In Memoriam - Christmas 2019

Dedicated to those who have died in the firestorms currently ravaging Australia, and for those brave souls who are fighting to preserve both lives and properties.

The things you do for yourself are gone when you are gone, but the things you do for others remain as your legacy ~ Kalu Ndukwe Kalu

It really only struck me a few days ago how hopeless our situation actually is. I was having a late breakfast at my hotel in Melbourne, scanning the pages of the Bangkok Post. I had just spent 15 minutes on a live cross to a breakfast show in New Zealand speaking to a television audience about the enormous firestorms currently engulfing Australia, in addition to other global events that signify a grave deterioration in the conditions necessary for human life. 

I am not sure whether I turned to the newspaper as light relief or simply to confirm my own biases. In any case I found almost every article, editorial, and advertisement reinforced the notion of normalcy. My deepest concerns about the future were not being contradicted by the "news" - just reframed or repositioned as a part of a pattern that could not possibly ruffle feathers or cause excessive anxiety. That, I venture to suggest, is part of the problem we face. Our narrative is enmeshed within a business-as-usual schema and we are frightened by anything that suggests otherwise. The idea that our redemption must inevitably resemble a continuation of pre-existing patterns, protocols and routines is, however, most unlikely.

Humans do not take kindly to the idea of imposed change. It invites dread. Certainly the prospect of extinction is too much to handle; thus repeatedly ridiculed and dismissed as inconceivable by the popular press and politicians alike. Change of any kind invariably sets off warning bells. It signifies loss and discomfort, fostering resistance in the minds of many. The thought of calling a temporary halt to our own economic growth in order that people a world away might benefit from a slightly higher quality of life, for example, is just incomprehensible to most of us. 

Preferring to hide in ignorance or history, where answers were always found to the problems of the day (even though many of them were shortsighted, unwise, and barbaric) we continue to patch up the present as best we can, preoccupied by the repetitive and delusional routines from which we take comfort; all the while insisting that “she’ll be right”. 

Commentators beg us to remain optimistic, ignoring the massive failure of imagination that stalks the corridors of power. My own critics constantly tell me not to harp on the bad news, or to be so negative. "This will only frustrate your audience. People need to hear good news" they insist, evidently concerned about my public persona in maintaining such Cassandra-like certainty. But what if business-as-usual, and even good news, which there is aplenty if we know just where to look, gets in the way of hearing some truths we just need to accept. What if our craving for normalcy is impeding the decisive actions we must take concerning the really intolerably bad news? What if the cloak of normality actually shuts down our ability to maintain an open mind?

The truth that hardly anyone dares utter is an unthinkable and unlivable reality. Our society is in a state of collapse - precipitated by a predatory disregard for nature and an inability to find a balance between economic sufficiency and emotional well-being. This is most evident in the abusive and divisive ways we treat each other. We are one species. Without changing what we do and how we do it will put almost everything we cherish at risk. Yet still we seem incapable of escaping the urge for self-destruction. 

It is possible there is no way out of the mess we have made of the environment. Adaptation seems to be the only viable option. There is a plethora of solutions available, but we choose not to deploy them at the scale and speed necessary to avoid catastrophic damage. Advised to prepare for the worst by many leading scientists, we are not even up to that task.

In these circumstances it is difficult to refrain from deriding others, attacking their motives, drawing attention to their many shortcomings, and calling out their banality, incompetence, ideological leanings, or lack of courage for the situation in which we now find ourselves. But hate and derision are a part of the problem. Attacking others might fill us with a false sense of self-importance but it is pretentious and will ultimately make matters far worse. 

We need all our energy to focus on how to get out of the situation we are in. Censuring a few incumbent leaders for lacking the wisdom we ourselves could not muster if we were in their shoes is misguided and akin to the vituperative murmurings of a madman. While it is true that some people make better leaders than others, individuals are not to blame. We are all trapped in an ideological prison of our own invention. We call it capitalism. It is killing us.

If we were to step back and look objectively at the causes for our contemporary predicament we might identify systemic "defects" embedded within our current worldview. As has been pointed out to me on several occasions, some of these so-called “defects” (such as the instinct to compete) are simply part of human nature. My response is emphatic: if we find it impossible to recast these aspects of our nature, to channel them into more constructive ends, then we have already lost the evolutionary battle. In that case our destiny will, and possibly deserves to be, the extinction of modern civilization. 

Today, making this point on the evening television news, if it could be adequately conveyed, would invite outrage - stirring up apprehension in those who cannot bring themselves to face such probabilities. It would be irresponsible. In any case, the media’s propensity to coat everything with honey, glossing over anything that smacks of an existential nature, would result in such a topic being normalized for mass consumption – possibly by being placed between excerpts from the latest Marvel movie and yet another faux celebrity scandal. 

Although some of the drivers of human behaviour etched into our shared worldview might constructively evolve into others, compassion and cooperation replacing hate and division perhaps, it is not simply these factors that are at fault, but the overarching narrative we use to design systems that then reify these values. The most insidious of these is materialism. Explicitly the addictive and perpetual cycle of desire and consumption to which we submit daily.

In 1945 the planet felt empty. Only 2 billion humans inhabited Earth. In the space of 75 years the population has burgeoned to over 7 billion people – each individual seeking a better quality of life than the previous generation. Unimaginable stress has been put on systems essential for our mutual well-being and prosperity as a consequence. Not intended to cope with such vast numbers, it should come as no surprise that they have started to fail. Back then, in the post-war years, nobody noticed anything untoward, distracted as we were by our newly-acquired wealth, and seduced by the power that wealth brings.

Unaware of any undesirable consequences we were urged to follow the credo of economic growth. And we did – buying new goods and seeking novelty as though our lives depended on it. Our compulsion became pervasive. We threw away stuff with casual nonchalance as easy credit and inbuilt obsolescence conspired to replace the old with the new. Materialism spread to become a global faith.

But then things started to go badly wrong. And we did not like it. Encouraged by the ability of social media to generate outrage, and to manipulate our feelings, we found easy targets for our anger. We blamed anonymous others for our predicament. Perhaps they did not look like us. Possibly they prayed to different gods, or just spoke an unfamiliar language. They certainly did not believe in the same things as us. But the deceptive nature of hatred and loathing became corrosive. Fear turned to apprehension in the minds of sensible individuals. Anxiety and depression quickly followed. Eager to hide our mental fragility we resorted to extra medication, junk food, alcohol – along with more financial debt. Anything to restore normalcy. We tried everything. Nothing made us happy. Suicide rates continued to climb.

The illusion is perpetuated today through the manipulation of a marketing culture hellbent on selling us the need to own stuff we do not need. Our apprehension, envy and anxiety can be cured, we are told, if we just buy the latest upgrade, shop in the most fashionable mall, test drive a new car, or experience the five star luxury of Dubai's most trendy resort. Wealth will make us happy again. Happier than before.

Thus, the cycle of desire and consumption was born toxic. Our insatiable desire for more and more stuff infuses the human mind, deceiving us into thinking that materialism is the obvious solution to all our ills. In fact it is the central problem.The reality is that increased spending has simply led to increased pressure on the systems that are now in a state of collapse. Indeed they are now failing faster. But none of this has made us any happier.

Furthermore there is nothing we can do to break this cycle. Our addiction is personal and it is collective - which is the reason we should not blame anyone but ourselves for our plight. Blaming others leads only to a mindset of dependency, making our eventual exit even more unlikely.

There are other equally destructive cycles that follow a similar pattern of course. Unending conflict and war results in the further fracturing of humanity, which then leads to further conflict and misunderstanding. An obsession with unrestrained economic growth results in environmental destruction, which is then used as an excuse for further growth. The tacit pact that allows wealth to translate into power, but that ultimately leads to just a few individuals owning most of the world’s wealth, follows a similar trajectory.

Not one of these cycles is sustainable. They can all be traced back to the narrative of self-righteous hubris and avarice that animates them. This is the narrative that must change. 

We can do the easy stuff right now. We can connect the dots between events and outcomes. We can innovate, play around with current designs, eliminate the most harmful constraints, and experiment with new prototypes. But there our ingenuity runs out of steam...

Only when, with great effort and persistence, we are able to put aside irrational prejudices, stepping into different ontologies to design systems that work effectively for village farmers in the developing world as well as shareholders in our wealthiest nations, can we be assured of longevity for our species. For in order for these new systems to endure they will need to be generative and restorative.

That is impractical if we are unable to step into new frameworks of understanding so as to reframe what it means to be human. In order for that to happen we will need to take a giant leap of consciousness: to see ourselves for who we are, and for who we might become, in order to interpret the world differently. 

I hazard to suggest that nurturing a generation possessing a self-generative consciousness is the next step in human evolution. But as I keep pointing out, and being shouted down, such a leap of consciousness depends upon human nature changing its most fundamental impulses or, at the very least, redirecting them to achieve more constructive outcomes.

This is the greatest challenge of our time. At this point anything else is a distraction. I am told repeatedly that it cannot be done. That human nature is what it is... So, I can only resort to hope.

But please do not ask me to inspire optimism every time I get up to speak or write an article. Do not plead with me to look on the bright side, or to ignore science. I prefer to face the facts – even if those facts are intensely discomforting. 

That said, I still believe we will eventually come to our senses. I do not believe the world will end in a matter of decades, or even years. I certainly do not believe the apocalypse is imminent. I have particular faith in the young generation to see and enact things differently. And I do believe we will be wise enough to survive our past success. Not tomorrow perhaps. There is much pain and disaster to come before we feel compelled to act or to accept the total truth regarding the human species. But eventually.