This is my first Diary entry. It is very pessimistic and dark. Unfortunately, it only distills a portion of what I am currently feeling about the state of the world. All I can say is that I wish I was wrong, but I don't think I am.
The actual entry is below the jump.
Will we survive the 21st century? As each year passes, I begin to doubt it- not only because I am a leftist in a country where the right is in charge. You see, I am
scared. Very scared.
I'm not scared about the things that the media is telling me to be scared about- not exactly. You see, I'm not worried about what terrorists can do to us today. I'm not worried about what Bush and his group or the religious right or any other organization is going to do to us today. I'm worried about what they will be capable of in 20 years.
First of all, let's talk about terrorists. Let's not kid ourselves- this "War on Terror" is a sham. But worse than a sham, it is giving us a false sense of security in the idea that we can somehow defeat terrorism. I have news for you: we can't. Terrorism is as old as humanity is and it will always be with us.
Many people are concerned about terrorists getting nuclear weapons and rightly so. I think terrorists want to get them and I think they eventually will get them and use them. It will be tragic and horrifying but I know it will come and I am ready for it. But are you all ready for what may happen next?
It is very difficult to build an atomic weapon right now. However, any nuclear physicist will tell you that it's a lot easier to build one in the early 21st century than it was in the middle of the 20th when they were first created. Who would have thought 50 years ago that a computer was something someone could build out of spare parts in their own home? Are we so naive that we think it might not be the same with such powerful weapons? How long before it is relatively easy to build an atomic bomb? Then how long before a hydrogen bomb?
It is theorized that a hydrogen bomb with a cobalt shell could destroy most of life on Earth. Terrorists don't mind killing themselves for their cause- why would they even flinch at the thought of bringing true Armageddon?
And that brings us back to the domestic front. A Time-CNN poll in 2002 found that 59 percent of Americans believed that the book of revelations was true and a third of Americans believed that we are now in the end times. There are around 300 million Americans. That means around 100 million people are expecting the world to end within their lifetime. If even one percent of those people think they can help bring it about, that's still an army.
You can't shake such convictions from people. They are too deeply-held. When I was in high school, a friend of mine told me his parents kept well-stocked with canned goods because they didn't know when the rapture might come. I imagine they stockpiled even more before Y2K didn't happen, yet more after 9/11 did. It doesn't matter. Nothing shakes the convictions of a fundamentalist.
So... we have people outside of the most powerful nation in the world who want to bring it down in flames and may within a few decades have the capability of doing it. Meanwhile, we have a domestic population which has an ever-increasing number of people who believe the world is about to come to an end anyway and some of them may decide to help out.
It doesn't end there. You see, there's also oil. It has a limited supply and it is already running out. Not long ago, there were news reports about one of the largest middle-eastern oil wells having run almost dry. When a few more start doing that, watch out... and then ask yourself who will give up their precious dwindling oil supply to South Korea or Pakistan if they need it? Don't hope for alternative energy. We haven't even begun to do the massive infrastructure changes which would be needed to switch, plus we have not yet found a truly decent alternative. There just isn't time.
What is North Korea going to do if no one gives her oil? Is she going to stand there and take that? Why should she? She has nuclear weapons too. Why not use them to get that oil to keep their country going a little longer. The day that a nuclear weapon is used as a first strike is the first day of the end of the world because the precedent will have been set. How long will it be before it is repeated, especially with nuclear weapons becoming easier to make?
Some people say things will get better domestically. I doubt it. Whether real or manufactured, we will have another major terrorist attack within the next five years. When that happens, the national fear will be so great that the already-extant Patriot Act will be used to turn us into a totalitarian state "for our protection." Once the most powerful nation on earth becomes a true fascist state, nothing will stop it from attempting to truly enforce Americanism on the entire world in the name of ending terrorism and that can only escalate into war. Major war.
Okay, so maybe that can be avoided. We can revolt. Rise up against our oppressors, right? Well, maybe once upon a time when they had cannons and we had muskets. How are you going to revolt when they have robotic drones which drop satellite-guided missiles from 10,000 feet at Mach 4?
The only end I see left to us is violence, oppression and death. If we make it out of the 21st century at all, there will be far fewer of us. I know I won't be here if it gets this bad. In WWII, one of my great-uncles, a Jew, stuck his head in the gas ovens before the Nazis arrived to arrest him and I would do the same in his circumstances. The scary thing is that I don't think we're too far off from those circumstances arising again and I don't see a way out of it. We are no longer teetering on the abyss, we have gone over the edge.
I have jokingly said more than once, "let's give the cockroaches a chance." It seems to me that it could become a reality. All hope appears to be lost.