Preparing for this blog, I’ve looked through ‘The choice of disasters’, a cool book by Isaac Asimov. I’ve read it first years ago. In it he sets out the hierarchy for such catastrophes, dividing it into 5 categories: the level of Universe, the Solar System level, the Earth level, the human civilization level and, finally, the type of events that would keep humankind alive on this planet but return it into the Stone Age.
I’d rule out cosmic events such as death of the Universe (or the Sun) as it is definitely going to happen but not even in a billion years from now.
I don’t expect, personally, any global nuclear war as I don’t feel the real reasons for it. I don’t also think that any global disease would affect us so much that we just die out or degrade into the Dark Ages. COVID-19 has frightened many but, from a global point of view, it still is a local event, not even the scale of the Spanish flu. No such thing I’d expect to happen. Yep, some asteroid might still hit the Earth. The last time it happened was 11,600 years ago when the Taurids hit us. It led to the Younger Dryas event with its climate change of a global scale. No more mammoths since then. But such things have its timing, and this wound is too fresh to happen anytime soon.
What I’m worried about is still the Level 5 event that would lead the world into degradation. By this event I mean the value of depreciation.
I mean the current events that are going on in the Western world (as in the torch of the human civilization now) such as the ‘cancel culture’, the political correctness going to the extremes at the expense of common sense, and the stuff like #Me_Too, the BLM and the ‘fake news’.
These things are dangerous in the long run though right now they might look like some ‘improvement’ or ‘purification’ of the modern society.
Why should the modern white people feel guilty for the black slavery that took place centuries ago? Where’s the connection when the black criminal, such as Floyd, gets an iconic statue even though he’s still a criminal? The same white bad guy just would not be a saint: nobody would give a damn for him.
Why is Columbus not respected anymore by some for the things he’s done in another time, in another cultural contest? How can we judge people of the past for the things that are not appropriate now but were OK back then?
What about these race/ethnic quotas (whatever they call it) in American universities? You must be judged by your skills not by your skin. It looks like good ol’ racism, but just upside down.
Let me put it straight: If this Black guy is not qualified enough to take the job then don’t hire him only because he’s black. Hire somebody else who fits the job no matter if he or she is black, white, gay, Moslem, Buddhist or atheist. Otherwise, the general level of civilization will slowly but surely melt away. Step by step, year by year…
This moral relativity will lead the West, i.e. the modern civilization, to inferiority in front of the numerous barbarians. The world outside is full of demons such as ISIS. This is the real threat (out of many), no funny stuff. These guys won’t care about silly things such as the BLM. They will just come in and cut your throat if they think you’re weak. They want to live in the Stone Age. Fine. The problem is that they want us to live in the Stone Age.
If we don’t want to degrade humankind, modern civilization must feel strong and proud about the values that once built it. We shouldn’t bow down to the ‘cancel culture’, to the BLM, to the double standards of any kind. Let’s learn history lessons but let’s not change history itself. If we forget our past we won’t make conclusions for the future.
Your skills, not your skin. It is this simple.
Perhaps more wine?
There’s an old saw about how cockroaches will be the last survivors of a nuclear war. I don’t really think that’s true, humans are stuck in every nook & cranny on the planet. We are underground and undersea. If we define the greatest threat facing the human race as getting rid of all people, I don’t think it’s possible unless you destroy the planet. So for my article, I’ll define this as the collapse of modern civilization.
Over the last two-hundred years, the rise of Western Civilization has been nothing less than stunning. Today, every country on the planet mimics the West in many areas. Example: China’s military is so much like the Army from a Western country you would really need to know the exact shape of a jet fighter to tell who is who. Chairman Xi wears a black suit & tie.
That hasn’t always been the case: there is no mistaking a Royal Navy sailing frigate with a junk. These two formidable fighting ships were based on totally different technologies. But no more, today’s navies all look alike and use the exact same technologies. NATO is not using ship designs from Singapore.
Most civilizations seem to last somewhere around one-thousand years. I doubt that’s true anymore because we have shortened all cycles; from technology, to news, to politics, things that used to take decades now take months. Faster, faster has introduced stresses not only on people but also on society itself.
Rome didn’t fall as much as it rotted from the inside out. The rich were never quite rich enough and the system was gamed for the benefit of the few at the top. Western civilization has some benefits Rome never had: for one thing we have the example of what happened to Rome. There seems to be some vague understanding that the white men at the top are parasitic and slowly killing civilization, Roman style.
But the old white men are not without their own weapons. They not only have the money; they have the voice. From Sky News, Australia to Fox News, United States, the Murdoch family has made billions by telling half of the truth all of the time. By purposely misleading their viewers they have been able to hollow out most of the advanced democracies on the planet. Some go without food during a pandemic while the One Percent sees wealth growth accelerate.
The assembled hoard is mad as hell but they are not entirely sure what they are mad about. So they thrash about protesting wearing masks and mumble something about the government. They turn on their glowing boxes only to discover that restaurant owners in Rome have turned to violent protests to stop government overreach. Tucker Carlson has a guest who informs that the vaccine kills. Indeed, forcing your children to wear a mask is serious child abuse and the police should be contacted if you see it.
Did you know the libtard party in America is nothing more than a bunch of satanic worshiping monsters running a child sex ring? It’s true!
In the end, I suppose we deserve what we will surely get: most in the West will end up the modern equivalent of tenant farmers from the Dark Ages. Following a God who cannot hear their prayers while the rich enjoy orgies in the tower. Ummm… the grapes are not quite as sweet this year. Perhaps more wine?
The greatest threat facing the Human Race………
I’ve looked at the possibilities of an asteroid colliding with our planet, and other scientific occurrences that might be beyond the control of the Earth’s inhabitants, and have swiftly come to the conclusion that the biggest threat of all, and the most likely to happen sooner rather than later, is……from the human race.
You see, we are pretty shit as a civilisation, despite thousands of years of learning and intellectual development, and it’s plain to see that we shall destroy our planet far more rapidly than any non-human-based apocalypse.
Just take the pandemic. A properly civilised planet would have shared everything, from first knowledge of what had happened and how it had manifested itself in the first place, to a co-ordinated approach at the best way to protect us all, and finally agreeing a global strategy for a world-wide vaccination programme.
Instead, greed and corruption, the bane of the human race, and most of all utter ignorance and stupidity has meant that millions more have died than should have, millions more have become severely ill, many long term, and we have a vaccine programme that is as diverse as to be brilliant in some places, and almost non-existent, or far too late in others.
Just look at the change of climate throughout the planet, which is getting more noticeable as the years progress. Yet our wonderful scientific progress in the last century predicted all this, told us why is was happening, and what we need to do about it.
So what has our wonderful, educated, superior civilisation actually done about it? Oh yes, we’ve had world-wide conferences and have put together some half-hearted measures that may put off the catastrophe for a couple of years. But a shed-load of climate-change deniers, including heads of government, have put profit and short-termism ahead of common sense and scientific knowhow, putting their collective heads firmly in the sands of Saharan proportions, never to extricate their mind-numbingly stupid brains from the dust. Utterly pathetic.
So long before our Sun becomes increasingly large and eats up what’s left of planet Earth, mankind will ensure the demise of what some of us were lucky to call home. And way before we can find somewhere else to survive.