I have been musing on recent global events, which seem to have a decidedly negative flavour. Whether it's terrorism, instability in the Middle East, climate change, Corporate influence, or any range of other issues, the picture seems to look grim.
Being pragmatic sorts, we take each of these "issues" and try to determine the best solution to the "problem". Whichever side of the spectrum you find yourself on, most people seem to approach these issues from the genuine belief that they have a solution that will fix it and make it all better.
I'm wondering if there's real validity in the argument that these individual problems are actually just symptoms of a much bigger problem; a problem that actually can't be fixed. Hypothetically speaking, what if the sky really is falling?
Obviously all societies have their problems, and many of the problems we're facing today we've faced other times, in a variety of forms and on a variety of scales. But it's pretty unusual to face these problems on such breathtaking scale, and all at once. Take terrorism. Obviously we've had plenty of terrorism in the past. But if you dig past the few "tentpole" events in western countries that claim the lion's share of media attention you quickly realise that today's terrorist problem, in both its volume and in how widespread it is, dwarfs anything we've ever dealt with before. Likewise, history is full of plenty of examples of societies that messed with their immediate environment and reaped the rewards, but nothing holds a candle to the Climate Change we're now dealing with. Population displacement has occurred forever, but never on anything like the scale we say today. And on and on.
If I had to find a point in history that most reminds me of what's happening today in the world, it would be Europe in the 14th Century. Population pressures and increased resource pressures combined with a major climate shift meant the problems that societies usually managed to deal with grew out of control. Medieval Europe had experienced famine before, they'd experienced crop failure before, they'd had outbreaks of disease before, and civil unrest. But when these events occurred in the 14th Century the results were catastrophic.
In the last couple of centuries we've seen an explosion in human population, and an even bigger explosion in the demand each individual puts on the earth's resources. We've also seen significant climate change. And the logical result is happening before our eyes; social disintegration, people pushed to extreme actions, as the world fights over dwindling resources in an increasingly hostile environment.
When Europe was struck by a succession of crisis during the 14th Century, the authorities took the usual actions to try manage each new disaster, but from the perspective of hindsight these measures were so ineffective they're almost farcical, like erecting little sand walls around your sand castle to protect it from an approaching Tsunami.
Are we, today, doing the same thing? Is there actually anything we can do, other than hope we're one of the lucky ones who survives and gets to pick up the pieces once it's all over?
Being pragmatic sorts, we take each of these "issues" and try to determine the best solution to the "problem". Whichever side of the spectrum you find yourself on, most people seem to approach these issues from the genuine belief that they have a solution that will fix it and make it all better.
I'm wondering if there's real validity in the argument that these individual problems are actually just symptoms of a much bigger problem; a problem that actually can't be fixed. Hypothetically speaking, what if the sky really is falling?
Obviously all societies have their problems, and many of the problems we're facing today we've faced other times, in a variety of forms and on a variety of scales. But it's pretty unusual to face these problems on such breathtaking scale, and all at once. Take terrorism. Obviously we've had plenty of terrorism in the past. But if you dig past the few "tentpole" events in western countries that claim the lion's share of media attention you quickly realise that today's terrorist problem, in both its volume and in how widespread it is, dwarfs anything we've ever dealt with before. Likewise, history is full of plenty of examples of societies that messed with their immediate environment and reaped the rewards, but nothing holds a candle to the Climate Change we're now dealing with. Population displacement has occurred forever, but never on anything like the scale we say today. And on and on.
If I had to find a point in history that most reminds me of what's happening today in the world, it would be Europe in the 14th Century. Population pressures and increased resource pressures combined with a major climate shift meant the problems that societies usually managed to deal with grew out of control. Medieval Europe had experienced famine before, they'd experienced crop failure before, they'd had outbreaks of disease before, and civil unrest. But when these events occurred in the 14th Century the results were catastrophic.
In the last couple of centuries we've seen an explosion in human population, and an even bigger explosion in the demand each individual puts on the earth's resources. We've also seen significant climate change. And the logical result is happening before our eyes; social disintegration, people pushed to extreme actions, as the world fights over dwindling resources in an increasingly hostile environment.
When Europe was struck by a succession of crisis during the 14th Century, the authorities took the usual actions to try manage each new disaster, but from the perspective of hindsight these measures were so ineffective they're almost farcical, like erecting little sand walls around your sand castle to protect it from an approaching Tsunami.
Are we, today, doing the same thing? Is there actually anything we can do, other than hope we're one of the lucky ones who survives and gets to pick up the pieces once it's all over?
via International Skeptics Forum http://ift.tt/1WHapfM
Aucun commentaire:
Enregistrer un commentaire