The Pivotal Point is Right Now
How to Facilitate a Holocaust
A post on LinkedIn resonated with me, the author started: So I’ve often thought about how regular German folk ended up enabling the holocaust. I think a significant tipping point for many, would have been when they did nothing when Jews were fired and removed from positions in the government- or worse, personally benefited.
There were many good and clever people in Nazi Germany whilst the Holocaust played out. Dietrich Bonhoeffer lived in Nazi Germany; he proposed a theory that stupidity is more dangerous than evil. Bonhoeffer argued that stupidity is more difficult to fight than evil because reasons fall on deaf ears. The type of stupidity that facilitates a genocide or an ecocide has nothing to do with low IQ nor lack of understanding, it is all about what we want to believe about ourselves as individuals and as a species.
Ironically, the fierce ethnic nationalism that is exhibited by the Israeli far-right government has provided the excuse for the rising enthusiasm in German society for their far right AfD party. This DropsiteNews article explains: ‘There has been a turn away from formerly held beliefs in an internationally open order and the rule of law and fundamental rights. Questioning that goes quite some way towards an ethno-nationalist framework advocated by the AfD from the start. The more you think in terms of national interests and less in terms of human rights or global interests the more that will benefit a political force like the AfD.’
The Western world is at a fork in the road right now. The dying embers of Nationalism and settler colonialism are raging against our progress towards emotional maturity. All attempts to build a just society are categorised as ‘woke’ by those who are desperately trying to resurrect what they see as a glorious colonial past.
The Trump administration represents the final flourish of a morally and existentially spent force. Trump represents the wealth hierarchy that constructed our existing geopolitical landscape; as it battles to retain its control. They will not succeed. No country will succeed. Money is becoming increasingly worthless as our ecosystems collapse. We must cooperate globally and peacefully to survive this existential crisis.
Cognitive Dissonance, Denial, and Delusion
Modern humans rely on a socio-economic model that increases the three key drivers that impact on our environment, namely: population, affluence, and technology. In 2020 we had already been exceeding the carrying capacity of Earth for about a century. The strain on our shared habitat is very visible. Nowadays, our wars are all about controlling people and the diminishing natural resources that are available. Despite the overwhelming scientific consensus that we are causing climate change and the Sixth Mass Extinction, we still cling to the delusion that we can survive without changing our socio-economic model. We are all interdependent, and our world order is now unravelling rapidly under Donald Trump’s new administration. This is an opportunity for profound change.
The spectrum of denial and delusion that has enabled growth economics to persist is very broad. Awareness about the collective self-harm from growth economics has been building for decades; but still every country is unwisely persisting with that model. There is never any discussion about how we might minimise our demands for energy, and natural resources in general. Despite chronic global ecological overshoot, our political and intellectual leaders perpetuate the flawed belief that growth economics and sustainability are compatible.
Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act served only to increase overshoot. Any program intended to grow GDP will increase ecological overshoot. The Trump administration openly rejects the mass of scientific consensus on climate, environment, and also the advice from social scientists that diversity, equity, and inclusion is beneficial in the workplace. And yet Trump focusses on grabbing control of remaining natural resources in places like Ukraine, and Greenland. This reveals that Trump is aware of the threat from diminishing resources.
What We Want to Believe
Denial and delusion does not arise from any lack of IQ. It arises when we make choices that are founded in what we want to believe, rather than employing rational reasoning when choosing what to believe. Many Americans want to believe that America can be Great again. It is the deep desire for this to come true that persuades people to vote for a man who had frequently proved himself unscrupulous in financial matters. It has very little to do with rational reasoning.
Collective willpower is a very powerful force. It could help humanity to shrink itself peacefully and equitably back within the carrying capacity of Earth; but it will not enable Donald Trump to ‘Make America Great Again’. This is because the existential realities are not negotiable.
The collective denial of the existential crises that we face is proving very hard to break. Some of the flawed beliefs that serve to perpetuate our collective denial are listed below:
There is considerable evidence to refute all of these beliefs; the links provided above offer some insight into an alternative reality. People reassess their beliefs the whole time; especially when they see cause for anxiety. Fear is a key driver in decision making; feeling safe is one of our most fundamental desires. The anxieties arising from the Trump administration are building to a crescendo. The bubble of delusion has burst; the opportunity for profound change is now.
Reassessing Our Beliefs
The process of recovery from a flawed belief has similarities to the process of giving up an addiction. The neuroplasticity of the brain will usually facilitate the rapid emotional evolution that is required. The transition is aided if the recovery process is collective. People who are further advanced in their recovery process can share their experience about how they overcame the trauma that is involved.
I am an example of someone who has gone through the frightening realisation that humanity are on a very unwise trajectory; and that we are still making our predicament worse. My writing is intended to help my readers to accept that our socio-economic model is deeply flawed; and steer people towards the collective desire to construct a society where the wealth hierarchy is dismantled, where we share resources in a responsible and fair manner, and where we collaborate peacefully to minimise consumption and birth-rates until we return within the carrying capacity of Earth.
The science and the evidence surrounding the climate and environmental science has played a powerful role driving profound social change. Our advances in social sciences around Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion are just as important as our advances in the existential sciences. Our successful progress with social and emotional evolution has manifested in many different ways in recent years, examples are: Extinction Rebellion, Black Lives Matter, LGBTQ+, and the widespread solidarity with the oppressed Palestinian people. If you sympathise with any of these movements than you are on the right side of history. You are helping the mindset shift to take hold simply by holding a helpful opinion.
In 2025 many people are reassessing their worldview. Many now fear authoritarian rule and violence as the oligarchs fight over the control of natural resources. The lower echelons in the wealth hierarchy could overturn the oligarchs very easily. There is strength in numbers. The saying ‘Where there’s a will there’s a way’ inspires us all to use our willpower for change. Once our collective aspiration fits within current day existential realities, then we began to have a real chance of success.
Envisioning our Way Forwards
Humanity have had some fine aspirations along the way. So far, these have all succumbed to some extent to those who aspire to maintain the wealth hierarchy.
The United Nations is an example of a worthy collective aspiration. Their website wishes for ‘Peace, Dignity, and Equality’ on a healthy planet’. Sadly, all of these aspirations are compromised whilst we continue to exceed the carrying capacity of Earth. When we envision a new socio-economic model it must involve repaying our ecological debts. Let us imagine how we might facilitate the fine aspirations that are expressed by the United Nations and simultaneously downsize the global economy and population.
Peace
One of our most ecologically damaging pursuits is technological warfare. A demilitarised world would significantly reduce our ecological footprint. In this revealing romp through USA foreign policy, Jeffrey Sachs warns Europe that to be an enemy of the USA is dangerous, whereas to be a friend is fatal. We urgently need to abandon the idea that any physical war can be won in ecological overshoot. Jeffrey Sachs hints that we need to reject the win/lose premise of game theory and embrace a non-zero-sum global dialogue for our collective survival.
Violence is usually a consequence of anger and fear. The solution to violence lies in the emotional evolution that will enable us to convert these emotions into motivations to reject pronatalism and growth economics. Putting our collective survival as our priority can defuse the conflicts over resources. Conflict has ecological costs, as well as the cost in human suffering. We simply cannot afford those ecological costs whilst we are exceeding the carrying capacity of Earth.
Achieving dignity and equality for all is a prerequisite for global demilitarisation. Let us imagine how that might be achieved.
Dignity and Equality
A global rationing scheme might serve to minimise consumption per capita and simultaneously dismantle the wealth hierarchy. The rations could cover food, water, shelter, and access to contraceptive services. Communities might be organised into small hubs. Each hub might be self-governing and tasked with non-violently maintaining or reducing its population size so that the rations requirement does not increase. Money might still used for bartering purposes between communal hubs for goods and services that are deemed to contribute to collective wellbeing in some way, and for which the ecological cost is not considered too great.
Extremely wealthy individuals could be encouraged to contribute their wealth into the pool of resources to facilitate the rationing program and become part of a community hub themselves.
Optimism going forwards
I am confident that humanity could restructure itself peacefully, rapidly, and wisely. Facilitating a five-year long birth strike would free up our young adults to spend their time directly involved in the restructuring exercise; after all, they are the ones who will carry the burden of our mistakes of the past and present. I would love to see our Universities take the lead in this restructuring process.
Professor Leah Gerber delivered an exciting lecture at Oxford University; the full lecture is available at this link. Professor Leah Gerber has successfully implemented a model where higher education becomes directly involved in addressing real life problems. The description of the lecture follows:
Conservation is a crisis discipline, and one that is arguably failing. As we face an unprecedented rate of extinction, how do we mainstream biodiversity conservation into global decision-making and sustainable development?
In this talk, Professor Leah Gerber will describe a theory of change for addressing the biodiversity crisis by integrating innovation with boundary-spanning work.
Providing examples from a decade of work in leading Arizona State University’s Center for Biodiversity Outcomes, she will discuss ways to bring biodiversity into global decision making and to establish a replicable model for effective conservation.
In 2022 I worked with the UN Commons Cluster as lead editor on a paper that was submitted to the High Level Political Forum. I was also the lead author for the sections on SDG4 — Education and SDG17 — Partnerships. If you are interested in these two areas you might find the relevant sections in the paper of interest: Unity in Diversity.
If you have enjoyed this article, you might appreciate my online workshop ‘Paths to Paradigm’ shift which is taking place on 18 March 2025.
Post Script - Venn Diagram categorising Trump's actions
Prof. Christina Pagel has produced a Venn diagram of Trump's actions spread across five broad domains that correspond to features of proto-authoritarian states:
Because there have been so many actions, you may need to zoom in to read everything on the diagram. A high resolution PDF version of the diagram is?available here.
I believe in the common fabric of humanity and the value of the individual within society. Understanding, cooperation and humility are critical if we are to prosper within the ecological limitations of our finite planet.
1 周Hannah Arendt’s work deserves to be picked up - On Lies and Politics. Search for truth, and acceptance that it can evolve is critical. paraphrased - to defy reality ( what is), makes survival unlikely.