I have seen this quote on social media recently – and it applies to what’s happening in the US and to our civilization as a whole.
THE STUPIDITY OF WHAT’S HAPPENING IN THE US
What’s happening in the US is clearly stupid. The majority of voters voted for a billionaire who is only interested in funnelling money and resources to himself and his wealthy friends at the expense of everyone else. They voted for someone who clearly stated he would transform the US into an authoritarian and fascist regime. They voted for someone whose buddies developed Project 2025 which would remove social safety nets, erode democracy, and in general make life worse for ordinary people.
They voted for who promised he would go after his perceived enemies, isolate the US from former allies, erode education and research (allowing other countries to take the lead), sell off public land to private companies so they can make profit out of it, and so on.
People voted for someone they knew would make life worse for them. At least, they could easily have known if they had taken five minutes to look into it. (As many point out, the MAGA movement has the characteristics of a cult, and cult followers are not known for critical and rational analysis.)
THE STUPIDITY OF WHAT’S HAPPENING IN THE WORLD
What’s happening in the world is equally stupid. We are in global ecological overshoot. We are spending far more resources than Earth can replenish, and we are eroding the capacity of Earth to replenish.
We have a civilization that assumes infinite resources on a finite planet, and it assumes separation while we know that what happens to the web of life happens to us. We have a civilization that’s out of alignment with reality in obvious and fundamental ways.
Not only that, most of us seem oblivious to this – at least in our actions. We still vote for the same politicians. We still live as if nothing is happening. We still have monoculture gardens instead of nature gardens or food forests. We still eat food grown with poison.
This is ecocidal and suicidal.
And that’s clearly stupid, especially as there are workable alternatives.
There are ways where we can take ecological realities into account in our worldview, economics, and all other aspects of our civilization. We know how to develop a regenerative civilization where what’s easy and attractive in the short term helps Earth replenish itself and provide an abundance for us, wildlife, and future generations. We know how, we just need the collective will to make the changes.
Or, maybe, and maybe more likely, we need to live through the increasingly dramatic consequences of our current civilization, and nature will take care of the situation by reducing our numbers drastically. Will the ones who survive learn? And if they do, for how long? That’s the question.
THE GREAT FILTER
Why haven’t we found commonly accepted evidence for life other places in the universe? With so many solar systems, wouldn’t there be at least some civilizations we would recognize?
It may be that we are among the first. It may be that they are too far away. It may be that they have learned to not leak much energy out into the universe (radio signals etc.) so we haven’t detected them. It may be that we have just started to explore, so we’ll find them in the future. It may be that the timing is off – on a timeline that’s billion of years long. It may be that they don’t want us to find them.
Another possibility is the Great Filter. It may be that technologically advanced civilizations are inherently ecocidal and suicidal. Maybe advanced technology appears in separation and domination cultures that don’t have much ecological wisdom.
Or maybe, as I suspect, that’s mostly about us. It may or may not be something that typically happens to technologically civilizations in general, and it certainly is a big risk for our current human civilization.
Image created by me and Midjourney, inspired by Turner.