The Big Picture
If you look at the world of humanity under a microscope, it may seem too complex, confusing, a real mess. I used to call it an n-dimensional rope pulling contest where the final result is determined by the rules of vector addition, well known from geometry.
However, if we discard the microscope and view it from a distance, as aliens might do in their telescopes, it suddenly becomes very simple and orderly. I call it the ‘stratification’ of the species into three well defined groups: two minorities fighting over the mental state of the majority.
One minority is the educated, intelligent, well meaning population, trying to steer the majority toward peaceful cooperation and egalitarian sharing of resources and the produced wealth.
The other minority is the group of unscrupulous, power hungry, greed-infused manipulators who try to affect the majority’s behavior by appealing to fundamental raw emotions of fear and greed, so they would be accepted at the top of the pyramid, playing their power games and accumulate more and more wealth.
The third group, by far the largest majority, is the masses with limited education, no training in critical thinking, feeling suppressed and exploited and confused about the roles the other two groups play.
The two minorities have been fighting, all through human history, to win over the masses and either liberate, or enslave them. The pendulum has been swinging back and forth resulting in very slow progress in social justice and living conditions for most of the species.
The big danger now is technology: its destructive power grows exponentially, while social progress is only linear. When the technologies’ destructive power exceeds the ability of safeguards to contain it on this side of self destruction, then the game will be over.
As Vladimir Putin warned today” the danger of nuclear war is present and threatens the survival of civilization, the species and, indeed, the entire planet.”
He would know - his finger is hovering over one of the nuclear buttons. Trump's is another. The other seven potential madmen's fingers are not too far away from their buttons either.
However, if we discard the microscope and view it from a distance, as aliens might do in their telescopes, it suddenly becomes very simple and orderly. I call it the ‘stratification’ of the species into three well defined groups: two minorities fighting over the mental state of the majority.
One minority is the educated, intelligent, well meaning population, trying to steer the majority toward peaceful cooperation and egalitarian sharing of resources and the produced wealth.
The other minority is the group of unscrupulous, power hungry, greed-infused manipulators who try to affect the majority’s behavior by appealing to fundamental raw emotions of fear and greed, so they would be accepted at the top of the pyramid, playing their power games and accumulate more and more wealth.
The third group, by far the largest majority, is the masses with limited education, no training in critical thinking, feeling suppressed and exploited and confused about the roles the other two groups play.
The two minorities have been fighting, all through human history, to win over the masses and either liberate, or enslave them. The pendulum has been swinging back and forth resulting in very slow progress in social justice and living conditions for most of the species.
The big danger now is technology: its destructive power grows exponentially, while social progress is only linear. When the technologies’ destructive power exceeds the ability of safeguards to contain it on this side of self destruction, then the game will be over.
As Vladimir Putin warned today” the danger of nuclear war is present and threatens the survival of civilization, the species and, indeed, the entire planet.”
He would know - his finger is hovering over one of the nuclear buttons. Trump's is another. The other seven potential madmen's fingers are not too far away from their buttons either.
No comments have been added yet.
