Somebody is nuts. I mean complete crackers -- lost it, no perspective, focusing on all the wrong things to the doom of the world.
The following paper is several years old (circa 2001 I'm assuming) and seems increasingly relevant:
Three groups of scientists, using different methodologies and data sets, have found that we may have as little as 35 years before our socio-economic systems destroy our life-support system. Moreover, global oil production could peak in as little as four years! Yet our political leaders are calling for even more of the same: "With the . . . plan for economic growth, our economy will achieve its full potential with 3.5 percent—or higher—growth per year, putting our country back on the right track and giving every American family the chance to achieve the American Dream." Does this sound rational to you?
.....
Can irrational people sustain Democracy in a world that is now far over carrying capacity? In AN INQUIRY INTO THE HUMAN PROSPECT, Robert Heilbroner considered the damage that our economy is inflicting upon our life-support system and projected continuing (but gradually slowing) economic growth until approximately the year 2005. At that time, he sees the need for highly authoritarian governments to control the transition to worldwide economic decline [p. 2, Daly & Cobb, 1989].
So on the eve of our self-destruction, we find ourselves with socio-economic systems designed for a model of human that has never existed—led by people whose "mental system is failing to comprehend the modern world." Where will it end?
"In the end," says the Grand Inquisitor in Dostoevsky's parable, "in the end they will lay their freedom at our feet and say to us,"'Make us your slaves, but feed us.'" . . . and then the meek shall inherit the Earth . . .
*[Here I define "rational" as: "the ability to carefully weigh the important-known variables and make the decision most likely to achieve the desired end".]
-Jay Hanson, "WHERE WILL IT END?", dieoff.org |
