Make-Or-Break Century
Today I opened up a new book – The Meaning Of the 21st Century by James Martin. Martin’s view is that the 21st century is the make-or-break of human civilization.
“A transition, unique in human history will occur.
If the transition goes well, humanity has a magnificent future. If it goes badly, we may be thrown into a new Dark Age or worse.”
Into my mind pops this article. A group, calling themselves The Wild Growing Collective, are advocating Anarcho-primitivism; a civilization critical ideology proposing a return to the “non-civilized” era of hunting and gathering.
It is easy, and very tempting, to dismiss the anarko-primitivists. For the humankind to live like hunters and gatherers we need to decrease the global population by about 99%. Just think about the path there for a while…
Still, I know the primitivists have no viable solution for the global problems, but I can’t help to think… How come people seeing a Mad Max apocalyptic scenario in the future get so little respect when people seeing the Star Trek colonizing-space scenario get so much? How come Christer Fuglesang gets away with saying that colonizing space could be a good alternative with all the environmental problems on earth, like global warming. Moving onto other planets isn’t a very realistic alternative for six billion people either. In fact, it’s a far worse solution than just returning to hunters and gatherers. Really! How are we supposed to manage life on other planets if we can’t handle it on earth – a planet so optimal that life emerged on it’s own?
So, still waiting for the solution? Maybe that’s just the problem, people waiting for the easy solution. The truth is that the solutions aren’t easy. They require us to use the best of civilizations knowledge, but not to once again increase our consumption of natural resources, but to decrease it. They require us to adapt our economy to the reality of ecology. They require us to base the most critical decisions of mankind on what world we want our children to live in – not quarterly reports.
And we all have to play a part, sooner or later. It starts with you or it ends with you, your choice!
Interesting parallel to Nostradamus’ predictions about the fork in history around the year 2000, where the road can go either way, Armageddon or paradise on earth depending on how we act. When I read the news these days I can a an increased polarization, more acts that could be considered evil but also more unselfish acts of goodness. I’m sure that of all who has read his prophesies a lot more are going to do good actions than evil actions based on what they have read. I don’t think a majority of those who have read them will actively work towards hell on earth, so I am quite positive that if he was right then we should have av fair chance.
Even though I don’t seriously believe in what he wrote, I still think it’s quote interesting.