Given the penchant we have for war, combined with our appetite for natural resources and total disdain of our environment, it bodes ill for the future of the human species.
There is an interesting theory about mass extinctions that goes something like this:
In order to ensure survival of the species, all species bear more progeny than needed for parental replacement.
As a result, the population of the dominant species, which has no predators, will expand until it consumes all available resources and lays waste to the environment making it uninhabitable - at which point it will perish along with many other species that were dependent on that environment.
In the movie "Matrix", while interrogating Morpheus, Agent Smith said, " I'd like to share a revelation that I've had during my time here. It came to me when I tried to classify your species and I realized that you're not actually mammals. Every mammal on this planet instinctively develops a natural equilibrium with the surrounding environment but you humans do not. You move to an area and you multiply and multiply until every natural resource is consumed and the only way you can survive is to spread to another area. There is another organism on this planet that follows the same pattern. Do you know what it is? A virus. Human beings are a disease, a cancer of this planet."
While it's not quite true that mammals instinctively develop a natural equilibrium, it is true that an equilibrium is normally established for most species in the absence of humans. And while humans are not quite like viruses, they are busy consuming all natural resources and laying waste to the environment; and the pace at which they are doing so is ever accelerating.
Given that the high percentage of our species don't understand this and/or don't care about it - especially those in power - the future looks bleak.
Good comment, but I would add that were humans to suddenly disappear, over time another species would gain intelligence and do exactly as we are doing. The enabling thing is technology which provides unlimited ability to take with no requirement to give back. The only difference between our fate and the fate of any animal or plant species is that the time frame for us is far longer. Deer overgraze and in a year or two the herd is severely reduced. For us, technology extends this to centuries (starting with the industrial revolution - the first practical steam engine 1712).
It's fun to think of what species might be our successor...chimps? This is a good way to pass the time instead of worrying about our inevitable comeuppance.
The US has sustained itself through wars ever since the end of WWII. I think that a primary reason aside from the economic boost and hegemonic lust for other people's resources is that it lets the government convince corporate-owned-news, congress creeps and the public that there is an ongoing crisis, and therefore everyone needs to be onboard. Either you are with "us", or you are with "them". Korea, Viet Nam/Cambodia/Laos, Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria and Ukraine only being the big ones, with many smaller wars, violent coups and leftist slaughters by right-wing mercenaries scattered about over the last 70 years. As long as so many people turn to the corporate-owned-news for their information, things are not going to change. Most people I know insist that Russia's invasion in Ukraine was "unprovoked".
I wonder who in the Ukraine government will be signing for this new "security agreement". Presumably not Zelenski, since his term ended on May 21. Since he cancelled elections he is now the illegitimate ruler (dictator) of Ukraine. Will we see what is in this agreement? Probably not - it will be classified SECRET of even (gads!) TOP SECRET. And since it will be a treaty will it be submitted to the Senate as the Constitution requires. Probably not. Biden is like a bull in a china shop.
I can't visualize Biden as a bull. How about a sleepwalker in a china shop, with a crowd of handlers trying to turn him this way or that before he slowly walks directly into something.
To hear some of the nonsense about HAMAS, you would think that 1) the Gazans would have joyfully welcomed the IDF as their liberator from HAMAS and 2) the IDF, knowing that HAMAS was the sole source of Gazan misery, would take care to identify each and every Palestinian knowing that every non-HAMAS person would happily join with the IDF to finger HAMAS members.
Given the penchant we have for war, combined with our appetite for natural resources and total disdain of our environment, it bodes ill for the future of the human species.
There is an interesting theory about mass extinctions that goes something like this:
In order to ensure survival of the species, all species bear more progeny than needed for parental replacement.
As a result, the population of the dominant species, which has no predators, will expand until it consumes all available resources and lays waste to the environment making it uninhabitable - at which point it will perish along with many other species that were dependent on that environment.
In the movie "Matrix", while interrogating Morpheus, Agent Smith said, " I'd like to share a revelation that I've had during my time here. It came to me when I tried to classify your species and I realized that you're not actually mammals. Every mammal on this planet instinctively develops a natural equilibrium with the surrounding environment but you humans do not. You move to an area and you multiply and multiply until every natural resource is consumed and the only way you can survive is to spread to another area. There is another organism on this planet that follows the same pattern. Do you know what it is? A virus. Human beings are a disease, a cancer of this planet."
While it's not quite true that mammals instinctively develop a natural equilibrium, it is true that an equilibrium is normally established for most species in the absence of humans. And while humans are not quite like viruses, they are busy consuming all natural resources and laying waste to the environment; and the pace at which they are doing so is ever accelerating.
Given that the high percentage of our species don't understand this and/or don't care about it - especially those in power - the future looks bleak.
Don't worry: we'll all go to Mars with Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos. :-)
Right! And I'm your fairy godmother.
Good comment, but I would add that were humans to suddenly disappear, over time another species would gain intelligence and do exactly as we are doing. The enabling thing is technology which provides unlimited ability to take with no requirement to give back. The only difference between our fate and the fate of any animal or plant species is that the time frame for us is far longer. Deer overgraze and in a year or two the herd is severely reduced. For us, technology extends this to centuries (starting with the industrial revolution - the first practical steam engine 1712).
It's fun to think of what species might be our successor...chimps? This is a good way to pass the time instead of worrying about our inevitable comeuppance.
Props for the Matrix quotation. Spot on!
The US has sustained itself through wars ever since the end of WWII. I think that a primary reason aside from the economic boost and hegemonic lust for other people's resources is that it lets the government convince corporate-owned-news, congress creeps and the public that there is an ongoing crisis, and therefore everyone needs to be onboard. Either you are with "us", or you are with "them". Korea, Viet Nam/Cambodia/Laos, Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria and Ukraine only being the big ones, with many smaller wars, violent coups and leftist slaughters by right-wing mercenaries scattered about over the last 70 years. As long as so many people turn to the corporate-owned-news for their information, things are not going to change. Most people I know insist that Russia's invasion in Ukraine was "unprovoked".
Yes. It can't be us and us (common humanity), or even us and them. It must be us versus them, a perpetual conflict.
Us versus them has the virtue (sic) of encouraging the people to identify with their government no matter how incompetent or corrupt it is.
Yes.
Very depressing up date. Thanks for the news; sad it's so f'ing aweful
Why We Fight (apologies to Frank Capra): https://geopoliticaleconomy.substack.com/p/ukraine-12-trillion-minerals-west-china-russia
Isaiah 2:4 …..”and study war no more”.
USA increments of headline weapons with no strategy, and nihil quantity suggests that profit not war is the study inside the beltway.
I wonder who in the Ukraine government will be signing for this new "security agreement". Presumably not Zelenski, since his term ended on May 21. Since he cancelled elections he is now the illegitimate ruler (dictator) of Ukraine. Will we see what is in this agreement? Probably not - it will be classified SECRET of even (gads!) TOP SECRET. And since it will be a treaty will it be submitted to the Senate as the Constitution requires. Probably not. Biden is like a bull in a china shop.
I can't visualize Biden as a bull. How about a sleepwalker in a china shop, with a crowd of handlers trying to turn him this way or that before he slowly walks directly into something.
Zelensky never was legitimate nor were any others following the Maidan Revolution.
To hear some of the nonsense about HAMAS, you would think that 1) the Gazans would have joyfully welcomed the IDF as their liberator from HAMAS and 2) the IDF, knowing that HAMAS was the sole source of Gazan misery, would take care to identify each and every Palestinian knowing that every non-HAMAS person would happily join with the IDF to finger HAMAS members.
IDF using Gestapo “kill ten for one”.
Everyday IDF does hundreds of No Gun Ri assaults on civilian, even though U.S. hid No Gun Ri immediately