Yesterday I posted a long comment in teacherken's diary Moral Priorities. The comment was on how the lack of information, understanding, and wisdom contributes to the lack of moral authority that we suffer from. As I was thinking this morning of expanding the comment into a diary, I realized we (I mean all of us in the world) are steadily marching towards a chasm so deep that the chasm really is a black hole that is pulling us in. Once we take the plunge, humankind may never be able to recover.
I will start with something trivial, "Dancing with the Stars." Yeah, I watch the show. I started because my wife loves the show. Now, I love the show. The show has many real stars, ranging from sports stars to movie stars, including television stars and astronauts. The stars are usually past their prime such as Florence Henderson or Kurt Warner this year. A while ago a new type of star, the politician, in the form of Tom, the Hammer, Delay entered the fray. Then came the "reality show" stars. I have yet to figure out what a "reality show" is, but the shows do have stars.
This year there is yet another new type of star, the child of a former (or current) politician. I speak of Bristol Palin. Since when is Bristol Palin a star? What is her starring role? She was/is a mediocre dancer, well not as bad as Jerry Springer was, but definitely not very good. And yet, she was repeatedly voted up by her mother's supporters. The show was a wild ratings success, no doubt fueled in part by Sarah Palin's continued exposure. And yet I consider Bristol Palin's success in this venue to a small part of the march towards an abyss.
There are much more serious foot steps. One is the the austerity economics of many countries. These programs are failing. Ireland is trying austerity and the Irish program needs another bailout. The Greeks are facing facing serious political upheaval over their austerity program. Great Britain is suffering student strikes with their austerity program. People wonder if Europe can afford a bailout of Spain. (See A Spanish Bailout Would Test Europe’s Strained Finances). Yet so few people recognize that what is needed is government spending to create jobs, not austerity.
Even fewer people recognize that just as the industrial revolution changed economics forever, the information revolution of today is changing society in ways that few understand. Just as far fewer farmers were needed in the 1920's than were hundred years earlier (and the number has continued to decrease rapidly) far fewer workers are needed in manufacturing today than just fifty years ago. In the next fifty years people will continue to be replaced by ever more efficient machines. Outsourcing is really a non-issue compared to ever more efficient manufacturing. The the solution in the 1930s was provide for retirement, shorten work weeks, give unions more power, and give more money to workers. The solution today must include all those elements and include more education, health care, and elements we have not thought of yet. This needs to be done, not just in the US or the developed countries, but on a world wide scale for all the people of the world.
Despite this we are falling into the black hole of austerity in some mistaken belief that spending less will somehow save us all. Redistribution of money is seen as evil. Yet when more is accomplished with less due to the information revolution, we should compensate those who do more better, through shorter work weeks, more vacation, better health care, more education, and on and on. Few appreciate that cars may well be driving themselves in the next ten years. Few appreciate that robots may be picking vegetables and replacing coal miners in the next twenty years. When was the last time you spoke to an operator. Think about how much telecommunications is changing everything. I no longer read newspapers on paper, choosing instead to read them on a flat panel display. In the next ten years the need for paper will virtually disappear. Think, the information revolution is changing everything. Yet, no one is working on how to deal with this. We are being drawn into a black hole of a very few benefiting with the many suffering.
No matter what your weather is, climate is a changing. Global warming is a reality, and global warming is worse than most people realize. Can global warming be reversed? I don't know, the time may have passed. Global warming may end human life. Evolution may continue. We may still have cockroaches. But no more human life. Yet we continue to create more carbon dioxide on a global scale. In addition we continue to get rid of the very plants that absorb carbon dioxide and produce oxygen and carbon. Yeah there are some people working on the problem, yet the work is minor compared to what is needed to slow the production of carbon dioxide. Some argue that we will save ourselves yet again or that what is happening is not man made. Yes it is natural, but so is thinking. As the environment changes organic life will continue to evolve, but there will be no more humans. Yet, the profit motive of a few is so great that the few screw all humanity including themselves as we all are drawn towards the black hole.
I will end with war. As terrifying as global warming is, war may end humanity even sooner. Take a look at North Korea. One day we learn that the North Korea is building another nuclear reactor capable of supplying nuclear material for nuclear bombs. The next day the North Koreans are shooting at a South Korean island, killing people. Okay not many, but enough to provoke the South Koreans into shooting back. The Chinese are scared and do not provide support for the sanctions needed to bring North Korea into line. Given the range of North Korean missiles, China is easily attacked by North Korea, so the Chinese have much to fear, just as the South Koreans do.
As if North Korea isn't bad enough, the US Senate has yet to ratify an arms control treaty with Russia. Russia needs US help to properly dispose of loose nuclear material that could more easily than much nuclear material, fall into the hands of terrorists. Then what?
And then there is Pakistan. Pakistan has effective nuclear weapons. Pakistan is in serious trouble with a large number of radicals who can easily seize power. The radicals might even be elected to office, given the poor economic conditions in Pakistan. The Pakistan intelligence service is in bed with the radicals, a bed the US helped to make. The US drone attacks harm the entire region and give the radicals more cover to seize power. Who would they bomb if they came to power? Who knows maybe Mumbai or perhaps Kabul. Then there is always China. And yet the US worries more about outsourcing than reducing the likelihood of war by helping to make the citizens of Pakistan more prosperous.
President Obama slowed the march in the US towards the abyss. The thanks he got was a massive Republican sweep in the House of Representatives. The Republicans do nothing but goose step even faster.
So what is the solution. We must all fight with every ounce of our beings this march of the lemmings. Otherwise we will fall into the abyss and be drawn into a black hole resulting in the complete collapse of civilization and the death of humankind. Either new species will evolve or the earth will return to a time without life. Which, no one knows or will know.
How to fight. First, gather information and develop an understanding. Act with wisdom to convince others of your understanding. Many here do this, we need even more. We need to change the world.