The End Of The World As We Know It

 image: pensiero

There are those things that are caustic and those that are a balm to our lives. Consider your life as being like a ship that sails upon an ocean of possibilities. You are the navigator, the captain, the engineer and all other things. What kind of a craft would yours be if this were to become real?

Some things aid our progress, others hinder it. Extending the ship analogy, there are things that add momentum to our journey and there are becalming influences that position us in the doldrums.

I saw a headline this morning on a newspaper, ‘$3 Trillion to Save The World’. I didn’t read the article and my mind began to play with the headline; I’ve heard estimates that that was something around the figure it might take to shift the balance from a fossil based fuel dependency to a regenerating fuel based dependency. I’ve heard it said that the war in Iraq has cost that much so far and I know the world economy is worth somewhere between $50 and $60 trillion annually. $3 trillion is a big figure but relative to what?

What could it be for, I mused and then I began to think, who wants to save the world anyway? If save the world is a euphemism for preserve the status quo then it isn’t really worth saving, in its current form, unless you’re one of the estimated 9 million millionaires (0.15% of the world’s population) or 1125 billionaires for whom the whole system obviously works pretty well. But that is to fall foul of the trap that money is the solution to the world’s ills, and really it is not. I’m with Sophie Tucker on this, “I’ve been rich and I’ve been poor. Believe me honey, rich is better.” Better doesn’t equate to problem solving, it just means that the wheels are lubricated more generously and therefore turn without so much fuss and noise.

In terms of a deeper significance to human life there is simply no place for money and yet we live in a world that quantifies everything in fiscal terms, from GDP to GND, from the hourly rate to the annual rate. It’s a system, but no more than a system, yet it has become a religion, the religion of our age. Within this I’m not knocking it, obviously there has to be a way to organise almost 7 billion people and somehow distribute that $50 - $60 trillion annual pot. Yet an estimated 3.25 billion people, virtually half the population of the world are pulling in less than $2.00 per day, so does that seem well managed?

So what exactly is someone wringing their hands about saving? An iniquitous system that condemns most of our human family to an impoverished existence? A crude system that proceeds like a herd of elephants across a well laid out garden?

It’s not about saving, it’s about changing. Face facts, the world as we know it is finished, it’s dead in the water, it can only be sustained in its present form for a few decades longer, assuming no unexpected occurrences. What then? What happens when the oil wells run dry, the coal has all been extracted, the axis about which our civilization spins ceases to exist? 

It’s a world of smoke and mirrors. How many times have you been made promises that haven’t been kept by companies, organisations, individuals, gurus? Except for the very upper echelons of this strange society that has come to pass, it is a place that breeds immense frustration, ill will, and fragmentation of various kinds. People are OK in it, but very few experience true fulfilment or satisfaction, and those who do derive it despite the world rather than because of it.

The world has given us remarkable technology but we don’t know what to do with it. Look at the generation of kids coming through who live their lives vicariously through some character in a virtual environment. They never leave their bedrooms and perceive social interaction as a burden rather than an opportunity to explore and develop themselves as individuals. Is it their world that we are trying to protect? Is it our children’s virtual fantasy that is under threat?

Or is it the artificially extended lives of people ready to go whose maintenance systems are pumped up with steroids, and whose misery puts money in the pockets of pharmaceutical companies who create drugs that can do things that maybe we don’t actually need.

This is not me being cynical, it is me trying to extract the reality of the human condition from the fragile world we have created and wondering when push comes to shove just what will survive a serious body blow to the world we have allowed to come into existence. I see a very artificial world struggling to keep itself afloat and I can’t help but wonder if it has run it’s mile and needs to step aside for a more efficient model that offers a greater return to those involved in it.

I’m also reminded that there is no birth without pain. The transition from where we are to where we may need to be will not be without turmoil and huge upheaval. That will come as sure as night follows day but the assumption that all things stay the same will serve its adherents poorly as they try to adapt to and understand the transition period.