A Catch 2 Difficult Conundrum:
Economic progress has been measured for a long time by an increased GNP or other such measures of increased economic growth. Spend more and everything will be all right. But I am not sure this really works anymore. In an evolutionary era in which overpopulation reigns, natural resources are increasingly limited, global warming from atmospheric pollution is bearing down on everyone, water supplies are being exhausted, trees and species are being destroyed at levels not seen for millions of years, and more humans are finding themselves homeless, landless, and starving than ever before---well, economic expansion just accelerates every one of the aforementioned problems.
I glance around and find myself surrounded by gadgets of every sort, many quite expensive, and it just seems surreal-----like many of us are 'fiddling while Rome burns'. It is, from any kind of sane objective view, a case now---as never before in history---that quality of life MUST trump quantity. The notion that there is no such thing as human overpopulation, a notion fueled by religious human devised dogmas, and widespread human arrogance of some sort that claims a right to engage in irresponsible reproduction---this notion is human genocidal. For the masses of humans now on the globe to achieve widespread quality of life, quantity of life must be sacrificed. UNTIL population pressures can be reduced, the affluent have to live substantially less materialistic lives. The GNP need go down while the efficiency of most aspects of modern life must increase.
At this point in evolutionary history democracy and capitalism are failing and failing badly. Greed is the global religion and the amassment of monumental wealth in the hands of a few is full steam ahead. When 90% of the wealth in our country is owned by 1% of the people it becomes economic and moral lunacy. This is not even harmless lunacy, it is an evolutionary disaster for the human race. It doesn't seem to dawn on most people that humans are subject to God's created evolutionary laws just as any other species. With no evidence to support it, most people believe that humans are created in God's image, that we are God's most cherished species, that through our prayers God intervenes and exempts us from evolutionary laws all the time, even in football games, health matters, battlefield situations, and whatever, at the moment, is the want of the moment.
I suspect more and more people really, even if in a vague way, do understand much of the above, but don't really allow themselves to see it. Everything about it, to steal Al Gore's expression, is a sudden unrelenting stream of inconvenient truths. It is like evolutionary realities are bearing down on us from every direction, all at once, with each threatening unimaginable human misery . And it really is unimaginable. I read the stats which predict 100 million people are going to die from starvation in the next few years, but it can't really register, be experienced, or be seen happening right before my eyes, so it has an ethereal unreality to it. Scientists know that the water levels in Texas have fallen beyond irreplaceable levels but new houses continue to go up in record numbers. And there are comparable disasters for varied reasons being imposed on planetary life by evolutionary forces all over the globe. "Yes we can" is inspiring, but what real evidence is there that we can?
Every one of these above problems descending upon human life. as we know it on the planet, has one common denominator---at a certain point, if not already there, the damage becomes irreversible in the short run. The earth cannot be made to suddenly stop warming up---it took centuries for this process to arise and it will take centuries for this problem to recede. There are two types of water levels, one where water is easily replaceable and one where the water is irreplaceable in any kind of short run. We are now drawing upon the irreplaceable water tables in many places. How, in any kind of short run, are we going to replace trees and topsoil? We may think we can eradicate species at a rate unseen for millions of years and pay no cost, but that is not what the history of evolution tells us. The God created evolutionary process is a masterfully designed system of checks and balances, mixed with the obligatory survival of the fittest for progress to occur, and the notion that human greed and disregard for all these checks and balances will win the day is absurd. There is zero reason to believe that humans, as a species, are necessarily the end point of evolution. About the only thing certain is that TIME stays, WE go. The notion that we are the end product of evolution is surely cruel self delusion.
Humans have the potential to control some of our own destiny. That is new in the evolutionary process. Can we though? We can't if we can't control our own reproductive excesses. We can't if the notion of unrestricted capitalism is allowed to flourish. We can't if unearned wealth is allowed to accumulate in the hands of a few and the economic status of the many allowed to deteriorate. We can't if we accept ourselves as some sort of locusts swarming over the planet devouring everything in sight. We can't if we accept might makes right which is really the basis of terrorism----whether it be terrorism by hapless suicide bombers or terrorism by smart bombs. Even here the evolutionary checks and balances are coming into play. We may have all the smart bombs and sophisticated weapons imaginable, yet third World countries like Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia, etc. have found simplistic ways to make our invasions a stalemate. We can slaughter, we can demolish, we can impose a stone age existence on others, but we cannot control them. Uniformed soldiers are gone, replaced by masses of unrecognizable enemies waiting for us to simply be at the wrong place at the wrong time---venturing outside some sort of circled wagons green zone.
For the sake of contemplation, suppose the above doomsday scenario plays out--- what are we then to think and how are we to feel and what are we to do? I think each of us, individually, should behave as if our own way of life makes a difference. It does, because playing along with prevalent delusions leaves us hardly fooled deep down, and we become frustrated fools. Frustrated fools can never be contented. Let us instead follow Lincoln's advice and simply live each day as best we can understanding that contentment is ours only when we have "faith that right makes might, and in that faith, let us, to the end, dare to do our duty as we understand it."
