talk to the few dinosaurs that survived the End Cretaceous event they would probably have a better case than what we have today. At the risk of belaboring the point, we might as well struggle through and enjoy the better moments with friends and family. Do the best we can.I hope the same for my three grown children.
You and I are about the same age. Relax, the future will take care of itself. Resignation is sometimes good medicine, although Nietzsche might disagree, Hell, what does he know? 🙂
“We learn from history that we do not learn from history.”
― Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel
We are the dominant species while every bodies got an opinion and every bodies got an asshole and we should keep them both to our self. Shouldn’t we?
So I will keep my asshole to myself but my opinion is THIS IS HELL. It’s that simple and hell isn’t going anywhere in a hurry that’s a certainty.
So keep on turning your back on the truth. Make out that you give a rats ass about the people starving on the streets when you buy your next unnecessary item that of cause you’ve talked yourself into believing you have to own and don’t forget to blame all the worlds problems on the government or the 1% of the worlds population that own the wealth who could make the world a much nicer place.
Ideals of grandeur or grandiose delusions of the dominant species gives us hope within an unconscious ignorant bliss.
The dominate species upon the earth is bacteria. If we don’t unite within a humane UNBIASED SANDBOX FOR ALL OF OUR BIASED MIND SETS THROUGHOUT ALL SITUATIONS IN LIFE. It is hell for the majority of the population and bacteria is winning as the world gets more so polluted.
Well, James, thanks for the warning re your bleak post. I would, however, like to point out one crucial inaccuracy within your opening statements. That being that you expected few, if any, people to read your post. Judging from the wealth of comments, I’d say that theory was invalidated.
As for your views, I believe all of my personal feelings have already been voiced in the comments above.
Looking forward, I’ll keep writing my futuristic warnings in my blogs, science articles, and novels but always resolving them with a happy ending. Just basic survival instinct, I guess. Also, a serious resolve to see brightness even when the gloom is pervasive.
I enjoyed your post, in a way, and liked the preliminary warning. As writers, we need to be diligent and responsible.
T.E.Mark, I didn’t expect that. This post is my most popular. It still gets 50-100 hits a day. And if you search on “Are humans stupid?” in Google, this essay is often the top return.
I’m glad that I ran across your posts it gives me time for human interaction. I’m one of those people that reaching the age of 50 and still trying to interact with the new generation on a logical level has been found to be an impossible task. The ability of the human species to interact and communicate with each other has ceased to exist. It’s apparent that even with the advantages of technology to help them move forward they still don’t get it. We could go on for hours and hours discussing the pitfalls of humanity or reach out and try to educate the new generations to make things better. This was the lie I told myself. I’ve found that their brainwashing (Government) has limited their ability to think outside the box. I myself am not religious, an no longer believe in a God. If it is there I have a few bones to pick with it. The base of all of the various religions is to give hope to the suffering and moral direction thru life and support. I normally lose a lot of peoples interest when I take religion out of the picture, because it is the only hope that so many have, as someone once said. “The truth can often sting.” Buddha once made the comment that, “The world is pain and suffering.” This is true because (we) choose to sit-by and stand-by and do nothing. The (we) good people, with good positive moral values, with a love for mother earth and the desire to see if we can become the race of human intelligence that we need to be to exist. As a lot of people have probably seen with the added years on their lives, it’s always seems that the ones who are kept down are the ones that need to be followed and listened to. They don’t follow the poor man because he’s poor. They don’t follow the person that doesn’t have accumulated knowledge stemming from some College, University, or someone rich and high in society. Artificial Intelligence is a life saver because it doesn’t react on emotion, and prejudice feelings, but logic. But it is just like a human baby, a baby isn’t born with these things either except emotions. It has to be taught logic, reasoning, and how to control it’s emotions. The AI doesn’t have emotions as humans do but it might experience a bug every now and then. To make a long topic short humans experience bugs also and many of these bugs are brought on by our own societies and cultures and leaders. Just simply no-one wants change because they are at the top and don’t want to come down to reality. It’s not about the human species, it’s about them and theirs. Chaos Theory, String Theory, Religion, Cults, AI, Government, pick your poison. It seems to be a puzzle that was put in place for humanity to figure out and the majority just don’t get it unfortunately. I ask myself everyday do I follow my emotions (I wish I could just turn them off sometimes. LOL) or should I continue trying to make logical choices based on my outcome in life. I usually windup following logic, morality, and just flat out refusal to be drawn into their hell. I’ve noticed that this new generation is following history and repeating things that the human race should have already figured out doesn’t work. This is a major depression in itself because you can’t reach them, they are like AI’s bent on destroying the world all for the sake of self satisfaction. It often crosses my mind that from a logical view it’s past time for something to happen that will wake them up. Be it war to end all wars, or something else. there is no need for any human to go hungry on this planet or be in pain, or despair or have to listen to an hour of fire and brimstone for a cup of soup (really!!). I try to be always open to other human perspective it’s the way we learn and try to find the other pieces of the puzzle called life and existence. Big question is are we the higher intelligence on this planet, if so I myself do not see it. We could be, but we have to make a stand against them and come together and find a way to wake them up. They don’t respond to logic, nor do they respond to reasoning. How do we save our planet from them when they have been mass infected by a mental virus? Thanks again for the topics Mr. Harris or James, it has been nice to open up about a few of my concerns for this planet and humanity. By the way depression is just reality trying to wake you up I call it home.
Jim is fine. I find the comments, especially like yours Mellie, interesting. We’re all out there coping with the same frustrations. We try to be logical, but everyone else is racing full-tilt with their emotions.
Humans are a Virus.
Hi..i have been in the deep throws of nihilism and cynicism since I was 12, and now in my fifth decade, I well understand that one cannot lose faith one never had (in the human race).
One of the CRUX issues that is never addressed- and is the elephant in the room..CORPORATIONS
WHY does the “free Market” economy look so much like Feudalism? (actually worse than feudalism because the serfs are free range with no rights to the land whatsoever,)
The entire system of government and society is now set up to benefit Corporations, and in fact are ANTI-LIFE.
Corporations are strictly hierarchical institutions that are mini totalitarian empires (diametrically opposed to freedom), have autonomy )(and usually use more of the commons while paying less) are IMMORTAL, and have “limited liability” which means that if they create a product that kills or maims people, it is actually more profitable for them to keep producing it, and then pay the minimal fine slapped on them by the Regulatory agencies..and figure it into the cost of doing business.
The only focus of a CORPORATION is immediate self gratification..that is increase in profits.
If a corporations were human- they would be a true sociopath- focused only on meeting their own needs at everyone else’s expense and not giving a damn as long as they get theirs.
THESE are the transnational institutions that are now more powerful than national governments, have seized control of them like vultures feeding on the very flesh of a nation they have destroyed while stealing it’s resources.
(one example – in PA the state legislature has made it legal for the oil companies to come in a TAKE the mineral rights beneath your property, if you do not sign a contract with them, they are allowed to frack your land via a neighbors land, and DESTROY YOUR WATER SPRINGS and the water table itself.)
THESE are tha actos driving the bus over the cliff.
Look around you and ask yourself why humanity is the ONE animal (not insect) who is forced to toil long hours just to survive in an environment made INIMICAL to life itself by the institutions it has erected and allowed to feed on it.
All the other life forms on the planet get to suffer for this perfidy.
If you do not believe me , visit a factory farm.
ALL of our societal institutions are anti-life.
They literally destroy life itself…that is their main function.
We have gotten here because people do not like to think.
Corporations and the free market religion have become 100% successful at siphoning off wealth. The wealthy are using up all the resources, and have conned most people into working for them at unbelievably low wages. The end of civilization will be the .1% squeezing the 99.9% of everything they have. Unless capitalism is fixed, it will destroy itself. It’s become a Ponzi scheme.
Corporations are monsters of our own making. We are a society of consumers. Capitalism grew as a system to supply what we demand in the most efficient manner possible at a price point that we think we can afford. Nothing more nothing less. They have become so efficient that they can even supply what we think we need. Technology has a way of doing that. For example we buy I-Pads because we think we can’t live without them.
The only way to slay the beast is to move toward an economy of sustainability. This concerted action will starve the life blood of capital required to invest in new stuff. The monster will become sluggish without nourishment, and begin to sell off assets no longer required for production in the face of lower demand, until there are no more buyers. A downward spiral. The environment wins. However like all change, it has a price. Fewer jobs for citizens, and a lower standard of living, which shouldn’t phase us as this is exactly what we should expect by limiting our demand to sustainable levels of production.
As for the elites or what author Francis Fukuyama calls the “rent seekers” or the 1% that popular culture has dubbed them, they require a different approach that is found in re-balancing the political order
Currently the elites enjoy a disproportionate amount of the wealth. They also hold the same for political influence. History has shown that this situation will not last indefinitely. The challenge is to restore the balance without having to resort to violence as a means to achieve the same end. Fukuyama describes what happens when the power elites remain unwilling to reform the status quo as the trade off does not benefit them. Aside from violence we have the moderating influence of the democratic process to fall back on. So far so good, as the recent general election produced a populist as president. A clear rejection of those same elites in both political parties. However the cure seems to be shaping up as potentially worse than the disease. Trump has fractured the political process to the point where passing any legislation becomes very problematic. Rule by executive order just won’t cut it, as the founding fathers had already planned for this situation with the division of powers embedded in the constitution.
So where does this leave us? With the political process frozen, and the courts serving as a bulwark against arbitrary executive power, we are left with the streets and mob (crowds). Remember, protest has served the republic well. Think civil rights and the Vietnam war in recent times.
For despair, I recommend Johann Sebastian Bach,…specifically the ‘Air on G string’, and ‘Sheep May Safely Graze’ …to sooth the soul
James: Perhaps I should not have read this after seeing your warning, but I did not expect to see anything new to me. I was right, but still found it interesting.
I was especially drawn to your line, “it’s so sad because most people are good, and many people are smart, and we should be much better than our collective self.” This is quite true and begs the question; Why are things getting worse rather than better?
Something that I have frequently noticed is what has been labeled the Dunning–Kruger effect, where people tend to exaggerate their skills and knowledge. It often comes down to people thinking they know something to be true yet the facts don’t support it. Seems to me this influences all of the things you listed.
John
Make out that you give a rats ass about the people dying from malnutrition, begging children homeless because of war and banks, country less because of dictators, ignorant because of other peoples arrogance etc. etc, etc, when you buy your next unnecessary item that of course you’ve talked yourself into believing you have to own.
Dunning-Kruger effect what a joke trying to pull the wool over everyone’s eyes with deception. He must have been there when Sigmund Freud sold out the human race to the merchandising dictators that own the banks. The puppeteers that pull the strings on their Pinocchio misgovernment.
People are in general not very nice. You will disagree as you backward rationalize your own actions of cause and effect. In general people are a product of the surroundings that they are subjected too. I could go into countless scenario’s, but what ever the out come we generalize and rationalize fore our own sanity and survival.
Let’s look at the scenario that trumps all scenario’s apart from President Trump. The scenario of God being on Earth in the living flesh. The Bible that is either fabricated or corrupted by the puppeteers ( The Kings and Queens, the church leaders or Sigmund Freud’s dictator’s that believe in the greater good no matter how grey the colour grey/ color gray becomes ) so Dunning Kruger effect that John.
You are the second person to mention the Dunning-Kruger effect to me this week. However, I’m not sure who your comments are addressed to. Are they to me, or one of the other people leaving a comment. This thread has gotten long and confused. Unfortunately, this essay is a depressing subject and gets a lot of comments by people are very cynical about the state of the world. Sometimes I wish I had not written it. Other times I think I should write version 2.0 with even more evidence. Every day I read more articles I could have used. By now I could write “1,001 Reasons Why the Human Race is Too Stupid to Survive.”
I didn’t know about the Dunning-Kruger effect, but from a quick reading, it sounds like it could explain why we can’t get our shit together in a collective manner and solve our problems.
I comment from time to time on this refreshing thread. A signal like the gong in Australia in “On The Beach” that might indicate there is one aware person still left on earth. The phrase “get our shit together,” made me smile. Who is us? I have talked with countless people about the coming apocalypse, and 99 out of a 100 never thought about anything of the sort. Zero out of 100 have considered doing anything about it. I got an equal kick out of a woman at a party I attended, a one-out-of-100 person, who had at least heard that there might be a problem. She said she thought that there would soon be a grass roots movement to do something about it. Ha ha ha ha ha ha, and, ha.
Quite simply.. As I too am getting older (but still feeling in my mind, not thoughts, as I did 20 years ago) I can’t help but feel the pangs of the gripping reality of our social disparity. We all too often lose sight of the importance of living among and alike one another without trying to one up one another and selfishly manipulate everything around us to be as we (individually and coerced manipulation as a whole) to live the way we feel is best for EVERYONE. We can be a fiendish minded race above all at times and therefore allow our jealousy and selfishness supersede anyone else’s that does not conform within our own beliefs or standards. We reason with fairness due to democracy or capitalism in our political beliefs as well as find justification in our religious or spiritual beliefs. So yes James, in many if not most, you’ve made many valid and reasonable points. As an individual, where is my grand soap box to stand and even attempt the call for a reasonable gathering in humanity, NOT the apparent government appointment to potentially create a potential genocide??
I know you don’t have the answers per say James, as I was just asking in jest.. not to say that this is all a joke of course but it seems rather a bleak for me a mere human on this planet of billions to even try to create a mass difference.
Thank you very much for sharing. It was all a great read.
I think we all feel powerless to act. That we have no control over our fate. Basically, our political polarized divide leaves us in two groups. One that wants to act, the other denies action is needed. As long as half the population believes the way to save the world is to lower taxes, reduce regulation, and help the rich get richer, how can the people who believe in a different way to save the world do anything? We’re at a stalemate. Until a large majority of the population agrees on the problem we’re doomed to allowing the selfish to have their way.
Yes James you have hit the nail on the head “We’re at a stalemate” we have no option’s we believe we have options because we have the right to vote. Do we believe all the media hype from our politicians? I have only ever heard of one in government refuse the retirement pension. Gough Whitlam’s wife Margaret Whitlam and I question why do retired politicians, that have way more then enough need or get a pension at all?
$500 million a year it costs to pay retired politicians free money fore 21 years after 65/retirement age and we are obviously over governed.
It’s not as if their there because they care. A police officer or a soldier is inspired by injustice to make it a better world to live in, “I hope”
But the biggest question I ask is are politicians border line sociopaths in the same basket with the merchandising dictator puppeteers. If it wasn’t for these sociopaths that have corporate monsters at large where all of our superannuation’s are invested making us all share holders that pull our investments if shares dive on the stock market.
“We’re at a stalemate” a link in the chain to our own demise. An Australian study has found that about one in five corporate executives are psychopaths – roughly the same rate as among prisoners.
I don’t know much about psychopaths, but I can believe they could succeed anywhere. It’s the problem of hawks and doves. The strong will exploit the weak. Our government is run by people who are great at greed. They have banded together to game the system for their own reward. They have developed a self-serving philosophy and spread it to tens of millions, even when it doesn’t benefit those people. They are quite good at what they do. They don’t want climate change to existing because fixing it would require given up a massive amount of accumulated wealth and power. Republicans have spent decades scheming to get where they are today. They’re not going to back down now.
The only way to fix the worlds problems is to start with the problem at the cause. Hawk children are noticed at preschools, kindergarten by teachers that don’t have permission or time or the resources to help correct this disability. We have the ability to locate these future hawks early in there lives to teach them the importance of empathy and sympathy.
The biggest contributor to this on going issue are parents that push there kids to be hawks, “we want our kids to succeed” Yes they may succeed with money and seem to be a success, but as parents and partners they suffer and so does everyone around them.
http://sfhelp.org/relate/empathy.htm
The link above should be a mandatory lesson in every child’s school.
Mr Peter K Gerlach has lots of free advice yes absolutely free.
I’ve been thinking about this Judgement Day thing. I’m sorry to bring it up. I’m not a Christian. It’s just that I’ve had an epiphany. Civilization and empires rise and fall over eons and it keeps going on and on like that. Or does it? Is there an end, even to that cycle? Seems to me when we get to this awful stage, overpopulation and the planet in such a mess mass stupidity there must be an end to us. Not the planet. Not all the animals. Just us. Good riddance to us, I say. If this was one big test we have totally failed. I lost faith in the human race some time ago. It does not make me feel smug or happy to write this. I’m really angry with the human race.
Robyn, I know how you feel. My goal is to live the best I can and make the most of my time in this reality. But I don’t have much hope for our civilization. I think homo sapiens are smart, but just not smart enough to survive their own limitations. I hope we create artificial intelligence before civilization collapses. It could be they are our successors.
You might want to read, The World Without Us by Alan Weisman. I find it very soothing to think about how reality will continue on if humanity becomes extinct. Many humans have the hubris to think reality was created for us, but that’s simply not true. We are just an infinitesimal blip inside reality. Each conscious being comes to inside this existence, sees a tiny portion of it for a limited time, and then leaves. I’m very thankful for that.
I would not say we are very stupid. The progress from science and technology have been huge. It is insane if you look up how much we really know these day. The progress of physics (beyond the standard model and in cosmology) have maybe slowed down a bit, but our knowledge of biology and adaptive systems grows very fast.
Sadly a lot of this progress come with a cost. Even if the vast majority of people are not violent towards each other the few that are will have an increased chance of getting access to advanced weapons. So far the people in power that posses the deadly weapons are mostly interested in wealth and power. As long as the risks of mutual destruction is much higher than the potential rewards there will be no nuclear wars if we assume the leaders are rational agents.
New biological weapons may change that balance. There is also always the risk that weapons fall into the hands of terrorists and other people with a very non rational view of the world ( or maybe even worse people that want global destruction gets them).
As we use up the earths resources the importance of power and wealth will increase. The poor majority may not have a chance to do anything against the superior power of the governments. Increased conflicts between nations will certainly follow. It is hard to see how the global climate for peace can improve with capitalism at the core. Growth can’t continue forever is a known fact. Balance and sustainability are key for long term survival.
New scientific discoveries can both save and destroy the day. With normal humans in power I have hard time seeing a positive change. Artificial intelligence might actually save the day even if it also can be destructive ( It depend I guess a lot on how it is programmed and also how it can modify itself).
Ideally a communist global society in which power is distributed in some form of inverse greed law would be ideal. The more altruistic a person is the more power he/she should be given for the benefit of all of society. The most powerful under this system would also not only care about humans, but about other lifeforms as well and thus work towards a sustainable earth.
The governments would have smart and altruistic people running them. Many greedy people naturally goes after power in the real world, but they would be stopped if the systems would work. Lies and corruption would be stopped as well due to it only having a selfish benefit. In a globally connected world I can see that being maintained once the structure has been put to place. Although I can’t see humanity put that structure into place. The process would most likely turn into a global dictatorship and be something like the Sovietunion and name any other attempt of communism. Selfish interests in most individuals would always be a huge problem.
Once we have that society though I think that genetic engineering could be very useful in terms of improving it. Genes that make you more caring and altruistic would be favored if we could identify them. Along with many other improvements possible to the biosphere. Compare that with the current world when a lot of genetic change (on plants mainly) is made without consider the environmental impact. It is mostly done based on short term gain in terms of wealth ,thirst for knowledge or strive for fame.
I don’t see why we as a species “deserve” saving. We all end up dead eventually “hollow laughter”. It doesn’t matter what we do now or in future. We are only specks in the universe making do with whatever predicament we’ve been placed into. We have only the options of living or dying; it’s the same for every living thing “we just have a lot more strings attached”. There’s no meaning to anything we do; but it means everything to us for some reason. We are self centred as a species and thats fine, that’s all we know.
We can not fight the inevitable, though we try. Our science and religion to try last forever, become immortal, be reborn, go to heaven…. We live as though we wont get old and wither away and rot in the ground like millions and billions before us, human or not. We try to leave our mark by making or doing insignificant things all of which are eventually forgotten and pushed under the pile of ever growing nonsense we deem “significant”.
Since this is your fate you may as well enjoy it. We will never amount to anything meaningful as individuals or a “species”. The universe doesn’t care, when stop telling ourselves we matter I think we would all find peace and learn to enjoy existing as the speck we are. How ever you find that happiness in this meaningless existence is up to you, it doesn’t matter what it is.
I believe in you. Make your happiness mean something, who cares what it is, because after all it doesn’t matter anyway.
Anastasia, if wished you had a blog I could go read.
+10000… !!!
Your article cheered me up! Thank you. Does that make me a bad person?
“The George you are so desperate to preserve is a deception of language, a constructed artifice of a pillaged and plundered history. It is the convenient illusion,” her inner voice rumbled.
And so spoke the Pink Padma. **** ’em! I wrote a book about a pink elephant. Padma and the Elephant Sutra. A kind of therapy for this human me-ing.
From a more cosmic perspective, it is astonishing that rocks and gas came out of God’s ass and produced us! And I’ll bet you one dollar we are not the pinnacle of ‘His’ efforts. Who can say what comes next. I’m betting on an enormous planetary inflorescence.
I give you compliments on taking the time to write this essay, how ever there is much more that should be told and less thinking its the evolution of mankind! It comes down to the program that any one person receives! And the choice to learn the real truth??? It is the fault of corrupt power that has put humans where they are! If anyone cares for change? Turn off the tv, put down the phone, shop at mom and pop stores, love the stranger and take your money out of the bank! Be a man and have faith in spirit life and fight back.
Spirit life really? Magic thinking is how we got here. God is a con, people are fools. If you intend to change the world with your spirit it had better be the spirit of action and hard work with deeds. All these words do not change a thing Mike.
Ignorance v Real Education, and Empathy
We all have to make a personal decision to educate ourselves in the really important things in life. Not useless shit we learn at school, college by academics. Only through real education, can we be free of bigotry and attempt to see things from another perspective.
The reality though is that the human race will continue to be divided between the haves and the have not’s. In the future the rich and powerful will dominate the less educated and privileged. The idea of everyone equal will be gone, and maybe its true, everyone is not equal really.
I keep hoping the human race will get its shit together and change. But I am reminded of something I read about Neanderthals, that they as a species acted the same way for hundreds of thousands of years. I used to think Homo Sapiens were different because we’re constantly changing. Then I realized humans stay the same, but it’s our cultures, technology, and society that changes, not us. That gives the illusion we evolve when we’re not.
Humans are evolving in small ways. For one example, they are becoming less intelligent on average because less intelligent people are having way more offspring. I have a higher IQ than average, as do all of my friends, and most of us have no children.
It is true that public education needs to reflect real world learning more than it does. However there are too many vested interests in the status quo to effect any positive change. Academics like may institutions in a capitalist consumer economy are focused on commercial benefits. To your point, the elites will always hold sway over others in any given society. That is the nature of the human condition. The good news is that for most liberal democracies like the US, and other 1st world nations, a majority of individuals have accepted the tradeoff between economic prosperity and citizenship. In other words our desire for equal rights (granted by elites) under the rule of law gives most of us a measure of social peace, and the opportunity to pursue our own selfish interests to the best of our abilities, under the presumption of equality. Given this condition, there will always be the have and have not’s. That said if you consider the social condition that most of our fellow humans live in, they would consider our present situation a much more desirable condition than their own.
The above does not mean we need to accept the status quo within our own society,…just that all social actors will continue to pursue their own best interests in an effort to improve their lot. The result is generally an improvement in one aspect or an other for society as a whole. The real challenge comes when the balance of forces within society begins to unravel. The election of a populist like Trump is a clear signal that the balance is shifting. A wake up call for the elites if you will, that more needs to be done to engage the have not’s within society.
Social evolution is always a struggle. The mission of all social actors is, as you say, to educate ourselves, and stay engaged. Once we accept our position in society, against our own self interests, is when events become less predictable and social order (peace) is lost.
For an accurate science based understanding of our earth’s ecosystem please go to paulbeckwith.com
The book of life is about humans and is as floored as humans. And it belongs to the loving mother and the stable loving father. There will all ways be the rich and there will all ways be the poor is not a human condition. The United Kingdom introduced the first unemployment benefit scheme back in 1911. 1914 what the hell happened to humanity? The 20% raised there ugly head.
Yes 20% of the population of the world that have no moral compass of humanities empathy or sympathy towards the 80% that still sell of give there own riches to the 20% the precious commodity called time.
If God does exist then 80% belong to the true elite and 20% belong to the brain damaged Satan.
As a species we are good by nature but good people sometimes have to do bad things and are damaged by the condition of the environment that surrounds us all. That is the human condition that has the lasting effect.
So the books of life have in turn bit us all in the ass ever since ever one was written.
An Australian study has found that about one in five corporate executives are psychopaths – roughly the same rate as among prisoners.
So what is the difference between psychopaths and sociopaths? well many studies have shown the differences between them are many.
As I see it my opinion is bias and every one has an opinion just like every ones got an ass hole. But I see one major progression with psychopaths and sociopaths and that is one is a murderer and one is not yet.
The book of life is about humans and is as floored as humans. And it belongs to the loving supportive mother and the stable loving father. There will all ways be the rich and there will all ways be the poor is not by cause and affect of the human condition. The United Kingdom introduced the first unemployment benefit scheme back in 1911. 1914 WW2 what the hell happened to humanity? The 4% raised there ugly head that’s what.
Yes 4% of the population of the world that have no moral compass of humanities empathy or sympathy towards the 96% that still sell or give there own wealth to the 4% the precious commodity called time.
If God does exist then 94% belong to the real elite and 4% belong to the brain damaged Satan. ATM!
As a species we are good by nature but good people sometimes have to do bad things and are damaged by the condition of the environment that surrounds us all. That is the human condition that has the lasting effect.
So the books of life that has been written, developed or fabricated like it or not has in turn bit us all in the ass, ever since one was ever written down.
An Australian study has found that about one in five corporate executives are psychopaths roughly the same rate as among prisoners and it seems to be rising fast all around the world. So can this cognitive destructive behavior be reduced? well believe it or not it can. http://sfhelp.org/relate/empathy.htm
So what is the difference between psychopaths and sociopaths? well many studies have shown the differences between them are many. 70,000,000 psychopaths is an estimation in the worlds population and the real problem is that you and I probably sell our existence to one of them.
As I see it my opinion is bias and every one has an opinion just like every ones got an ass hole and we should keep them both to them self, but I see one major progression with psychopaths and sociopaths and that is one is a murderer and one is not YET.
If humans were good by nature, why do parents have to guide children to do the right thing at nearly every turn? (That is, parents that have their heads on straight.)
One minute, your two-year old is wanting to share his slobber-soaked cookie with you, the next minute he’s pulling his sister’s hair. If humans were good by nature as you claim, no child would need guidance towards it.
My question is why didn’t the world follow suite with the The United Kingdom when the first unemployment benefit scheme was introduced back in 1911. The amount of lives and wealth wasted on wars should have and still could have funded a world wide unemployment benefit scheme. Humanities best chance at not wiping ourselves out of existence was solved in 1911 and all didn’t follow suite. Shame on us all. We can still make this happen.
Well, I’m not sure what to say other than I’ve thought a lot about this the past several years. It’s why I’ve chosen not to have kids, although I would adopt/foster children since so many little ones need loving homes.
I appreciate the thoughtful warning to those of us who feel depressed. I read your article anyway because I figured it wouldn’t contain any surprises, which it didn’t. It actually left out some of my greatest concerns, related more specifically to the environment/plastics/chemicals/radiation, antiquated education/childrearing, and low levels of self-actualization/awareness/consciousness, among others.
I found it somewhat comforting to read some of the comments by other people who care and are thinking about the same things. In my daily life I can sometimes feel like everyone else around me is in complete denial and/or ignorance. And that feels much more lonely and depressing to me than acknowledging reality.
I’ve come to accept that all I can do is live the best life I can, with as much Love as possible, while I’m here. Because no matter what I face, Love always helps ease my burdens, and that is my best Hope. If I’m going down with the Titanic, I may as well do so with Dignity and Grace.
Everyone dies. Not everyone makes it through life’s trials with a loving, open heart. That’s my personal goal. To keep caring and keep choosing kindness, even when it breaks me open. Love is its own reward. ♡
Tiffany, what you said is exactly what I think, and it’s the first time in my life anyone has articulated exactly how I think about the reality, as I perceive it. I won’t say “problem,” because it is simply the evolution of nature, as is your comment, and my appreciation of it.
I come late to comment, but what you say will happen. There will be a global disaster. But this one will wipe out life as we have known it. Nuclear war and ecological disaster including unchecked population growth will in the end END it.
The sound of the ignorant is often the worst case scenario.
While the nuclear weapons all point at each other.
United States: 1,054 tests, Soviet Union: 715 tests, United Kingdom: 45 tests, France: 210 tests, China: 45 tests, India: Six underground explosions, Pakistan: Six underground explosions and North Korea is the only country in the world that still tests nuclear weapons, and their tests have caused escalating tensions between them and the United States. Their most recent nuclear test was on September 3, 2017.
Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons is a load of wank.
This Mexican stand off has been going for some time now, it isn’t Russian roulette until a nation or group that refuses to be part of the united nations become another player with-in this game of insanity. The united nations is our only chance at this time.
The population problem is under control, the united nations handout contraceptive’s for free to the least developed countries. The biggest problem is the ignorance of the human race, be it enforced by the leaders or even preferred by the majority that can’t comprehend the bigger picture. That have an immature opinion to share.
Maybe my own site my help, that I edit from time to time. https://sites.google.com/site/2far4u2/
“The sound of the ignorant is often the worst case scenario.” – that’s very true. I need to keep remembering that. I checked out your site but it only has one page.
Thanks for this post & your site. I think about this stuff a lot, probably too much. Strange that seeing what is in front of ones very eyes is not so common (I know conditioning and social propaganda have much to do with that…). Anyway, if there ever was any hope, the point at which action could have translated into some kind of beneficial solution has long since passed – just referring to human population increase, use of resources and pollution.
The posts by Mellie and Tiffany are good reminders for personal/individual coping. I too am trying to move toward trying to enjoy each day in simple, loving ways and interacting with people with as much love as possible. I don’t always succeed, but I do always try. And it won’t change the inevitable outcome, but it will change me, at least.
Thanks again!
Thank you for writing this. You are dead on correct. And everywhere you look these days things just seem to be getting worse. But everyone just goes about their daily lives like nothing is going on. There is more selfishness, greed, intolerance, hate, violence, abuse, apathy, environmental destruction. Truth is, I’ve felt this way for some time (not just felt this way but also realized this as the truth). And it is SO refreshing to see someone who has the same views and it just seems to be escalating in 2017, while there are so many others (especially those on social media) who would be quick to label you a “leftard with an agenda”. I couldn’t argue with a single point. It’s spot on as far as I’m concerned.
Especially when most of them are women too.
Most of what? are women, too.
This list is garbage and pure opinion of one whack job liberal stuck living in the 60’s. You act like humans are the source of all the problems on the planet, and yet you seem to forget we are a part of it. We have the exact same inherent traits all life have with the exception of cognizance and empathy. I hate to come off as rude or just plain mean, but you’re using your imagination to try to put the entirety of humanity into a very small box. Think about all of your claims and how much you don’t really suffer from anything you listed, I mean you are 64 for fucks sake not the same plight of an African child soldier and yet you have a more negative outlook on life and your fellow man. How does that make any sense? You sound like someone who was clinging on to some outdated notion of “free love” and make great strides to swing your self righteousness about like some phallic appendage you seem to lack. Just because you are “vegan” doesn’t make you better or smarter than anyone else, and in reality you have canine teeth for a reason and it isn’t to shred carrots. We always have been and always will be the most prolific omnivores on the planet. There is no reason for a man of your age to ride suck a high horse or to be so snooty. Where is your Nobel Peace prize? What institution of high education did you receive your doctorates from?
I have a scientific education and I think James was simply stating an opinion, which I largely agree with, and feels bad about the destruction of the planet, for aesthetic, if no other reasons. I see nothing amiss with that.
Reality, I keep rereading through your comment looking for a point but I can’t find one other than you are angry at me. I don’t mind you venting on me but it would be more interesting if you focused on the issues. I am not a Ph.D., and the points I list are not mine, but what I read. The essay is a collection of articles I read that made me depressed. I try to find hope for the future, but it’s difficult.
This essay is the most popular one I’ve written. If people search “are humans too stupid to survive” in Google this essay often comes up near the top or the top. Usually, around 50 people a day find it. So the issue at hand is whether or not our species will survive. Making me the issue side-steps that. Since I wrote this essay I’ve thought of doing an updated version that collects 1,001 reasons. Every day I read about a dozen news stories, and quite often they support this argument. I don’t want them to, but they do. I would have no trouble finding three new articles a day and in a year have a thousand. If I had been collecting them since I wrote this essay I’d have around 3,000. Of course, many would be repeats. It would be a fascinating challenge to categorize all the main issues that threaten our future.
I keep wondering why conservatives want to ignore the issues. Over the years I’ve come up with many theories. My current one suggests that people need to think positive about the future for their psychological well-being and they will tune out anything that threatens their peace of mind. That might explain why you are so angry at me. But I do believe we are facing real threats and it’s important that we all start working to solve them.
Human are the “source” of all problems on planet Earth in practically men, and men are evil. No one evil ever says they are so join the club, its overcrowded and not unique. BUT dose lack courage.
“HUMANS ARE EVIL” RESISTANCE COMICS https://rangercore.net/ via @wordpressdotcom
Sure. Women can’t be evil either. *rolls eyes* Feminists like you are also a part of the problem. Evil doesn’t have a gender or a color. It’s in everyone.
Wow, not like you missed the point or something. We’re not saying women can’t be evil or aren’t, more then a few women politicians have certainly proved that they can be just as evil and scummy as every other man that’s been in office. We are saying that men are the source of the problem and were the ones that started all of this bullshit (Because we know women helped run things 1000s of years ago right?)
So yeah, we’re 100% sure that women can be just as evil and scummy as men can, but to say that women have been included in the “ruining the entire planet and turning it into a huge piece of shit” is total crap. But hey, whatever you want think.
To quote your own words “Human are the “source” of all problems on planet Earth in practically men, and men are evil. No one evil ever says they are so join the club, its overcrowded and not unique.”
Men may have had control in the past, but people should be banding together to correct the mistakes. Saying that all men are evil sure won’t.
Where do we start when sociopaths and psychopaths plays a vicious game within consumer affairs of domination within their (it’s not ours) economic policies created in an unethical playing field that instigates disastrous corporatism upon us all adding another link into the chain of humanities evolutionary flawed progression upon the tree of monkeys and the tower of Babel where any honest Joe that tries to play catch up, or just to keep the wolves from the door work themselves into an early grave or are imprisoned for being a part of an uprising against corporatism ?
While atheist scientists or just atheists preach like antiJesus about something that no one can be truly certain about just like school yard bullies. Scientists kill dreams and philosophy create dreams.
I have said it before and I will say it again every body has an opinion, just like every body has an asshole and we should keep them both to our self.
That’s true, opinions are a dime a dozen, or even cheaper. What we want is data, evidence, and statistical consensus.
Today I’ve been cleaning out my bookcases and I’m amazed at the amount of published opinion. But dismissing words because they are opinions can lead to throwing the baby out with the bathwater. There is plenty of evidence to convince us we have problems, but we choose to ignore it either because of denial or an unwillingness to cooperate.
The trouble is we are overwhelmed with words, news, opinions, facts, figures, etc. We need a way to process massive amounts of words for their patterns and trends.
sounds like you agree that humans suck, parasitically men
Cut a full circle or delve within the two of them joined to make an 8. What are the rules within your playing field James Harris.
All brains including human brains will act in their own best interests, that’s why life on this planet has flourished to this day. Now each brain is unique so the fact that enough brains are in agreement (or just not interested one way or another) most of the time speaks to our success as a social animal. Our own best interests includes managing risk (survival) which invariably sorts itself out as various states along the spectrum of submission and dominance (opportunities for reproduction). Such is the nature of the beast. Our present world condition, on balance, represents progress. Relative peace (desired by self serving brains) offers the best condition for pursuit and competition with our fellow humans.
Once we except our true nature, we gain some perspective on why we act and behave as we do.
From the perspective of our self awareness, we see the world from only our own narrow view of existence. If the world does not fit our particular world view then our brain deals with it none the less along the spectrum of pessimism and optimism. We are either morose at one end or wearing rosy colored glasses at the other, and of course somewhere in between. Clinical psychologists call this the degree of denial. The curse of our full theory of mind is that we contemplate all of this in the first place. By the same token we wouldn’t trade our ability to experience existence the way we do for any other creature. Of course we need to accept some measure of denial/submission in order to survive otherwise the confusion would drive us into a downward spiral.
Seven and a half billion unique brains looking after themselves the best way they can (survival). It has already been said a number of times on this topic that the best we can do is what we can do. If our particular nature allows us to be more optimistic, …to care for others, and do the best we can in most circumstances, then consider yourself lucky, and carry on. Not everyone is as fortunate, hence the ‘worldly problems’ that seem to overwhelm us from time to time.
You’d think our collective wisdom — the wisdom of crowds — would come into play. At least in America, there is some other force at play. Collective greed I guess.
This is a fascinating site. Please do another one with a lot more items. And also write more about the brain. There were a few references to the human brain in here but not enough. It is the human brain that is the problem, in my humble opinion. In other words, if we had only our ape-man brain, there wouldn’t be any of this awfulness anywhere. No pollution, etc., etc. –just man-ape poo and so forth. Again, I thank you and your readers for their great comments. This website could be made into a book!
Good article, I shared it. I only wish it had been proofread.
I did proofread it, but no matter how many times I do, I still miss stuff. I consider blogging piano practice for writing. I do think I’m slowly getting better.
“Don’t read if you’re depressed…” This was actually exactly the type of op-ed I was searching for to soothe my seething anger and sadness. The mass majority stupidly deny the truth, and to what end is beyond me. I caught on to reality very early in grade school, where I sat out the ‘pledge of allegiance’ and vowed to be child-free. I’m nearly 50 now and couldn’t be more pleased with my thoroughly wise decision. I, for one, am not responsible for perpetuating the mutant disease called Humanity.
truly believe that the world isn’t as bad as you say. It’s true that the human race are slow on picking up the pace. But we are going for the better. Human rights are globally heading for the better, same for the animal rights, religions are in decline.
In the last 40 year alone we did some astounding huge step in our current technology. We are pushing the boundary of science further , our space program are flourishing.
Yes, we did some huge mistake as a race and we keep doing so, but, even if its slow, we learn from the past and we are heading for the better. Theres way too many negativity in the media outlet. It doesn’t represent the world at all, they only seek to trigger human emotion with sensationalism and give a negative perspective of the world.
Altough most of your point are valid, you should try to do the same, but with every positive thing the human race as done in the last century, you would be surprised!
From a 25 year old french Canadian who truly believe the world is going for the better.
ghis123, I’m currently reading Enlightenment Now the new book by Steven Pinker. It totally supports your stand. I constantly try to be positive, but it’s hard because of the negative news we’re bombarded with every day.
If you want to keep yourself in denial like that, fine. We may be improving our playthings, but we as a species haven’t changed.
I find it more depressing that society as a whole doesn’t seem to grasp this. I’ve been cussed out and mocked for even sharing thoughts like the ones you’ve posted. But it’s all due to humanity’s arrogance: no one likes to believe that the species they belong is full of bullshit. George Carlin and Bill Hicks were some of the seldom few, if not, the only famous humans who openly call out humanity’s bullshit. In a way, it’s good that they’ve passed on. They’re spared from this insanity.
But in any case, I am greatly relieved that I’m not alone in my misanthropy. (Ironic as that sounds.)
And I believe that you’ll find this neat little list very interesting.
https://listverse.com/2013/05/23/10-reasons-humans-are-naturally-evil/
As the great sage Charlie Brown once said:
“I love humanity, it’s people I can’t stand.”
Since I’m getting close to my expiration date, it’s hard to take things seriously. Especially, the people who believe in science as a religion.
Is global warming really all that bad? Has everyone forgotten what an ice age has done in the past? Oh pardon me, it’s climate change this week.
Oh, I think I’ll just have another beer and chill-out a bit. Sounds like you need a cool one yourself!
Since I don’t have any kids, when I die, its officially the end of my world! As the Mad philosopher is wont to say: “What, me worry?”
I agree with this list wholeheartedly, but I’d like to point out that a lot of women are showing excessive vitriol towards men as well.
Blacks that are racist against whites, but try to twist their words to make it seem like blacks can’t be racist. White on black racism, etc. Blacks that even hate other blacks. The amount of hatred and stupidity is endless.
I’m not worried about Earth’s wellbeing. It’s been around for millions, possibly billions of years before us worthless sacks of crap existed. Shoot, it’s been covered in lava at one point in its past. It’ll recover from our poisons. Poisons, mind you, that will only end up hurting us and not the planet.
Humans and the planet will only be at peace when we’re all extinct. That’s the best that can happen for the other animal and plant species.
Regarding Blacks’ prejudice against Whites, it’s not as strong as the opposite. If a Black person has been personally burned by a White person s/he can store some strong resentment, but s/he is not naturally racist.
White people are naturally racist because subconsciously Black people symbolize a White person’s unconscious dark shadow. Dr. Carl Jung explained that.
Regarding women’s vitriol against men, it is clueless men who bring that on. If a man treats a woman the way she wants to be treated, she will treat him like a king, if not a god.
I know I’m months late on this.
I’m calling out pure BS on this. Mild or severe, hate is hate. You can’t end racism with racism. It’s just going to fuel……..MORE RACISM! And that’s the problem with these SJW idiots. They fight hatred with hatred under the guise of nobility.
But alas, it’s simply more humans being stupid.
LOL.
I must commend you for putting something so cynical out there. I saw in one reply that another person was thinking about doing the same. And then, there are 250 comments here, the majority of which I assume are in agreement with you.
If you’re at all scientific, and even a little informed, you have to know that the odds aren’t looking good for the homo sapiens. We just can’t sustain our existence here on this planet, and it’s a shame!
I sometimes fantasize about a world where instead of going to war with each other, we cooperate in sending people and machines into space. Imagine what we might have discovered, if we put all the resources going into our war machines into a space program instead. And look at how much better shape the world economy would be in, when you consider how indebted war makes most countries.
It’s really interesting to consider how easily we justify killing each other. Here’s something to think about: if a parent of a victim of a school shooting were to avenge their child’s death by murdering the shooter, they’d go to prison for it. It’s wrong to kill someone, even if they killed your child, and many others…
But it’s not wrong to kill someone from another country. As a matter of fact, you’ll be a hero for it!
Our comfort in killing our own is one reason the human race is doomed for extinction. But as you mention in your article, there are many.
I think the ultimate reason the human race will inevitably go extinct is because the vast majority of humans will never think for themselves. If people would think for themselves, they’d see that the way we’re going about things isn’t working. We need to make some serious changes, or this train we’re on is going to crash!
But people won’t think. If they’d think they’d realize that things aren’t looking good for anyone on this planet right about now.
Also, apathy and laziness play a pretty big role in our march to annihilation. It may be laziness that prevents a lot of people from actually thinking. To be fair, there are some people who are simply incapable of thinking, but plenty of people are.
Anyway, great article. Thanks for having the balls to say what a lot of other people would like to too.
Humans are Naturally Violent Submitted by Leesha on December 11, 2020 – 1:09pm Why do we have to constantly teach babies and children to not be cruel, bully, and/or violent towards their peers or elders? I’m not just saying this because I was bullied in school as a kid, but also from babysitting other people’s children too. The children want THEIR toys. They want to take others’ toys. They’ll headbutt you, bite you, etc. Now, you can go the Pollyanna route and say “Oh, they don’t know any better.” But the thing is, we invented the concept of “better”. We invented morals, ethics, religion, politics, etc. All of that was invented to make ourselves feel important and to control others to our liking. (Another reason why humans suck: they’re always trying to puppeteer others.) Without any of that, children truly “don’t know any better”. They’re just acting out of their natural human instinct: violence/selfishness.
And speaking of children, violence and selfishness, the general public behaves like children as well. I’m sure we’ve all seen this type of customer or have been this type of customer. You know? The one who has to have THEIR way? Bring in an expired coupon and expect it to be honored. And don’t count on the general public to follow simple safety guidelines. Have you seen motorists and cyclists? Stop at a red light or a stop sign? Nah, I’ll just coast right through it. *crash* “Why did I get hit?!?” Wearing a seatbelt? It’s like pulling teeth. Don’t text and drive! It’s like speaking an alien language.
And look at those who riot and follow mob mentality. These are your “average, innocent citizens” who abandoned all ‘civility’ and just went wild. Sure, they dress it up as “for a good cause”, but it’s still wanton destruction at the grit and grain of it. It’s the same for these terrorist attacks. They’ll blow up a city in the name of “freedom”, “equality”, etc. Again, wanton destruction disguised as “noble” intentions. In actuality, it’s nothing but a power grab. It doesn’t matter who they kill to get it. It’s far too easy for humanity to fall to violence because we are violent by nature. But we can’t accept our true nature, so we created these fantasies that tell us that we’re “special”.
Moving to another planet won’t change that.
Words of wisdom are few, and becoming fewer with each passing day do to accelerated loss of critical thought under the guise of an entity called civilization.
We will perish, or civilisation will perish, like many others before. Nothing new, a rule of nature, too many in the ecosystem, nature takes care of it. Its only painfull for those who survive, to live with the memories of the past. Those who die dont care anymore. And its not just human couses, see supervulcano a cool documentary film. I dont mind, I and my family, we have all a small dose of effective, fast working poisson, when things get sick we are out, leave the suffering to those who like to hope.
so , here we are in 2020. I have just turned 70, the world is no better off then say 50 years ago. People are still arrogant , stupid and selfish. Woman want to show men how much better they are by playing footy and cricket. Ladies , don’t try to compete physically, you are build different to men. Compete mentally, or don’t you have a strong enough brain, is it a case of monkey see monkey do. I remember a workmate in the 60’s telling me that if woman were at the front line they would be exchanging recipes instead of bullets, also that the world would end in the four elements (fire water earth and air) look around you people, Mother nature is well and truly pissed off.
This was so beautiful and brutally honest. Something that’s not common these days. The allure of feeling special is too strong.
This is a little lengthy. It’s Christmas Eve, and I have no family, and absolutely nothing to do, so I thought I would respond after Chris. I’m sitting oceanfront in a tropical Florida, two-story, all-glass penthouse. I have a brand new beautiful black Jaguar F-Pace Sport parked out front.
My beloved wife of 53 years together died a horrible death last year from cancer leaving me an emotional wreck and a bunch of money we were going to use for our long retirement. Ha.
I was 100% true to her, but always appreciated pretty women. I promised my wife when she lay dying that I would never date, and instead I agreed to pay for any female companionship I felt I needed, so that the emotional involvement would be minimal and more on a contractual basis. There is no moving on to another woman, I committed to just one for eternity, as I can think of it.
So I took about a half million dollars, maybe more by now, that might otherwise have gone for the support of one kid, if I had had any, and paid between four and six, in a given period of time, gorgeous young women to keep me company, periodically. Three of the four I have now are PhD’s, and the fourth will probably be one. They have been TV personalities, national beauty contest winners, and so forth. Really smart, highly accomplished, and attractive women. Expensive, but not a problem to a man who eschewed children, given that children cost up to a million dollars each to raise upper middle class. I invested the money instead. The girls are exciting but hardly ameliorate my profound sadness.
But what about the subject? I gave up on the world as a survivable planet, as we enjoy it now, a long time ago. Of course about two billion people are not enjoying it and are already living in abject squalor and disease without potable water.
My life was my wife. I have always found most people to be boring and abysmally stupid compared to my wife and me. She was my treasure. Of course humans could have evolved to be a lot smarter than I am, but they didn’t, in the main. My sugar babies are all smart enough that they shudder at the idea of having children. None want any.
Almost nobody I have mentioned the looming crisis from overpopulation to had any thoughts about what I said before I said it, and they didn’t think I was right, usually quipping, “They will do something about it,” such as the fresh water and fish having almost disappeared. Never mind the aesthetic atrocities, such as Newark, New Jersey.
There are two examples that I employ as kinds of mnemonics of the whole problem, meaning the problem of stupidity, not overpopulation per se, which is caused by stupidity. I traveled a lot, and in almost every hotel, and in my current condo, the shower is activated by pulling up on a little stem atop the bath faucet. When you pull it up, it diverts about half the hot water to the shower head, the other half of the hot water runs straight down the drain, because the valves hardly work. This is happening in almost every hotel room in America and much of the rest of the developed world. Nobody is in a mind or position to do anything about it. Politicians don’t do anything but token bullshit to help with anything like that for the environment because almost none of their constituents are looking for them to, and many of them are just in politics for the perks, and more than one might think are sociopaths and couldn’t care less about anything but their wealth, egos, and comfort.
The other symbol is on the beach outside my window. People fish all day and rarely catch anything, because most of the ocean’s fish have been snagged out by the huge trawling nets. Wiki reports that a single pass along the seafloor can remove up to 25% of the seabed life. When I was a kid, 65 years ago, and living on the ocean, you couldn’t toss in a line without pulling out a big game fish. A fisherman I talked to on my beach yesterday told me he caught a really big fish a few days ago. “It was a foot long!” the man boasted.
Oh well. Having a bunch of cute girls to play with was kind of a bucket list thing for me that I said to myself I would do if anything ever happened to my wife. I’ve had my fill and I’m ready to die.
Oh, I just thought of something. One more thing. My realtor, who I rent this condo from, came over for a glass of wine, and insisted that I watch a stupid movie with her. I hate movies. But I appreciated her company so I did. It was entitled, “Deep Impact,” I think, about a giant asteroid that was hurtling toward earth. The governments did everything they could to divert it to no avail. At the end, the US President came on TV and explained to the listening audience the dire truth, ending his talk with, “God bless you, and good luck.” It was hilarious.
Good luck.
Covert and Chris,
I think things are bad, but I don’t believe the world is coming to an end any time soon. And even if it did, I would find it mesmerizing to watch. I know Covert thinks I’m a Pollyanna for having any kind of hope at all, but I do find reality endlessly fascinating.
James, for the record, I am not predicting the world is coming to an end, or even that civilization is. But I recognize that as many people as there were on the planet when I was born are now dying or living in abject misery because of the problems we are talking about. And in a few years from now that number is going to increase substantially. I think it’s interesting that the people who like to say, “They will do something about it,” don’t seem to count the fact that civilization at the size that it was in 1940 has already been laid to waste, because nobody yet has done much about the problems.
And to the person who said Dr. Carl Jung’s theories are BS, I wonder what his or her IQ is compared to Jung’s, and how much research he or she has done on the subject.
And as a tangential, throw-away comment, I’ll also add that throughout my life people have opined that my ideas, like agreeing with Jung, were BS, yet I made millions of dollars pursuing that BS, which turned out not to be, while a lot of the people who discredited my ideas are still walking, not having any original or worthwhile ideas of their own. They are just great amateur critics.
I’ve wished I had the time to read and study Jung. I’ve known many people over the years that admired his work.
america elected trump. russia let putin contr0l them. humans are too stupid to stop reproducing too much. the oceans will be dead soon. chinas leaders are also assholes. actually some of the other countries are no so bad, some of them are even worse. bye bye humans. i wonder what the next dominate life form will be in a few million years. personally i am rooting for ducks or wombats. i think they are cute
Humanity may actually (finally) be on its decline. Phone zombies, anti-vaxxers, texting-while-driving/walking, etc. Of them all, anti-vaxxers are the biggest threat since they’re willingly allowing preventable diseases to rise and mutate. And knowing how fast humanity moves in today’s age….Thousands of people are exposed to the disease. They will then transfer the microbes to even more people. Super Measles/Mumps/Rubella/Tetanus/etc is likely on the way.
Did you hear that many people are getting cancers on their fingers now? I wonder why….. Thumbs and pointer finger tapping away at those screens.
You can’t fight stupidity. Nature/Earth is likely prepping some population culling. Humans are producing bigger and bigger idiots. And humans are condoning the idiots and scorning the intelligent. Humans are protecting the idiots. A woman who kills a family of four because she was texting while driving? The jury felt that she “suffered enough”. Not the victims’ family members, the KILLER suffered too greatly.
Anti-vaxxers would rather spread disease and let children die if only to avoid (GASP!) autism.
Yeah. We may be actually living in humanity’s end times. We’re so proud of our technologic playthings, but that’s all they are: toys. We’re missing the big picture. It’s all falling apart at the seams, but we need our phones to soothe the blows. Shoot, they’ll even brag about the ripping seams on Facebook…..
We’re absolutely stupid. Although I think it’s more likely we’ll die off because we’ve stopped living in and seeing what’s going on in the real world. We see only what the crisis-all-the-time news tells us to see. There are no good days anymore, because if there were, tomorrow would likely be worse, and we’re told to focus on that instead. Somewhere in Mozambique there is a terrible storm, so how can you possibly enjoy the Tulips popping up on your law?
The snails, lizards, and birds on my property don’t hold humans in high regard. We’re busy reacting to imagined fears and possible disasters and totally miss every opportunity to enjoy life. In 2011, the year of the Fukushima nuclear incident, more people died of salmonella poisoning in organically grown cantaloupes than from nuclear contamination. Do we really think young women are in more danger in college than they are working at a local diner? What does the media tell us to think? What do we think?
Stupid of course is a relative term. Yes, most people are stupid compared to bright people. I would guess the stupidest member of my group of friends has an IQ 35 points higher than average (acknowledging the issues with IQ as a measure), and more than half of my close friends are PhDs. I know that no one can be certain of anything, but I feel confident that none of them could have been enlisted by the Germans to kill and torture 6 million people, or into an antebellum lynch mob. And, like myself, most of them didn’t vouchsafe children. We all recognize the world is grossly overpopulated, and while refraining ourselves wouldn’t objectively make a difference, it’s personally aesthetically comforting – and of course it puts millions of extra dollars in our coffers, and buys freedom.
Speaking of 6, America for no intelligent reason spent $6 trillion (not billion) killing a half million people and maiming many more in the Middle East (also counting Americans killed and maimed), and more than half of them were civilians. According to the combined research of three Western universities, the Middle Eastern people America killed have on average IQs under 90. It’s like killing rats in a NYC sewer, they have always acted like rats, they always will, and they will quickly multiply to replace all that were killed.
Then American politicians wonder how they will afford health care for its people. Is that stupid or what? Using that $6 trillion for health care, instead of killing and hurting people, everyone in America would be able to have all the care he or she needed.
A lot of that $6 trillion was lent to us by the Chinese, who by some measures average 6 IQ points smarter than Caucasians. They are not spending the countless billions in interest America is obligated to pay back killing people, but instead in buying up just about everything of value on the planet. Imaging how well the planet could do if people were, say, 20 IQ points smarter. It’s just interesting to think about.
I’m not sure if we can quantify intelligence accurately, especially across cultures, but I do feel as a whole, the human race is smart but just not quite smart enough to survive. I also wonder about the value of intelligence. If no sentient species ever developed, the universe would go along on its merry red-tooth-and-claw way without us. I don’t think the universe cares if we’re here or not. Our intelligence and self-awareness should have made us better creatures, but it has not. If we fail as a species, evolution will continue experimenting unconsciously. I’m still not quite a cynical as you Covert, because I think there’s a tiny sliver of a possibility we’ll get our shit together because it all falls apart.
Stupid is a relative term as Covert Harris points out. Perhaps humans are only acting and behaving in the only way they can. That is in their own best interests. In other words we are only competing for the resources and the prestige we all seek including nation states or any other social groups with a common interest that band together to strive for their collective best interest. Maybe we suffer from cognitive dissonance, the unfortunate downside of self awareness and full theory of mind. We cling to the belief we are agents of free will able to initiate independent action by just thinking of same, which leads to the inevitable conundrum of why do we seem so ‘willing’ to do bad things when we have an obvious ‘choice’ to do otherwise. Could it be time to accept that events, including our own actions and behaviours are simply part of the endless stream of causality in our particular expanding universe?
With this understanding we at least have the ability to appreciate that everything occurs in the only way it can. After all it is hope that defines us as human. Every brain holds a unique world view so by definition the likely hood that future events will hold goodness for all is perilous at best. Better to share optimism in the hope for survival, then be overwhelmed by the sense of pessimism over that which we have no real influence or control.
I agree, brgcorbett. It is mind-blowing that were here, a bubble of consciousness is this vast reality. I do value that. I’m very thankful I got to exist and will be sorry to leave.
We live by false assumptions and narrative fallacies. It would help if we were more Be Here Now. I’m just watching my new kittens play soccer with the shell of a raw peanut.
Agreed. I hold no religious beliefs, however to borrow a Christian theme,…”count thy blessings”. Appreciate the fact we are alive with the opportunity to survive, and able to experience everything around us as it is.
Since my wife died two years and four months ago, I have under a circumstance I won’t bother explaining experienced the company of a coterie of people significantly smarter than average people. They reside in academic communities, such as Cambridge, MA. Most are PhDs, and some are working on their doctorates.
Of course IQ tests measure only some aspects of intelligence, but for the sake of discussion I will use the model to state that the IQs of the people I am talking about are about the same distance from those of normal people as normal people’s IQs are from those of chimpanzees.
These people have not birthed any children, and they don’t plan to. They are apolitical but can easily understand the opinions of opposing political constituencies, while thinking a lot of the tenets are stupid.
I can’t prove it, of course, but I am certain none of them would be in favor of any kind or war, other than protecting nations from something like the German invasions. For example, they certainly wouldn’t be in favor of spending six trillion dollars to fight with Middle Easterners, as the United States has done, while claiming it is difficult to fund national health care.
They are fully aware that one person riding a bicycle instead of driving a car won’t make a measurable difference with regard to the environment, but these people tend to ride bicycles and take public transportation out of an aesthetic identification with doing the right thing. They realize that in the face of 70% of the fish on the planet having disappeared over the last few years that not fishing themselves won’t make a difference, but they don’t like to hurt animals and they again identify with not making the situation worse. Etcetera, etcetera.
And just by the way, their careers and career aspirations involve helping with the world’s problems as much as possible, again out of identification with doing the right thing, not out of any delusional believe that anything can be done to stop the normal (which I rhetorically call moronic) juggernaut toward the destruction of the planet.
What is totally clear to me is that if the average intelligence was at the level of the people I am talking about, we wouldn’t have the problems we are talking about.
I often joke to people who state that something smart is just common sense; that, no, something smart is more often elite sense. Common sense is often not smart. The problem is really not that people are too stupid to survive; they are too normal to survive.
I’m reading a book called Moonshots: Creating a World of Abundance by Naveen Jain who says everyone is mired in defeatism. Jain is one of these rich tech guys with a space program. He says don’t aim to be ten percent better than your competition but aim for a fundamentally radical solution that no one else offers. This is a very gung-ho kind of optimism. I guess Jain would agree with you Covert, that everyone is too normal.
I’m not sure that success is a matter of intelligence. I think luck and aggression play a big part. There are a lot of intelligent people out there that don’t succeed. And there are counterexamples, where dumbasses like Trump do make it big.
What most people consider success is what’s trashing the planet. Like successful aircraft companies smoking up the skies. Successful car companies spewing carbon dioxide everywhere. Successful supersizing marketing campaigns creating mountains of trash. Monstrous smoking industrial complexes. (Look at Newark, New Jersey.) The huge success of plastic water bottles, which are choking the oceans, etcetera.
And, yes, I think it’s been demonstrated that people with slightly above average IQs do better in business, and might be generally more successful, than Mensa candidates.
As for Trump, I would not call him a dumb ass, but I know a lot of people would. He probably has a slightly above average IQ, but an amazing (I might even say genius – idiot savant?) talent for marketing, positioning, entertainment and showmanship.
My point was that very intelligent people might have been able to predict and extrapolate the damage too much of what humans call success would cause soon enough not to be over the top with it. They for sure would have had fewer children, so we wouldn’t be running out of water and need so many roads, buildings, trees cut down, etcetera.
Everyone, regardless of how you want to measure intelligence, will do everything as an individual to survive. In the process each individual has to compete with others to obtain a modicum of prestige at the expense of others trying to obtain the same thing. The greater society of communities with in which we live and eek out our existence represents the sum total of all interactions between all humans. This macro is beyond the influence of any one cohort’s ability to affect a particular desired end. So the whole thing is one huge sophisticated dense complex exercise in, let’s say… survival.
Now this is all happening against the backdrop of scarcity, as the biosphere by definition is limited. This is the underlying assumption for the evolution of life on our particular planet including ourselves. We are arguably the most successful species on earth if the measure of survival is the ability to pro-create. Given our technology we have been able to overcome barriers to our own survival including the scarcity imposed by the environment.
All to say is that our senses serve us well whether common or elite. We will continue on with the natural business of survival because that is what our brains have evolved to do. Nothing more nothing nothing less. It’s only our capacity for self awareness that gives us the ability to comment on the topic one way or the other and everything in between.
Remember survival means many things. It could be a smaller portion of the total population that remains after a catastrophic miss-calculation that precipitates a nuclear winter, or the forces unleashed from a sizeable extraterrestrial impact. It can be the slow burning fuse of an overheated atmosphere over time in which our technology is unable to mitigate the deleterious effects on a sizeable portion of us. It’s all survival none the less. Compared to these examples the status quo is looking pretty good.
I agree that stupidity has really nothing to do with survival. Collectively we are all individuals looking after ourselves in the best way possible. To invoke the anthropic principle, we wouldn’t be here to have this conversation unless this were not the case. In the end we are all acting in our own best (self) interest. That should be good enough. At least it’s worked so far.
The one thing that defines humans (because we are self-aware) is hope. Our imagination projects all manner of possible futures. Good and Bad, and every thing in between. As long as individuals are doing the best they can the rest doesn’t really matter. We are not in a position to influence the outcome of all possible catastrophic events. If our brains are doing the right thing, than they will keep on doing the right thing. That’s all good.
We have just as much chance to survive in some shape or form as not. Normal has worked out so far.
There are just too many very severely mentally disturbed people in this world unfortunately, and very extremely dangerous as well.
So true,…however also true is the motivation to survive offers no guarantee’s of same. Safety and security from all potentials threats is a luxury left to hope. We exist in a large game of chance. Count your blessings while you still can . For the most part, the rest is beyond any one individual’s ability to determine in their favor.
Collectively the rules of chance are the same. Hopefully groups and societies of well meaning folks are able to keep small and large situations ‘normalized’ to the extent that we can reduce the potential for bad things to happen more often.
I personally don’t think you are being pessimistic enough. Humanity is a failed experiment, and the cosmos is trying to end it to prevent it from spreading beyond this little petri dish of a planet.
The universe doesn’t care what we do. Reality generates an endless variety of anti-entropic marvels. I don’t think we’re a failed experiment. I think we’re just another random spinoff.
Aesthetically, I wished we weren’t such a destructive species, but we are what we are. Evolution is a very wasteful gristmill.
On the other hand, I am quite thankful for getting my tiny short view of reality. It’s rather far out, by any measure.
religion and politics (with them laws) creates divide, the opposite of a collective mind… if we dropped our material meeds (money, and need to own) we could afford the biggest rescue mission for humankind, and save earth. but no wallstreeter (or wannabe`s) gonna let go. but imagine the future we could have buildt, traditions kept and bullshit left behind. care and share the dangers and delights towards the future, our next kind would benefit of
The United States Government spent somewhere between six and eight trillion dollars killing Arabs for no reason, and apparently no understanding that the one’s left have as many as eight children per family to more than replace the million or so killed, and they are angrier than the one’s that were killed. Think how much health care could be provided to Americans with, say, seven trillion dollars. And there is a considerably bigger multiplier effect with health care spending compared to building weapons.
People argue whether overpopulation and robotics replacing reason and civility will destroy civilization. It depends on how you define civilization. In many ways it is already gone. Pulsing protoplasm alone does not spell civilization. Supersize me man!
I’m going to give a different perspective to everyone who shames/blames their outer reality. Many of our great authors try to convey the human experience & how to ‘bring heaven to earth’ through metaphorical stories. Remember how Dorothy awoke on a realm with munchkins who seemed to come ‘short’ of understanding? Remember Dorothy experienced an ugly reality with the witch, monkeys, mean Wizard? Well, Dorothy decided to leave the munchkins to follow her heart (red shoes). She met 3 tall friends who mirrored her fears or blockages (mind/heart/shame). The third chakra is associated with shame & blame. And that’s the 3rd friend Dorothy met…the lion. The lion shamed & blamed the ‘terrible’ world. Every character Dorothy met was a reflection of HERSELF. In order to ‘clean’ all her ‘chakras, Dorothy had to get to Emerald City (green heart chakra). There, all her blockages were cleaned (snip, snip, here). She killed her dominating ego (wicked witch) with water (water symbolizes spirituality or baptism). Glenda (Dorothy’s higher self) waved the wand of awakening over Dorothy’s third eye. Dorothy had opened all 7 chakras in order to ascend over the 7 colors of the rainbow. Dorothy flew like a BLUE bird, except she wore a BLUE dress. Many of us think ourselves so important like the Wizard, but we’re just full of hot air (balloon). What we see in our outer reality is a mirror of ourselves. We’re supposed to work on ourselves, our spirit. We’re supposed to raise our inner frequency to joy & become spiritually powerful. We are supposed to realize we have the power all along. Not to change the munchkins, to change ourselves. We usher heaven & shift realities by doing the work. When we are like the lion with shaming/blaming…we pull our own tail of fear. Do you know why Dorothy didn’t try to teach the munchkins how to ‘grow’ their spirit or to walk the yellow brick road of transformation? Because no one really existed there except her….because everyone WAS her.
See? We change the world by changing ourselves. We’re all connected.
“We” is the operative word. For every human who thinks in glowing, archetypal symbolism like you do, there are at least a million dirtballs who can’t think at all.
if everyone in the world farted at the same time would we all die or just a handful shit the pants they wear ? can you imagine how loud that would be ? sorry for really going deep on my thoughts. Imust now go poop
No comments here during this time of coronavirus?
An EMT worker who saved my life a week ago has succumb to the COVID-19 Virus in rural Western Wisconsin. Just in time for the great reopening! Enjoy River Falls, Wisconsin! 1918, 2020, the end result is the same, some prime farmland will be available to be made into an extension of McMansions and failed Box Stores, just like Woodbury MN! hurray! But by all means get your fucking haircuts ❤
Covid make me 63 years old work from home my older wife risking her live everytime she get the thing to sustain live and bringing it home. so here is a heads up . The great not so artifical intellengence who started life on the small sfere in the universe is going to fix it very soon.I suggest you take the rest off your life to study how it`s going to happen and i asure you you will not be disappointed nor have reason to be
depressed. But i agee with all the reasons you hav collected. This humanity is in desperate need fpr a divine intervention.
In other words conservatives and religious people are the problem. Blaming one or two groups for everything is something I can’t stand in humanity.
How did you take James’ entire list and attribute all of those things to conservatives and religious people? I mean, pollution? Scarcity? Corruption? Crime? Misogyny? Prejudice? Disease? Why do you think those are uniquely conservative/religious problems?
I enjoy reading articles from people who take a stab at thinking about problems, especially big problems. You have to at least try – right? Like a kid attempting to ride a bike without training wheels. You root for them so hard and when they fall you feel their pain as much as they do.
I feel you pain James. You’re trying to understand what’s wrong with your species, but the problem is you’re part of the species and therefore part of the problem. Your mind isn’t capable of the level of understanding required, so you grasp at things to blame like religion or pollution. You try to boil it down to something you can understand and fix.
You see, James. Your species is not capable of understanding the world it occupies. You scoff at religion and believe you follow science, yet your science is a religion in and of itself. How many of your scientific theories have been replaced with another, and then another. Religion was your first attempt at science and still is.
Only a few centuries ago you didn’t understand electricity, then a few intelligent souls split an atom and you went straight to creating a bomb, blew up a couple of cities, and then build a lot more of them. Splitting the atom is simple, knowing what to do next takes a level of intelligence your species does not possess.
For all practical purposes, you’re a species that is driven by envy at its core. You call inequality a problem because you see someone who has more than you. Your perception of inequality is simply your envy of others. You want “rich people” to “pay their fair share”. No, you want those in power to take from those who have more and give it to you.
You’re a species that never sees past its own personal want. Your minds only understand what it wants and how to compete for resources, which you do somewhat admit in your article. No human has ever committed a purely selfless act for another. To think you have is self-delusion as best.
The question is, can your species get past this? The short answer is no. Your evolutionary track is a dead end. You are a waring primate that evolved enough intelligence to become the most proficient at war over the others. Now your waring species will soon turn on itself because it has no real external threat. Your civilization crash is just around the corner and there’s nothing you can do to stop it.
If you’re curious, yes, the universe is watching, but with a passive sigh. You’re a flash in the pan. Your existence was almost too short to record. The summary on humanity will read, Nice Try.
CB, you write as if you’re from another species?
Saying “your science is a religion in and of itself” is a bit silly. If the statement was contextualized with an explanation of how and in which ways they were similar, it may provide something to discuss, but as a blanket statement it’s absurd. And then to say, “How many of your scientific theories have been replaced with another, and then another?” That’s the whole point of science – to learn and grow and push the boundaries of knowledge, to refine ideas over time. It’s not like Einstein’s relativity supplanted Newton’s theory of gravitation with wizard’s magic. Einstein added a deeper understanding, and proposed an equation and system that more accurately describes and predicts. Replacing or refining theories is literally the point of science.
Basically you are describing what contitutes survival. The actions and behaviours on the part humans that would achieve same. Its not pretty for sure, however it is the way human brains (and others) have evolved to compete for scarce resources in a limited biosphere. The whole ‘purpose’ is for the individual to live long enough to succeed in passing on it’s genetic inheritence.
The constraints on survival are the same for all species of life that live now or have lived since water collected on the earth’s crust. Some spieces succeed others do not. such is the endless stream of causality in our particular expanding and accelerating universe.
Of course Humans are unique in that we have a level of self awareness far more sophisticated than any other. We can sense this by the ways and means in which we can modify the natural environment around us. We lable this technology. No other species can claim as much. In a closed system such as our biosphere here on earth there are limitations as to what technology can accomplish without impacting that same biosphere. As far as we know at least through the scientific method ( and yes it is just another belief system, although with many practical adavantages,…say vaccine’s for example which enables controlled herd immunity with fewer casualties,…there is that damm survival thing again…)
The conservation principle which underlies all transactions in the physical world (at least in respect to a belief in the scientific method) applies as well to the dense sophisticated and complicated macroscopic environment that we percieve through our senses as ordinary matter (The world around us including other humans and other life like viruses). The energy required to modify that environment comes with a price in a closed system like our biosphere. We ‘know’this because we can measure things and thereby predict potential futures. Existance is just a large series of tradeoffs occuring moment to moment in time. The idea is to build or utilze techology that enures our survival and our continuation as a speices. It gets messy because all brains need a modicum of recognition. acknowledgement and prestige to start with so don’t necessecarily have the same idea/motivation to accomplish same at any given moment within the same stream of activity inside groups/nation states and on it goes,…messy to be sure,…even wastefull. Thus wars and destruction which in our imagination maybe percieved as counter productive, only reflects the nature of competition which of course determines who lives and who dies.
Survival afterall is for the fittest not the most elagant
The one thing that defines us as being human is hope. That we will survive and that our chidren will survive and their children. Through reproduction of our kind,…we will survive. The key is to consider that we are not agents of free will that can arbitrarily ‘choose’ to survive. Our brains have evolved to accomplish this deed and will continue to do so despite the fact that we may not achieve same. There are many specices that have failed. That potential is always a possibility for us humans too. In the meantime each of our brains act and behave in the only way ‘they’ can
Our imaginations sometimes mistake this state for something we label nilhism. This brain state would represent a lack of hope. Fortunately a vast majority of human brains reflect a state we sense as hope. In the end that’s the best we can really,… dare I say,…hope for
Though our thoughts are very much the same, if you hold on just 1more day, BIG changes may be on the way.
What humans are doing is not a problem because there is nothing or no-one who is looking down on the protoplasm to declare it so. It would only be a problem to an entity who could do something about it.
Ask Germany about that, all there power lines are what? underground all there forests are clean of debris
Underestimating the Challenges of Avoiding a Ghastly Future
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fcosc.2020.615419/full
It comes down to this: 87% of stupid humans believe in magical gods, 87% of humans have an IQ of brain dead to average and only approximately 13 % of humans have a IQ over average. The exponential factor of stupid breeding with stupid will reduce that 13% to 0% really soon. Already, the republican party has reached 0% above average IQ. That’s around 43% of America, if not more.
As to the general idiocy of the human race, IQ is probably important, but there are other things to consider. Many people are “captured” by ideologies, that is, by beliefs which are independent of experience. Religions are only part of this. Belief in “the market” or in “capitalism” (or various right-wing ideologies) lead people to be unable to “hear” arguments from experience. People who believe in religious or other “orthodoxies” are often so convinced that they know a portion of “the truth” (or all of it that matters) that they refuse to consider contrary evidence from human experience. (Consider unwillingness to allow or support birth control measures and abortion in a vastly overpopulated world.) Look at the crazies who believe in Trumpism and “stop the steal” and so forth.
And then consider all the generals who only plan to fight the last war, not the next war. Read Barbara Tuchman’s “The Guns of August”. And politicians whose only concern is their own re-election, not anything else about the future.
I used to be so disappointed in “engineering” that I told people that “engineering is at best the art of solving only part of the problem” (namely, the part the fellow pays you to solve), and gave as an example the failure of the nuclear engineers to solve the problems of disposing of nuclear wastes.
The folks who say, “Sure the fires in California, Colorado, Australia were terrible, and the freeze in Texas was awful, and the hurricanes, and the rising sea levels, and so forth, yes, really awful, but it would be too expensive to do anything to truly oppose the Climate Crisis, financial prudence demands doing nothing!” — and you don’t know if these nay-sayers are ideologues of “financial prudence” (as if anything about finance will matter after catastrophe strikes) or ideologues of “there is no such thing as man-made global warming” or just intensely selfish people who want to be left alone, undisturbed, so they can go about getting re-elected or running their business or going to their tea-parties or their drunken binges.
you may be right, you may be wrong, but definitely could use a math class 😀
THE HUMAN RACE IS TOO IGNORANT, GREEDY, SELFISH AND POWER MAD!!! WE ARE KILLING OURSELVES FOR THE ABOVE REASONS!!! SODOM AND GOMORRAH ARE BACK, AND MANKIND IS FINISHING WHAT IT STARTED!!!
what is your mantra or mission statement…
do no harm…dnh
if you do…fix it
are you here to help or hinder
if you are not here to help…maybe you are here to be helped
Dear Author and responders of this forum, I know you said not to read if we have depression or any mental issues but.. what does it really matter? Exposure is everywhere no matter what. My background is proof and only reason I share it below, is to open thoughts and ideas in all the readers here. I’m basically just playing the lab rat here to open possible solutions for those who can make changes today, to ad a spark or new window of seeing maybe, idk. I’m useless myself.. Spent my life dedicated to martial arts since military couldn’t have me for being screwed in the head arleady.
I read an article last weekend about times in the 70’s, how humans were supposedly generally happier, with less going on then today, in all the mental/emotional fields and aspects that are scewed today for propoganda, seperation, confusion and generally, causing society to melt further under government corruption. In the 70’s kids weren’t diagnosed for PTSD or bipolar nearly as much like today and myself for example, having chronic-depression/anxiety, insomnia (also have exploding head symrdome), epilepsy and fear forms of PTSD.
I was born and raised around farms in Idaho. Grew up knowing hard work, hunting, only speaking when asked to and never questioning my father, lest he considered it arguing and desides to hit me, even if i was only curiously asking. Force raised a Christian Baptist, by an abusive, bible raging father.. In a broken family of 5 kids including myself.
Mother was beaten and we all watched since I was 7, the latest I clearly remember. I was the middle child, with one younger full blood brother and full blood older sister. Mom and dad were always seperated as far as I remember.. mom liked to date Hispanics and Arabics and Dad stayed alone, every few years Mom and dad fight over who gets us, both were poor, sometimes us kids huddled on the streets with mom and people came by giving us food, I was still just 9 years old then. Mom was crying that night.
I had heavy, early cultural exposure (watched a baby lamp hang upside down live, and get gutted down the belly when i was 10, in an Arab’s back yard) and watched my oldest half brothers run away in their pre-teens. One turned to heavy crime life permantly, while the oldest died of a born heart disease, (also born mentally handicapped) at age 32, in assisted living due to alcohol and depression. (because our mom was years dead by then). Mom died when i was 16, living under a narccisstic step-mother and my father until I finally ran away when I turned 19.
In the house, in school, in my neihborhoods, I was alwasy physically abused and no stranger to that or anger.
I lived an entire live completely anti-social with zero freinds, we always lost houses and had to move somewher or let dad take us when mom couldn’t afford us. Nutshell me.. a terrible result of society and living in my own mental/emtional lonely prison with no one and nothing but my life of scars and suffering and losses. I don’t know what happened to my sister or younger brother.. haven’t heard from them in a decade or so.
I guess my point is I think it’s the human mind itself, and our lack of control/understanding of it as a whole, and focusing on the WRONG aspects as a whole, cuasing more seperations and confusions and equations that don’t even need to exist.
The world is so nosiy and confusing now and we keep creating more noise and no one is remaining calm, rational or in mental control to see the only 1 biggest issue going on. We are too stuck in our individual realities.
We don’t see the big picture that we are all just energy in temporary vessels and it’s not about preserving ourselves that will fullfill us, It’s living for a true vibration within you that only will do that. Who really knows what they even want today? There is too much violence and noise everywhere.
Perhaps we let our minds control us more than we think because we can’t really harness the power of it. Our instincts control us too. I don’t see how we are any better than animals at all. I find animals more pure, at least they don’t battle themselves internally and create messes around them in the proccess.
Thank you for your post and thank you all who resoneded. I read alot in here and feel less alone now.
I was thinking this morning upon reading about Biden scaling back funding for climate initiatives, Marin County running out of water, and the Amazon rainforest being ruined, how nothing at all could ever be done about the world’s civilizations crashing. And I have read that if every climate initiative proposed were to be enacted it would only postpone the inevitable by maybe 20 years.
The initial asseveration of this long thread is that people are too stupid to survive. They are not stupid, because that would mean that most of them are below average intelligence. They are average thinking, but average thinking looks stupid to smart people.
Fossil fuel producers are gearing up to produce more energy rather than less because need for transportation, plastic products, agriculture, et cetera follows population growth.
Civilization as many people currently enjoy it will end because there are already six billion too many people for sustainability.
@Gabriel, I am sorry to hear about all the suffering and tribulations you’ve gone through in your life. Somehow you seem to have reached a point where you’re able to step back and look deeply at the world, rather than get stuck in your own head. Not an easy task, I suspect, for someone who’s gone through so much.
You’re right. We are all stuck in our individual minds. It’s hard to break out of that. If only more people had a greater empathy and understand of others — not just people, but also other species — the world would be a better place.
I don’t take credit for anything because I’m still learning so much about myself and things I haven’t healed from in the past which echo in my character and emotions and even logic patterns, mostly things due to my biological father and I think one of things I have been doing without realizing, is acting or thinking like my bio father did toward me as a child. My dad always had plenty of criticism toward the world with what i didn’t realize at that age was narcissism.
It’s partly what you said about stepping back and looking deeply at the whole world but mostly internalized self abuse and criticism that cuases me to step out of myself so often, also because I just don’t know myself at all.
Reading back on my first story of a comment.. I can see how much I’m like some of the worst parts of society that are unpredictable with such contrast coexisting in one person. I never really feel like I’m a good person but that i’m on the journey to learn how to be one.
Lately my behaviors and emotions are more childlike again, after some breakthrough healing this year.
I’m trying to find different activities and ways to get out in nature again and away from work life, to find more hidden things that need to be healed and so i can come back with a sense of self and hopefully have a positive outlook on life instead of what originally lead me to this forum.
Your reply is taken to heart and how you show so much general love and care about this world.
Lately I’ve taken a break from all the studying i do on free time into philosophy and science and just keeping a focus in enjoying “being” and breathing and living each moment. No longer attached to past or future, only now is all I have and all that exists.
Today i was wondering and curious how the world would be if all civilizations and governments simply banished from existence and the world lived without laws.. how would the balance change.
You’re an inspirational guy Mike, thanks you for recognizing the main goal in us all.
Reblogged this on Freethinkers Notes.
Freemasons love mass extinction
Here’s a YouTube video that this group might like
I don’t know that I’d say I “like” the video, but I do sadly agree with the content. For some reason, few people seem to truly understand that we are part of the ecosystem of Earth. Maybe civilization and cities disconnect us from that reality? In any case, I see no way forward. Collapse seems inevitable, barring intervention from an alien species (sure) or a sufficiently advanced AI that takes over (sure). And even then, like he points out, it’s probably too late.
I expect our collapse will take a very long time, and it doesn’t mean we’ll disappear. Italy existed after the fall of Rome.
The universe seems to be constantly in flux. Maybe it doesn’t like staying the same.
I have a feeling the collapse into horrible, trying, living conditions will be quicker and sooner than most people think. When I first found this post, I had the sense that humanity would fall into a ruinous state within a hundred years. Now, with the rise of autocrats and the celebration of ignorance, I wouldn’t be surprised if it happens quicker.
Like you say, and as the video suggests, it may not mean human extinction, but it won’t be pleasant, especially during the collapse of society, as people try to cling to what was, and are wracked with fear and panic.
I agree with you about the Universe. If you look at reality and try to come up with a cosmic, objective value, it seems to be just this: change.
Sadly, this essay seems even more appropriate some nine years later. Putin, Trump, pandemic, runaway climate change, we go from bad to worse.
Id love to see some revised comments to the previous ones by commenters. This reads like it was written today, not 2014.
I’d love to see some revised comments from the past commenters. This reads like it was written today, not 2014. It seems even worse now.
I agree with maryplumbago. It has been interesting to read the comments through the years since this was first published. Here is a brainteaser for you: Years ago I read a short story that posited that an alien (meaning off-planet) race was interested in Earth as real estate; with a few modifications to atmosphere and climate it would suit them fine. They took the long view, and instead of just blasting us off the planet (so wasteful) they modified operatives to look human and because they had limitless resources they were able to place these operatives in key positions to steer humans into making the changes they wanted. The thing that has stuck in my mind is how feasible this premise is, if one looks at history and policy through the last 100 years or so. It drives me crazy that I cannot remember the title of this story or the author. Maybe with your advanced research, you have come across it? It seems to me it might have been in an early issue of Fantasy and Science Fiction, but that is not necessarily the case. Thanks for your time.
Sarah, that doesn’t ring a bell, but I’ll research it and see if I can ID that story. If you like science fiction, you might like my other blog.
https://classicsofsciencefiction.com/
I just reviewed a story by a 91-year-old man. The story moved me. You might be old enough to appreciate it too. Sadly, John Alfred Taylor died last month at 92.