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The urge to destroy is –hopefully – also a creative urge. With Mikhail Bakunin‘s words echoing in the minds of the destroyers – us – it should be time to raise the flag of consciousness. But all I see is flags of ignorance. And where’s the creativity?
Time is running out. Or, to be honest, time ran out many, many years ago.

Take a look at this webpage, Worldometers – live world statistics in real time on population, government and economics, society and media, environment, food, water, energy and health. It’s pretty scary.

Take a look at the nearest clock and understand that since this exact time yesterday, 13 million tons of toxic chemicals were released across the globe (probably more, in regards to what’s happening in Japan right now), and 200 000 acres of rainforest have been destroyed. Every two seconds a human being starves to death. Every day 150-200 animal and plant species are driven extinct.

Take a look at this map – the true size of Africa.
(Ok, I know this is not the true true size of Africa because of distortions and such, but the point that Africa is much bigger than it looks on most maps is still valid, and no, the size of something is not really what matters here either…)

So, taking all this information into consideration: where will Earth be in 2045? Where will men, women and children be? Animals?
According to a recent U.N. report, the projected world population by 2050 will be 9.3 billion.
I wrote a bit about that here, more specifically in The Greatest Shortcoming of The Human Race post.

Technology most certainly will continue to develop at an exponential rate, as our development of sustainable agricultural and environmental issues lags behind. Some people claim that technology still lacks what separates tech from Man: a sense of morality, compassion, love, empathy… In my mind, I don’t see how we make good use of that morality, compassion, love and empathy. In my mind, we’ve forgotten everything about the soul, the spirits, and our emotions. Superhuman intelligence is all about the brain, and nothing about the soul, hence I see no difference between Man and Machine.

Everybody knows that we’re in deep need of new, sustainable systems to make this world a better place. Everybody knows that hunger is manmade. But these monumental problems are hardly being adressed at all. At least not by those in power, the responsible people who are able to make a difference. The power of the grassroot campaigns and small-scale activism is simply not enough, and we seem unable to grasp the magnitude of the challenges that face us.

We know we cannot rely on the State to help us out when everything comes crashing down. So is it everyone for himself? Survival of the fittest? Yes, very much so. That’s the way it’s always been, and there’s no reason to believe things will change. Man will not live forever. Man will die off, it’s just a question of when, and I say the sooner the better.

As for America, the Number One Country In The World…

Well, they have the most guns, the most crime among rich countries and the largest amount of debt in the world. While most rich countries are making large investments in education, science and infrastructure, America is cutting investments and subsidizing consumption; they are 27th in life expectancy, 18th in diabetes and first in obesity.

According to the Legatum Institute’s index of prosperity (a measure of material wealth and quality of life (whatever that means) among 110 nations), Scandinavian countries rate the highest, and the U.S., having dropped from a first-place tie in 2007, now ranks 10th.

The main thing seems to be to maintain an unsustainable level of consumption, i.e. to continue to feel good. Obama used millions of dollars in campaign funds to appeal to this way of living, but it will prove to be the true beginning of the end.
This is more than just another financial crisis, this is a crisis of civilization.

The majority of Americans live in a non-reality-based belief system and cannot separate truth from lies, everyday being subject to skillfully manipulated images of information, based on childish, simplistic narratives and clichés. 42 million American adults cannot read, and another 50 million read at a fourth or fifth level grade. Eighty percent of the families in the United States did not buy a book in 2007. Nearly a third of the nation’s population is illiterate or barely literate, and their numbers are growing by an estimated 2 million a year.

So, when these illiterates care to vote, they do so without the ability to make decisions based on textual information. They rely on images; a smile, a nice poster, one word saying ”HOPE”, three words saying ”YES WE CAN”, meaning absolutely nothing…

Political propaganda is mistaken for ideology, feelings are mistaken for knowledge (how many of you cried when Obama was elected?). Style rules over content. It feels good not to think, because that’s what it’s all about: feeling good, knowing everything is alright, not confronting reality. I mean, you claim to be blessed by God or whatever and that’s the solution… An illusional blessing, if there ever was one.

And so now maybe is the time for a renewal of the Patriot Act and pose the obvious question: Who will protect you from your government?

This experiment gone haywire is in for a lot of surprises. But degeneration began a long time ago, starting when the great empire of production became the great empire of consumption, the great empire of shame. And that was way back, long before the war on terror. People I rely on say it began by the end of the Vietnam war, when the great expenses of this war began to take its toll on the American population, which collided with the decline of domestic oil.

Chris Hedges of the Information Clearing House: ”All the traditional tools of democracies, including dispassionate scientific and historical truth, facts, news and rational debate, are useless instruments in a world that lacks the capacity to use them.”

So, this is America, the number one leading country in the world.
And the world follows the leader.

On a final note, let me quote George R.R. Martin’s master novel A Game of Thrones here, in relation to the death of Bin Laden, and the very meaning of the word ”death”:

May 20, 2011

June 19, 2006

April 21, 2003

May 7, 1945