Will species extinction be the scientific effect of elitist greed?

[wcepler]

The time has come to seriously examine the biological consequences of rampant immorality.

If an alien life form was observing human civilization (and perhaps they are!), probably they would classify "disease" not only biologically, but socially. This would make sense if disease was defined as a "force of nature" which had the potential to lead to civilization death, if not species extinction.

With such a definition in mind, elitist greed could certainly be the number one candidate for the death of human civilization and/or the extinction of the human race.

We really don't have good definitions for such dynamics (even though we critically need them!), but clearly some variation of elitist greed could manifest in any "advanced" life form. A homey image is the choking of a dynamic ecosystem such as a country pond when it is steadily taken over by moss. It is a sad thing to behold, since the moss gradually suffocates the environment and a dead and stagnant pond is the result.

The astrophysicist Carl Sagan used to worry about such things, fearing the discovery of atomic energy would be the inevitable beginning of the end of advanced civilizations in this or any other galaxy. He felt the universe was teeming with life, but that few if any of these civilizations could survive the combination of devastating atomic weaponry with the raw stupidity of the life forms.

The jury is still out on Sagan's speculations, but perhaps he didn't live long enough to see that the limitless immoral greed of the planet’s elites is almost certainly far MORE dangerous than the morally neutral discovery of atomic energy.

Consider the facts (and please forgive the general outline as this is not the place for a properly worked out monograph).

The "elites" make up one percent or less of the human population, and yet they absolutely dominate the entire planet. This ratio also exists in America which a textbook example of a Dictatorship of the Rich.

"Democracy" is a fairly tale on this planet. We love to talk and dream about it and even write "Constitutions" to support it, but this is like getting so carried away by a brain-dead television sitcom that you think it's actually happening. Well, the sitcom is NOT actually happening and neither is human Democracy.

Many of you have probably had the experience of being in a company or university in which much ado was made in the construction of a "Mission Statement"¬¬¬¬, which meant ABSOLUTELY NOTHING. It's construction made everyone feel wise and good, but its an empty paper game not even the walls pay any attention to.

The same thing is true for Democratic Constitutions. Utterly, utterly, meaningless documents (however well intentioned), because the Greek God like elites are the true brains, sinus, and muscles of all major countries.

Hence, if you want to know where the buck stops that completely explains the plummeting disintegration of human civilization and ballistic destruction of the human ecosystem, it is (of course) grounded in the ultimate power and control centers of human civilization, i.e., the vampire elites.

And yes, the "vampire" elites, because they are literally draining the blood of our one and only planet, even though they make up a tiny percentage of humankind.

Another take on the elites is that they are incarnations of humanity AT ITS WORST. Note that we're talking about the perennial have and have not distinction which has been the constant horror of human existence.

Much, much more could be said about all this, but the theory argued for in this piece is that human civilization and even human existence may well be biologically doomed by our "evil deeds". In short, morality isn't just a religious preoccupation ("heaven", etc.), but a species survival necessity. Sagan's concerns also factor into this and the increasingly exploding human population, but the core survival truth is "how we behave", and the exponential greed repercussions of the planet's multi millionaire and multi billionaire elites are steadily pushing the human species into the eternal abyss of extinction

The other critical variable in all this is that Sagan’s worry about species stupidity equally applies here, since if the collective human intelligence of planet Earth had a little more pizazz, the elites would be dispensed with like dysfunctional bacteria. The torturing irony is that vampire elites are a TOTALLY SOLVABLE PROBLEM -- but not with brains that are clogged with sloth.
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W. Christopher Epler

<http://theliberationofrealism.blogspot.com/>

[TalkingDog]

1. There is a much simpler explanation of the "dynamic"

Although nobody likes to talk about it.

We are primates. Primate behavior in "lower" forms is well documented and well studied. Some behavioral anthropologist have taken those studies and generalized them to humans, with fair results.

"Monkey see, monkey do" is not just a taunt you throw at someone copying your behavior.

All primates have a hierarchical structure: Alpha Male or Female, the Betas and on down the line. The babies are given the most leeway in behavior and juveniles less so and on up the line there is a stricturing of what is permissible in terms of anything that might supplant the current order.

Interestingly though, when a juve discovers a new behavior, food or activity, s/he is initially ignored by everyone. If the behavior does not disrupt or cause harm, the immediate siblings might ape the new behavior. Again, if no disruption or harm comes, the mother may adopt the behavior and outward the behavior spreads, until it reaches the Alpha.

This is a tribal survival mechanism. Consider the experiment with Macaque monkeys on Koshima Island. The Buddhist monks in charge of their care, knew that the Alpha Male had a fondness for sweets (I think it was toffees) and would give him one occasionally. The scientists decided to see what would happen within the tribe if the Alpha undertook a novel (for the others) behavior.

Unlike juve behavior which trickled through the tribe slowly, when the Alpha went to the pile of toffees left on the beach, all the other monkeys followed suit. If this had been something toxic, the entire tribe would have perished.

Let's consider tattoos.

Tattoos (in the last 75-100 years) have been the mark of low status, specialized groups. In the last 20 years, a number of young college students, neo-tribals, neo-pagans began getting tattoos. Then more mainstream people in their mid-20's. When the behavior hit Hollywood and the sports world, everybody and their brother thought it was either okay for them to have a tattoo or for somebody else to. Parents no longer forbade their children from associating with or mating with tattooed people.

It's exactly the same dynamic.

If we want to stop short the killing of the planet, if we want to stop materialism, greed, conspicuous consumption, then we need to elect monkeys that espouse those views forcefully. If we want our children cared for, our elderly respected, democracy to flourish, we have to consciously look at which Alphas espouse and enact those ideals. It really is as simple as that.

Otherwise it has to work it's way up from the ground floor and I'm not sure we have time for that.


My Favorite Master Artist: Karen Parker GhostWoman Studios

[tom_paine]

2. Very well said. Our minds have been unable to overcome our animal nature

Don't get me wrong, there are many things about our animal nature that are most wonderful: love, all kinds of pleasure, including that which comes from helping others, and so so much more.

But where we needed to get away from our monkey-selves, have failed miserably and continue to do so as we approach what I think is the final test for the human species.

It is a test we are bound to fail before it even approaches. It is this:

Something like 25% of the world's total oil reserves are thought to be under the North Pole. If not that much, then a lot. Probably left by Cretaceous Polar jungles or somesuch...I'm not paleogeologist. The point is, these areas are now being exposes as a result of hydrocarbon energy consumption, and offer us hydrocarbon junkie monkies one last list off the vein of that old Black Water (get it, like the mercs)...Crude Oil. If we are stupid monkeys, which we are, we will not be able to stop ourselves from drilling up and vaporizing that hydrocarbon for the immediate rush of pleasure it will give us.

But that may well be the last straw that tips the Earth's environment into the nonrecoverable zone, at least from a perspecitve of the survival of the human species.

God's last test for the stupid, you see. And you can also see it is nearly a foregone conclusion that it is test we Primate People of Sol III are going to fail, and it's coming within a decade or two.

There are some interesting things in Bill Epler's latest, but I believe you have hit the nail onthe head here.