P.D. Allen's Blog, page 21
August 28, 2012
August 27, 2012
Hermes at the Gates
Quantum Meditation #1656
A Chair for Hermes
Quantum Meditation #1655
Hermes the Envoy
Quantum Meditation #1654
Avoiding Fascism and Collapse
Avoiding Fascism and Collapse
by PD Allen
The most important article in this entire series is Under Shattered Skies of Our Own Design
Murderer’s Sky; Book 1 of Under Shattered Skies ~ kindle ~ paperback
Download a pdf version of this article (black print on a white background)
Peak Oil is not the Problem
(pdallen.com)Peak oil is not the problem. Finding new and bountiful sources of oil will not solve the problem. Nor will alternative energy sources, or new and energy efficient means of transportation, heating, agriculture, or plastics. These things might buy us a little time, but they will not solve the problem.
Energy depletion is not the problem. Global warming is not the problem. Overpopulation is not the problem. Pollution is not the problem. Poverty and inequality are not the problem. None of these ills of modern civilization is the problem, though they may threaten to tear our civilization apart, and — in extreme cases — even unravel the web of life on this planet.
None of these ills is the problem. They are only symptoms of the problem. The real problem is rooted in the way we view reality and the way we treat the environment around us.
Just as treating the symptoms of an illness will not cure the illness, seeking solutions for any of our various ills will not resolve the underlying problem. If there was a renewable energy source that could replace fossil fuels at the rate which they are currently used, and if we had time to implement it and change all of our infrastructure, we might solve the problem of energy depletion, but we would not solve the underlying problem. At best, we would buy ourselves a little more time.
In all likelihood, the new energy source, consumed at the same rate that we currently consume fossil fuels, would exacerbate other ills such as global warming and pollution. Or it would create some new ill that would threaten to destroy us in years to come. And the chances are that whatever time we might buy ourselves now will come at the expense of a much harder fall somewhere further down the line. Unless we recognize and address the underlying illness for which all of these other problems are only symptoms.
Unfortunately, the underlying problem is much more subtle. It is not a physical problem like energy depletion or global warming. It is more difficult to quantify and grapple with. It is a psychological defect of which our many observable problems are only the physical symptoms. It is a very difficult problem to perceive and cope with, because it is a problem of perception intimately warping the way each of us perceives the world around us.
A Matter of Perception
Each of us perceives reality in a dualistic manner. There is our internal reality of thoughts and feelings, which is very subjective and personal. And then there is external reality, which is objective and separate from our sense of self. We view these two realities as separate. At the most, we will concede that our internal reality reacts to external reality, but external reality only reacts to our internal reality when that inner reality directs our actions to affect outer reality. Yet, we perceive the two as separate: the self and the environment.
This duality of perception may even be necessary to some extent. If we had not viewed external reality as separate, we might never have attempted to manipulate it or observe it objectively. Perhaps this would have been for the better. But without this objectivity and manipulation of external reality, we would never have developed art or science. All the exultant riches of modern humans would have gone unrealized. Unfortunately, neither would the abuses of modern humans, such as war and exploitation.
It is our perception of outer reality as something separate from us that allows us to manipulate our environment, whether for better or worse. The problem is that we have refined our knowledge of external reality and how to manipulate it to the point where our technology now gives us the capability of completely altering our environment. However, we have not yet gained the wisdom to see that reality, both internal and external, maintain a balance. Whatever change we make in reality will affect that balance, shifting it into some new alignment.
We have not learned to distinguish the webbing that holds all of reality together. And so we do not understand the full effect of our actions as they ripple outward — an inward — through reality. We have failed to distinguish the webbing that holds reality together because to do so would require us to understand that there is really no such duality between inner and outer reality. They are connected at all levels and each takes its definition from the other.
It is ironic that in the last century, as our knowledge and technology gave us dominion over our environment, science has come to prove that inner and outer reality are intimately connected. Physics is still attempting to teach us that reality is defined by the act of perception itself. There is truly no such thing as physical reality; there is only empty space, energy, and awareness.
Science has found that everything has an electromagnetic field that interacts with the world around it. Biologists have learned that all living things exude chemicals colored by emotions, thoughts and the internal physiological state of the organism, and that these chemicals draw into the organism’s environment that with which it then interacts.
The most recent discoveries of biology show us that, while genes are the building blocks of physical bodies, those genes are interpreted based on environment and — more specifically — the perceptions and beliefs of the organism. Psychologists have learned that our perception of reality is completely subjective and is colored by our feelings and our beliefs.
It would seem that reality, both internal and external, is simply a huge feedback system, and that we are carefully encoded receptors with the ability to consciously tune our reception of this stimulus.
The Crux of the Problem
It could be said that the trouble began when we developed a socioeconomic system that favored exploitation while excluding the costs of exploitation. This flaw became critical in the last century when knowledge and technology gave us apparent dominion over the planet, while new marketing techniques extolled consumption over utility.
The ignorant exploitation of knowledge for selfish greed led to the wholesale abuse of the planet and everything on it. The new discoveries of science were devoted to personal aggrandizement in the supposed name of progress, while the full effects of this exploitation were ignored. The new theories of human psychology were perversely exploited to transform the public from informed citizens to impulse consumers. Quality of life was replaced by quantity of consumption, and the social square was replaced by the shopping center. The only outlet remaining for social interaction was the church, because the church was itself a tool of domination that could be made subservient to economic exploitation.
The result of all this was that within one century, the human race was able to exploit the planet to the verge of collapse, exhausting supplies of critical resources and pumping out garbage and pollution in quantities that overwhelmed the planet’s normal cyclical processes. By the end of the century, virtually all of the productive land on the planet had been taken over by humans. The rest of the biota had to make due with the marginal lands that were left. By the end of the century, human beings had managed to appropriate over 40% of the planet’s land-based photosynthetic capability, including — as stated above — all of the prime photosynthetic real estate. By the turn of the century, human beings were harvesting all of the prime biotic zones of the oceans to the point of exhaustion, and dead zones were spreading through the seas.
By the dawn of this new century, the planet had been plunged into one of its rare mass extinction events; the only mass extinction to be entirely due to the activities of one species. Scientists estimate that 1/5 of all species could be extinct within 30 years. And over half of all the species on this planet could be extinct before this century ends. By comparison, the Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction event that brought about the end of the dinosaurs 65 million years ago saw the extinction of about 50% of all species. Yet the current mass extinction is occurring at a record rate, much faster even than extinctions related to meteor collisions.
We could go on cataloguing the impact of human exploitation, but this report would quickly become a very large book. Witness the alteration and potential breakdown of the planet’s vital cycles: the carbon cycle, the nitrogen cycle, the water cycle. Witness the contamination and near exhaustion of critical resources such as water, soil and phosphorus. Witness the spread of toxic, carcinogenic and mutagenic pollutants throughout the biosphere. Witness the appropriation of resources and the exploitation and genocide of indigenous populations. Witness the exploitation of the working class, paid a pittance for the sweat of their labor while forced to make their living through the destruction and commoditization of the planet as they are reduced to blind consumers buying shoddy products from carnal houses such as Walmart. The list goes on and on.
And the levels of consumption we have attained have exceeded sustainability several times over. It is the planet’s store of fossil fuels that has allowed us to achieve and maintain this grotesque level of consumption. The planet has provided us with a nonrenewable bank of cheap energy, and we have used that energy to maximize profit, production and population. Yet, in the past century we have already used up half of that hydrocarbon wealth. Not only that, we have consumed the richest and most easily accessible deposits. What remains now are the poorer quality and harder to access deposits. From here on out, hydrocarbon production will only decline. And there is nothing to replace.
It is tempting to say that hydrocarbon depletion is not the problem, it is the solution. We will have to tighten up our belts whether we want to or not. Unfortunately, humans do not respond well to forced diets. Unless the diet is voluntary and backed by personal will power, it will prove ineffective. And a significant portion of our population isn’t even aware of our need for a diet.
As a result, we will seek ways to cheat on this diet. We will turn to the lower quality hydrocarbon resources, such as coal, tar sands and oil shale. The exploitation of these energy sources will result in unbridled environmental destruction and an increase in global warming. We will also turn to resource wars. This has already been demonstrated under the guise of the “War on Terror”.
In the end, more people will be forced into poverty. The “have-nots” will multiply in number even as they tumble to new depths of destitution. At the same time the “haves’ will shore up their own position as the top consumers. It is not too difficult to envision the eventual exploitation of the “have-nots” for the only thing they will have: their labor. Whether the result would be a new prison industry economy or some form of debt servitude is simply a matter of speculation. As other resources are played out, the labor of the “have-nots” will become the major exploitable resource of the future.
Of course, as the biosphere breaks down, the population of haves and have-nots will have to shrink, if it does not outright crash. But the haves will be able to use their power to insulate themselves from this shrinkage, forcing the brunt of suffering onto the have-nots. This, in turn, will hopefully make the have-nots more compliant.
So there is the problem. That problem is not peak oil or global warming, but the perception of duality that allows us to abuse the environment while remaining ignorant of effects of that abuse, and a socioeconomic system that rewards that abuse while hiding the costs. If we allow this situation to continue, then we will very shortly begin a tortuous descent, as the “haves” ride the “have-nots” down to the bottom of the planet’s eroded carrying capacity.
The Solution
At this point in our discussion, there are many people who would recognize that what we really need is an evolution of consciousness. Based on this recognition, it is tempting to state that the solution lies in meditation or other processes for altering our consciousness and heightening our awareness. Therefore, we don’t have to do anything except change the way we think.
Rubbish.
If that were true, then we would have undergone this evolution of consciousness long ago. This strategy was last attempted in the 1960s, which resulted in the “me generation” of the 70s and 80s and ultimately led to our present condition. Prior to that a similar strategy was attempted in Germany, and it resulted in a world war, the rise of fascism and genocide. That is simply not how our feedback system works.
Certainly, we should strive for better understanding and awareness of how we are vitally and subjectively connected to our environment. And we should work to help inform others on this score. But it is even more important that we should work on changing the socioeconomic system under which we live.
If you are aware of the issues raised in this essay, then you need to take part in the relocalization movement. A robust network of relocalized communities would offer the public at large a healthy alternative once the dominant socioeconomic system becomes too oppressive. And such a movement would begin the process of withdrawing our support for the continued destruction of this planet.
In order to succeed, relocalization efforts need be based on the understanding that a community is only sustainable and democratic to the extent that all of its citizens are guaranteed food, housing, education and the ability to pursue fulfillment. This guarantee recognizes the responsibility of the community for the welfare of all of its members and acknowledges that all members of a community are connected and interdependent, from the poorest to the richest.
Furthermore, relocalization needs to guard against power disparities that tend to lead naturally toward perceptual dualities, exploitation and the further aggrandizement of power. All decisions should be made collectively, and management positions should be limited in ability and rotated among the full membership of the collective.
The failure of representative democracy lies in the granting of decision making power to elected representatives. This is a power disparity that naturally leads the representatives to view themselves as separate from the electorate. Decisions are then made with the self-interest of the representative first in mind. And over time the concentration of power is aggregated.
Having a representative democracy in a dictatorial socioeconomic system results in fascism. Whatever barriers to fascist dominance are put into place will eventually be overcome. The dictators of business will eventually use their economic clout to buy off the elected representatives. This is inevitable.
All major decision making power must remain in the collective as a whole. This may limit the ability of the collective to do business. But then the focus of the collective is not upon maximizing the profit from exploitation of labor and resources. The focus in relocalization is upon quality of life and limiting exploitation to make the community as sustainable as possible.
A relocalized community would be better off with a local currency, or it may do without currency entirely, finding some other mechanism for distributing goods. Ideally, profit would not be monetized within the community, but would be measured in terms of quality of life, the health of the community and environment, and sustainability.
The collective of the community would retain custodial rights over all the resources within their local environment. The benefits of exploiting these resources must be measured in terms of sustainability and the health of the environment. When contemplating the exploitation of resources, the first issue to consider should be the environmental cost of exploitation and remediation. Remediation should have the first right to any potential profits, followed by the community and last by the worker’s collective that granted the right to exploit the resource.
The goal is to use resources below the rate at which they are replaced. For nonrenewable resources, the goal is 100% recyclability. It is acknowledged that these goals may never be reached. But they are the ideal for which we must strive.
There must be a major cut in the amount of energy we consume. For a community to be sustainable, energy consumption and entropy production must be less than the amount of incoming solar energy. Furthermore, we must make room for a healthy and diverse biota. So we need to reduce our appropriation of the planet’s photosynthetic capability. The most logical way to do this would be to mathematically determine the ideal human population for any given area based on a percentage of local photosynthetic capacity (or any other limiting factor).
All of this is the goal we should be working towards, if we want a sustainable civilization with quality of life and the maximization of freedom within an egalitarian society. But much of it is beyond our capability at present. It is something we will have to work toward.
Starting out within the dominant socioeconomic system of exploitation and maximization of profit will be difficult enough. The first step is to inform and organize the community. Once a significant portion of the community is aware of what is at stake, then you can begin with small measures.
Establish a community garden and a localized transportation network. Perhaps the first goal should be the localization of agriculture. Found a food bank to ensure that nobody in the local community does without food. Establish a cooperative to help people in the local community refurbish their homes for energy efficiency. Begin a program to make all the homes in the community sustainable in terms of heating and cooling. Build a community-based high speed internet network. Pass community ordinances requiring the community to give first preference in business contracts to local products and cooperatives.
If you can achieve most of the measures listed above, then your community will be prepared when the crunch does come. Your community will provide a positive example for those around you. And when the time comes, you can move toward the greater goal of sustainability, and an equitable community based on collective decision making.
The perception of duality will change as the feedback changes. And the feedback will change as a result of your informed actions. In the end, there will be what amounts to an evolution of consciousness. But to make it happen, we cannot simply sit on a mat and contemplate our navels. We must work, investing our time and effort in building a meaningful change.
Our efforts will be handsomely rewarded. And the alternative is unthinkable.
