Does it
require an exceptional individual or any particular think tank to recognize
humanity is teetering on the very brink of calamitous disaster? A significant
percentage of humanity is suffering immensely, yet the majority of this is
brought on by the way we do things in our existence. Most governmental leaders
function in a way facilitating their power and influence for their own benefit
rather than the benefit of the people they represent or lead, and there are
numerous governments that unfortunately perceive their people as something to
be quashed or controlled. Few societies function peacefully anywhere on this
planet and then only because they’re quite small in size and scope coupled with
most being in agreement of the situation or at least in acquiescence to it.
Fewer societies operate with a working financial system functioning for the
benefit of the said society as a whole and in fact, most are forcing upon
themselves severe financial hardship. Multiculturalism has failed so horribly
that everywhere this experiment has taken place suffers immense adversity few
can explain honestly. Religious dogma runs the mindset of most people despite
the claims of secular tolerance and there is at least one major religious
doctrine demanding all others toe its line or face annihilation.
Places
where life is relatively peaceful are far too few and far between, and most
places endure continual trouble emanating from more sources than most can
identify. Further, it seems there are too few people who desire any form of
peace in their world unless an insurmountable and numerous amount of
unrealistic demands are met. Few countries can claim a hefty amount of strong
allies yet many harbor numerous potential enemies of some level of threat. In
fact, many countries, most to be fair, are strictly out for the benefit of
their specific homeland and are more than happy to see their society benefit
from the suffering and woes of other nations. A few of these nations, such as
North Korea, function to appease the psychopathy of one influential individual
who wallows in grand megalomania while the citizenry is reduced to a hostage
crisis.
Racial
tensions are at a breaking point despite the impressive gains made on the front
of easing these tensions. Tolerance is at such an all-time low that people feel
more than comfortable in confronting others around them for the slightest of
irritants. Demands are so widespread and numerous that they’re equitable to the
amount of people making such demands and yet no other demands matter but the
ones claimed by those claiming them. Many Islamists demand the world convert to
their way of thinking and believing or else, and far too few people even care
to recognize their world is akin to a plane in a tailspin spiraling to the
ground.
The world
seems continually at the brink of war and most people today find such an
outcome just shy of inevitable. Honestly, many look forward to it. Preparing
for an upcoming apocalypse has become trendy and quite in vogue; so much so
that those who aren’t on the bandwagon are seen as sure to suffer and die when
the shit hits the fan. They should’ve read the pamphlet.
Is this
what we are? Does this really make sense that in this day and age and after our
kind recognizes the incalculable suffering the world has endured in the past we
should focus on ensuring the suffering of the past wanes in comparison to
what’s to come?
So it
would seem. There are still vast amounts of people alive today who were there
to witness and endure the Holocaust that occurred during WWII, yet it seems
there are so many more who believe it wasn’t nearly bad enough and needs to be
repeated and then escalated to levels the world has not seen since the
catastrophe ending the era of the dinosaur. The percentage of people who
believe only their way is the way is so high that these people are seeking
grander endeavors in order to ensure their approach rises above all the rest,
at just about any cost, even when they know with confidence their philosophy
and methodology only serves their microcosmic interests at the expense of just
about everyone else.
How could
we possibly expect the world to function into the long-term in this manner? It
seems that very question has no place in the dialogue and rhetoric we hear from
every rooftop.
We have to
consider that such suffering and violence has been a significant part of the
human landscape since time immemorial. The civilizations of the past two
centuries have actually lessened the problem to some degree (based on the rise
in the human population over the past two centuries despite the warfare) but it
seems this is akin to tectonic plates pushing against one another for far too
long. The illustration here is to indicate when minor earthquakes occur it’s
due to smaller shifts, but great pressure built up for too long breaks loose
with tremendous force, causing catastrophe. This helps color in the point that
humanity just might be building up to a grand and horrifying quake that will
surely be felt around the world.
The Book
of Revelations tells of the End Times, but this is not the only series of
prophecies warning of this. Islam also harbors similar prophecies, and even
Nostradamus warns the world will suffer the greatest woes of warfare before a
grand peace eventually reigns supreme. There is no way of knowing surely if any
of this will certainly come to pass and most secularists find these claims
baseless, superstitious and bizarre.
But
historical relevance certainly helps us prophesy where we are going via
empirical data, and it doesn’t appear attractive. All the signs indicate we are
on a precarious brink.
I believe
it’s wise to peer at our kind from outside it if we can. Religious doctrine
will say what it will, but we can easily recognize we are a creature not much
unlike any other creature in existence (but for extraordinary exceptions). What’s
more, we are a predatory creature and an apex one at that. While at first
glance this may seem as though we face few if any significant predators hunting
our kind (unless one wanders in the wilderness unprotected or bleeds in
shark-infested waters) but Nature always demands a sense of balance. Lions,
crocodiles and other predators help keep down the wildebeest population and
frogs eat bugs, snakes eat frogs, falcons eat snakes and perhaps the eagle may
prey on the falcon if he isn’t careful. A bear just might kill a wolf for a
deer kill. My taxonomic skills just aren’t to par but the point is that there
really isn’t anything out there killing us; a predator that masters most
environments it chooses even at the expense of the indigenous species is
dangerous by any standard. This has allowed us to expand from eons of
maintaining a world population of somewhere near two billion to ballooning to
more than seven billion in less than two centuries. To add to this, the human
population has nearly doubled in the last fifty years, and that population
fifty years ago was a record at the time.
Is it a
stretch to assume something might be looming on the horizon?
The state
of the world combined with upset balances in most ecosystems and even the
global influence demonstrates there has been a level of upset in the balance of
human coexistence. Now, we hear untold amounts of people crying concerns about
climate change and continual extinctions brought about by human influence and
irresponsibility, but it’s safe to assume Man will not tower over the power of
Nature Itself. Humanity is as susceptible to the ravages of nature just as much
as any other species. But what Nature wants from us is still a mystery,
although the mystery itself seems as evident as a typhoon.
This point
deserves more light on its matter. It is more than reasonable to assume
Humanity harbors no power over Nature and in fact, everything Humanity is
results from the dictates of Nature. A shimmering urban center is no less
natural than a beehive or coral reef. Neon lighting is no less natural than the
light of the sun or the luminescence of the firefly. The city bus is no less
natural than the wings of the eagle. Human technology is Nature’s way of
acknowledging technology is necessary for life. To testify, sixty-five million
years ago, Nature learned the entire planet could suffer irreparable damage and
potentially suffer global extinction, so we can hypothesize it chose a species
to develop a means of global or planetary migration when regional migration
proved insufficient.
This is an assumption but a sound one. Further, humanity
developed a great compassion (not always easily seen, one must admit) and could
someday save the future of innumerable species of this planet long after the
planet is no longer capable of supporting life. Yea, it seems as though I’m
reaching but this assertion is easily defendable with an extended moment’s explanation.
At least it would be difficult to dismiss out of hand.
But Nature
has made it abundantly clear that trial-and-error is the key to evolutionary
progress. So it stands to reason Nature offered humanity the means to be the
apex species leading all Terran life into the future away from this planet, but
something akin to more than 99% of all species have lost out in the past after
proving unable to cope with the changes. Science hypothesizes this planet has
seen several mass extinctions over the past few billion years. Could it be that
humanity has failed the tests placed before it and we are now at the brink of
self-annihilation to make way for a more fitting species to develop Sentience
and Civilization?
Nature
offers us the options. Our nuclear capabilities (no less natural than a beaver
dam) offer to propel us into a high-tech future or to eradicate our future
entirely. Nature offers us the ability to reason and exercise logic, but verily
through the prism of an effective predator. After all, those who prowl the
urban streets with the intent to attack the elderly have to exercise some
significant logistical thought in order to pull the caper off and then escape to
either enjoy the spoils or high-five one another in celebration.
It is fair
to say we are at a severe crossroads. We can accept the challenges to our
intelligent and civilized mind in order to find a way to a better global
society someday capable of reaching the stars, or we can fester in our
predatory intolerance and destroy ourselves to pave the way for the next
sentient species. The successful child predator has to pay close attention to
the details and not miss one bullet point.
But,
there’s more to consider than just the mayhem. These ancient and various prophecies
often tell of a great peace and rising of civilization after the apocalypse in
one form or another. Does Nature demand a grand cleansing across the species to
teach us one final lesson of peace and tolerance? Does Humanity have to
entertain the brink of extinction to learn how to prosper and advance?
Conflicts between countries today are no less natural than the conflicts
between Neanderthals and Cro-Magnons ages ago, or between ant hills. After all,
science has shown there were once numerous species of humanity at various
points in time. There’s but one today, despite all the claims to the contrary.
Some would
argue about the on the brink
assumption but we have to consider that we chose to become dependent on our
technology. We would not simply revert to who and what we were in 1770; we no
longer possess the skills. We couldn’t even revert back to 1900. The loss of
modern technology at this moment (the grid going down and all going dark with
no reliable method of getting it running again) is expected to see population
reduction by as much or perhaps more than 90% within less than a year, and
there’s no way to ascertain how long those left would need to regain peace and
civility, particularly since predation against one another would be the primary
way to survive. Why? Because that is the only instinct we possess.
What
humanity is today is unlike anything it has been in the past. There are so many
more of us than there were two centuries ago, and those skills from then are all
but gone. Nearly everything we do today is entirely dependent on satellite
technology, or at least modern technology. Just about every semi moving in the
Unites States and most other countries depends on today’s technology, so if
that technology is lost, they stop. Commerce and distribution would cease, and
then what? Just about all communication would cease. We would go from being
able to communicate globally to simply word-of-mouth. Civilization would
collapse to chaos and then we can only assume the wreckage to come. We can
safely assume it would be horrific. The strong and predatory would exact
heinous chaos and violence all around, and no child, particularly girls, would
ever be safe. In fact, sex slaves would likely replace gold as one of our more
valuable assets. Hey, it’s what we are.
But some
sort of phoenix would rise from the ashes eventually. Would humanity regain
what it lost and turn everything back on? Certainly the human population would
be so severely reduced that those surviving would have plenty to keep them
busy. It’s just a matter of who is left having the ability and skill set to
even recognize what’s before them. Evacuate everyone from today and bring in
those from two hundred years ago, and then task them with mastering today’s environment,
its technology and options. It’s easy to assume it just wouldn’t happen anytime
soon, and all those satellites out there would continue on their journeys
whilst all below is perfectly oblivious to them until they fall.
But there
being so few people and so much to do just might be the very point. Returning
to a civilized state and being respectful of some sort of law while getting the
power on while others find something to do with all the rotting bodies may be
what’s required for our kind to see what we’ve done to ourselves and the rest
of the planet. Is this what we’re getting ready to do? While I have no way of
knowing one way or another, I do believe my examination and interpretations of
the situation as it stands harbors weight, even if for no other reason than
simply because an honest look at the world today reveals a pathway so
unsustainable that a major paradigm shift is inevitable, and the way we’ve
always done such a shift is through warfare. That’s just simple history. And
how bizarre is it that not long ago the world saw a holocaust of unimaginable
horror and yet today another one promising to be even worse is blooming while
we all sit back and chow on pizza and watch through bored eyes. So to see one
roll their eyes to the mere mention of societal collapse prompts one to almost
feel sorry for these blinded fools.
This
particular post is reaching its end, but I hope to further on the point as time
goes by and I would hope to see some dialogue erupt as a result of these
examinations. And what to do in the meantime? Well, there are a lot of people
far ahead of me, so I first recommend paying attention to them. The Prepping
Industry is thriving as well as those who teach reality-based self-defense, and
companies selling non-firearm weapons (because the AR-15 is dazzlingly
wonderful in its effectiveness…until it runs out of bullets) are doing
wonderful. People all around you are learning to bug out, fight, engage in
combat with blades and blunt force, and survive in a calamitous environment. It
might behoove you to get on some bandwagon while you can.
But none
of this means we have no pathway to improve before we reach some resemblance of
a zombie apocalypse. So while it’s smart to have a way to defend yourself and
your family, we should be even more attentive on engaging in conversations and
activity designed to level the plane before it plows into the mountainside or
the sea. That’s because doing so won’t necessarily stop the apocalypse from
occurring (it seems inevitable to me, to be honest) but at least we’ll have
some damage control in place when TSHTF.
Because
let’s face it; we’re only at our best when things are at their worst.
