The Broadest Perspective

The Pope was in Africa late last month to early this month, and made an appeal to developed countries to stop plundering the continent’s resources, especially in the Congo. He lamented the long history of colonialism, with its centuries of oppression, plunder and environmental degradation. This sordid history is a combination of national empire-building, private greed and religious zealotry, and now appears as economic colonialism.

Depending on the imperial power the religious zealotry has varied somewhat, but the Catholic Church has played a key role historically. It is no stranger to enslavement and genocide, all in the name of serving God. The Pope has found religion, so to speak, about exploitation. 

The Pope's speech comes at a time when we are finding out that modern-day slavery in the Congo powers the rechargeable battery economy worldwide.

Last month another story emerged, an investigation of the Pegasus program that was created by the Israeli company NSO Group. Pegasus is an invasive "spyware" that is planted in the cellphones of unsuspecting users. It enables hackers to see everything on anyone’s phone, giving authoritarian and repressive regimes such a powerful instrument of surveillance.

In a group investigation by journalists worldwide, Pegasus software is implicated in revealing the movements of opponents to dictators and repressive governments. Pegasus was used to track the movements of Saudi dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi, enabling government agents to murder and dismember him. Many others around the world have been targets of Pegasus spying.

Another item in the news that was largely ignored is the use of facial recognition software in China. It has been around for a while, but lately it is being used to identify protesters in the recent uprising over COVID restrictions. It is another example of how technology can be used as a means of oppression. It can be called personal hacking, because a person’s face is used to trace his or her movements and presence anywhere on the planet.

So exploitation and oppression are running rampant, it would seem. Many writers of "leftist" persuasion are decrying the worldwide trend towards authoritarian rule and, horror of horrors, fascism. The end of "democracy," as if such a form of government exists anywhere.

It is almost a parlor game among "leftists" to bemoan the immanence of fascism, a sort-of alarm-porn, or outrage-porn, seizing every opportunity to spread fear of the diffuse and vague "right wing." Years ago I was accused of being a "right-winger" by a local radio host, because I questioned the existence of the "right wing." To this person anyone was "right wing" who had a different viewpoint. She is still on the air, making all her nowhere plans for nobody. The Rosa Klebb show.

This is something I keep in mind whenever I hear laments about "ideological" threats. There are definitely evil authoritarians in this world, but there also is a myriad of self-styled "experts" and fear mongerers who feed their egos with exhortations of threat. Whenever there is a demonstration, rally, march or protest I always look to the person with a bullhorn. This is the opportunist, the self-appointed leader, the grandstander and the demagogue. Disagree with or challenge such a person at your peril.

What I find most tiresome about "leftists," though, is their intellectual weakness. They can only look at one "issue" at a time, in the most Western, reductionist way possible. Limit the context as much as you can.

The spread of authoritarian rule is a perfect example. This trend somewhere is a trend everywhere. We, the powerless, must fear these despots. I wrote a while back about the predictions of fascism, suggesting that, given the quality of aspirants, Doofus Fascism would be a more accurate designation. Way back in 2005 I wrote about the foreboding of fascism in this blog post.

It is all kind of moot, though, because the subject of fascism is discussed without context, in reductionist fashion.

There is one overriding context that predictions of fascism ignore and/or avoid. Climate change. It is the overriding context that makes all other concerns relatively small or even meaningless. Biologist Paul Ehrlich was interviewed on 60 Minutes (also here) last month, and when asked about climate change, he said "We’re through. This civilization has about 20 years left, and then it is over."

So even if fascism becomes the law of the land, it will not be a law that includes the land. Capitalism will be gone, as will Nationalism, Socialism, Communism, Monarchism, Catholicism, Judaism, Jihadism/Sharia Law, or any other ism that purports to be the answer to life. We, as a species, have had many millenia, eons really, to get it right, and have destroyed ourselves and most other species in the process. It will be painful for our species as the denouement approaches, but I think it is safe to say that the remaining life on this planet will not miss us.

So what do we do? If we knew we would already have done it. As long as human industrial systems are concerned, growth of economic output outweighs all other concerns. We have known about global warming for at least fifty years, but for most of that time our leadership has been in denial. Many "leaders" still are. De nada. It is here, and deny it or not, we’re through. That includes these "leaders."

I have a few suggestions that might help. One thing we can do is keep things in perspective. How important are any of our concerns when they pale in comparison with the end of human civilization? Are the shenanigans of various members of Congress really so life-and-death? Is gossip about entertainers and other famous people essential to our well-being as civilization approaches its demise?

Then there is the broadest perspective. There was a, er, time before the Universe. Or at least a before. Then there was the Big Bang. The Universe had a beginning, and it will have an end. Our Solar System had a beginning, and it will have an end. We will have been here for a relatively short while. While we are here we can be the best humans we can be.

Without great expectations for the future we can still behave ethically and morally, and hopefully reach a higher level of being. By doing this we can be an inspiration and help for other people, who will be under increasing stress as collapse of civilization approaches at an increasing intensity. Stories abound of how people coped with dire situations – stranded on mountain tops, lost at sea, marooned on uncharted islands, or trapped in caves. We can take the best examples for inspiration on how we can behave.

Breathe, meditate, study. Accentuate the positive. Eliminate the negative. There is a meditative practice called neti neti – not this, not this. If something is false, not helpful, not meaningful, then move on. By eliminating everything that is not truth, eventually all that is left is truth. Civilization will still end, but by living in truth we can still be happy.

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Here's a song. Here's another. Bruce Cockburn. Bobby McFerrin. The Rolling Stones. Cyndi Lauper. The Beatles. Woody Guthrie. Another from Woody Guthrie. Billy Bragg. The Beatles. Cream. Bing Crosby and the Andrews Sisters. The Grateful Dead. Another from the Grateful Dead. Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young. The Grateful Dead. David Byrne. Joni Mitchell. Bruce Springsteen.

Here's a song for all the "white" people out there. 

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Happiness is all in your mind.
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Just to add some more perspective, I wrote about the folly of infinite economic growth in 2007. Here's an excerpt:

And just to broaden the context a bit further, we have an economic system that has to have increased output every year in order to keep functioning. It is known as the growth imperative, and it applies to individual business entities as well as "countries."

Put simply, under current conditions, world population, now 6.6 billion people, will likely keep growing at its current rate of 1.167% per year, and the consumption of fossil fuels will likely increase accordingly, if not at a greater rate. Using the "Rule of 72," world population will double in about 61 years. That means there will be 13.2 billion people on the planet by 2068. Given an average football stadium capacity of 75,000 people, that would be 1,760,000 football stadiums filled to the brim. With 194 countries in the world, the average number of full stadiums would be a little over 9,072 per country.

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World population is now 8,020,468,793 and counting.

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It is moot at this point. We won't be growing much without a civilization. We will at least know how we got here, and in the next civilization maybe we will have some idea of what not to do.

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R.I.P. Burt Bacharach. His music was part of the theme music of the late 1960s and early '70s. I was in Los Angeles when Do You Know The Way to San Jose came out in 1968, and it was on the radio all the time. I finally passed through San Jose in 1997, was unimpressed. I took a nap in my car, then continued on to the Grand Canyon. Nowadays it is good to know the way out of San Jose.

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One of the leading figures in the August 12, 2017 neo-nazi, etc. rally has killed himself. His given name was Teddy Landrum, but he changed his last name to "Von Nukem." He was due to stand trial for smuggling fentanyl, but didn't show up, having shot himself, presumably in the head. It is always sad when someone ends his or her life, but in this case there is a lesson. He took the low path of "racial" hatred and violence. When you take one low path, it isn't a great distance to another. "Right wing" extremism to drug smuggling to self-terminating.