In This Deep, Are We Culturally Capable of Saving Ourselves?

A drastic change in our collective mindset and behavior is the only thing that could possibly stop us from damaging the planet so badly that it sooner or later causes a worldwide civilization meltdown. And clearly we could do it physically. But are we not so deeply culturally entrenched in our destructive habits that it is an impossibility?

We hear regular news about future climate catastrophe, right alongside hopeful strategies that may help us avert it. But what do we hear about how to change the mindset of people who’s only experience is in a culture of massive daily and perpetual consumption?

Is it possible to implement a few new science tricks but leave the zeitgeist intact?

Not only do I think not, I think we have mounting cultural intractable issues that will prevent us from achieving meaningful action to avert disaster.

I’d like to think that our environmental woes are foremost, and they may be….but I believe that those problems ultimately stem from the Achilles heel of our survival programming, and without addressing that, our penchant to take a flame thrower to the world around us will only continue. With so many tools at our disposal these days, our instinct to flourish is having great success. This has manifested itself into wild fits of consumerism, materialism, extreme self indulgence, etc. These survival traits that served us mostly well in a world where we were more like animals in an ecosystem than consumers in a machine, may not actually prove to have the same benefits in a world where we have the ability to change the chemistry of the atmosphere and deplete the ocean of its fish etc. I wonder if this is an intractable relationship.

Which of course brings up the question, are we changing the chemistry of the atmosphere?

While the science very clearly and definitively says that we are, there remain large swaths of the population that insist on believing that we are not, or that this will have no consequence. Those same people are likely clueless about the acidification of the ocean, the worldwide dying of coral reefs, the starfish and kelp forest collapses, the seriousness of the methane being released in the arctic as it continues to melt more each year, continued depletion of ocean fish populations, dead zones in the ocean resulting from poisonous runoff, the global decline in insect populations and the ramifications of it, the fact that we are living in the middle of a global mass extinction event, etc. etc.

And I feel certain that it is these very people who will dig their heels in ever deeper when asked or required to change consumption habits or pay for implementation of tools and systems that enable real sustainability.

I could go on and on about this bizarre phenomenon of peoples indifference or even flat out denial of these issues, but the aspect of this that most concerns me is of scientific literacy in the population. We have created a technological world that we are completely immersed in. We have mobilized armies of people and machines that have the ability to alter the very fundamental aspects of the state of the natural world around us. Yet, not only do very few among us have any meaningful scientific literacy, it is often disdained as nerdish or uninteresting. I dare say, most people display a total lackluster of curiosity about scientific matters altogether, much less appreciate the critical importance of science.

It seems far too many people know more about celebrities than even the basics of how the scientific method works, how it is used, and what it means to our existence. We live in a world saturated in science, and wholly dependent on science, while only a tiny percentage of people truly value it or comprehend its depth. This is important.

Pop culture seems to pull us quite successfully into a blissful existence of scientific ignorance for most, while I would argue that only a scientifically literate population stands any chance of long term success. And to boot, could we Americans possibly have elected a less scientifically literate president — Trump — science!? The guy can barely read! I fear this strange view by the electors about what type of person is qualified to lead us in this increasingly complicated world is also an intractable situation.

Of course I can’t leave out the politics. As far as I can tell, the left believes the right to be stupid greedy demons with no moral values who will rally behind Satan for their own benefit. And the right believes the left to be a bunch of stupid squishy hippies with no moral values and think that government simply has all the money and should get to the business of spreading it around equally so that everybody can live in utopia. And it appears that people are only becoming more entrenched and convinced of the evil of the other side. If people continue this frenzied irrational thinking, the political situation may become intractable, if it isn’t already.

There are a myriad of cultural issues that I see as intractable. One of the more troubling ones to me is affluenza, and it’s web like tentacles that make appearances in so many aspects of our lives. We have gotten so used to so many luxuries that I believe it jades our expectations, and it most certainly degrades our ability to keep things in perspective.

We have ushered in a vastly more complicated world where all average people have the necessity to skillfully navigate a dizzying array of tasks: performing a job, securing housing, buying and maintaining a vehicle, maintaining a living space, budgeting, navigating all types of insurances, permits, and sometimes legal issues, doing taxes, getting mortgages, parenting, housekeeping, school, cooking, paying bills, banking, shopping for an ever expanding list of necessities, planning for retirement, maintaining all manner of personal relationships, scheduling, keeping up with the things our computers and phones need like excel, iCloud, Dropbox, Facebook, Linkedin, WhatsApp, Messaging, Snapchat, Twitter, PayPal, Venmo, Applepay, e-mail tsunamis every day, voting apps (are all of these apps really helping or simplifying our lives? so many new ones all the time!), etc. etc.

With so many skills to master, is it no wonder that many of us end up woefully bad at some of them that may be vitally important? Yet we don’t have the kind of culture where a social network such as an extended family can effectively prop each other up.

I think one of the most serious challenges of affluenza is in the raising of our children. I see all around me the struggle sooo many parents have with raising disciplined, well behaved, well rounded, kind, and thoughtful children. I see pandering to children, bargaining with children, spoiling children, etc. Frankly I see us busy unintentionally raising armies of spoiled brats that have been catered to and eventually grow up with a skewed sense of self importance. We don’t want to argue with them, or disappoint them, and we want to make them happy. But the reality is that parenting is difficult, hard work, and tricky. It requires skill and commitment, and for many of us, more than just the time between work and sleep. But it’s just one more task on a very long list. That situation may be intractable.

I could go on about the breakdown of our public education system, race relations (it seems that right now we have gone from non stop race stories in the news, to non stop covid 19 stories, and back to nonstop race stories), lack of appreciation for quality, durability, and sustainability in our products and ways of life.

I could offer examples of absurdities such as the fact that our oceans are seriously contaminated with plastic but at the same time there is a new brand of bottled water at the grocery store seemingly every week!?!? That our ten cent per bottle deposit STILL isn’t enough to get people to return them, it’s like we are little brats carelessly and callously spraying plastic and money around!

I could go on about the mind boggling increasingly tribal like attitude of the us vs. them mentality, be it religious, racial, sexual, political, etc.

I could lament the disturbing trend of all of us turning into a throng of zombies staring at screens who seldom read books, stop to listen to birds, make something with our hands, can appreciate a long walk in nature without an over the top fear of the unfamiliar, much less the prospect of actually spending an entire night in the wilderness — which would likely be viewed as a stupid thing to do by our current president.

So many of us seem to be truly disengaging ourselves from the human experience, often mindlessly obsessed with gadgets, gizmos, apps, movies, etc., making us susceptible to feeling no connection to the natural world that produced us. It all leads me to thinking that this world is full steam ahead to a very dark place………..or am I nothing more than another Chicken Little?

My guess is that reality of the not so distant future lies somewhere in between total apocalypse and business as usual, bending a lot more towards apocalypse, as the environmental damage will prove to be severe and will last for a very long time.

So I believe these mounting intractable issues are something to be concerned about, in so much as real solutions to the issues above (and a great many more) are essential in avoiding collapse. Our collective bickering, ignorance, and stubbornness, will likely ensure no meaningful progress on the critical and time sensitive predicaments we face today.

So call me Chicken Little, because I believe the sky will fall, and all I can even hope to do about it is make some type of plan as for what to do when it does. Maybe I’ll be here to see it, maybe my kids will be. Maybe it will help, maybe it won’t. But having no plan at all, certainly won’t help at all. I am feeling more and more comfortable these days admitting that I am a bit of a doomsday prepper.

If you think I have no hope that humanity will enact any meaningful solutions to avert disaster on the horizon, you’d be right. Call me names, criticize me, say what you will. That’s just the way I see it, we have woven quite the intractable web. Ha, and part of that web includes the hostility a person receives in this world when they simply call it like they see it, and refuse to slather their thoughts in optimism and hope when the bottom line of what they see is unbridled out of control self destruction. Am I actually morally required to profess optimism and hope when I see none, otherwise keep my mouth shut? ……….. Uh…., on the other hand, I’m from the south, and there is a saying down there, “If you don’t have something good to say, don’t say anything at all”. Oops, broke that one.

And please don’t get me wrong, I absolutely do not see everything as being bad, not by a long shot. In fact, I regularly witness impressive triumphs of humanity, almost unbelievable compassion, positivity, truly impressive scientific discoveries and milestones, and true progress. I see and appreciate all types of soaring works of art, incredible performers and comedians, and regular people doing amazing things.

So I do not assume in any way that everything happening is bad, I simply don’t believe that any of the proposed solutions to our many critical problems show promise of working. And therefore I don’t see the scenario where humanity’s abusive relationship with the planet does not catch up to us in a meaningfully severe way.

If I am coming off preachy, believe me, it doesn’t come from a place of confident arrogance. Almost daily I find myself asking if I really think this seemingly well oiled machine that has steadily and unfailingly brought us an overflowing cornucopia of rich culture, reliable necessities, new and ever expanding comforts of all types, etc., is really at risk? Is that just a plain dumb paranoid thought? It often feels that way, daily life just seems so normal and generally positive.

But then I ask myself all manner of questions, like: If even just half of the worlds population succeeds in joining the ranks of the middle class, can the planet really simply absorb that level of consumption? I’m pretty sure the numbers won’t be kind to that prospect. If not, what mechanism will intervene? Do atmospheric CO2 concentrations really matter? The data clearly points to a direct correlation between concentrations and global temperature. Will this turn into global warming issues that will threaten our way of life or even possibly our survival? I think logic says yes, sooner or later. One really has to do nutty contortions of the data and interpretations to say no, or claim that all of the numbers are wrong and then go to strange theories to explain how or why.

Those types of questions go on and on, and what I seem to always come up with is a version of, “Yeah, we have a very successful system that has produced many masterful results on many levels, but most likely is totally whack as far as being able to continue on like this”. So then I settle in on asking about the mechanics of the demise, sudden and catastrophic?, or slow and almost imperceptible?, or some other jumbled up mixture of those? On this, I have no idea. Is it idiotic to “prep” as if a collapse is imminent? Is it idiotic not to? I really don’t know.

So you say, Phillip, what is the point? Why write this article? What would you suggest!?! Fair enough! Maybe I’m just venting, or maybe the only “point” I might have is that I do not believe we must hold out hope in the face mounting crises with what can be rationally predicted to have catastrophic consequences.

Humanity needs to seriously change it’s ways. And I frankly see that as having almost zero chance of happening. And I think the reason boils down to the facts of how hard it will be to get the world to a sustainable state when our culture, our very perception of the world and how it is, seems so completely opposed to the steps needed to alter course.

I believe that even the vast majority of even the activist environmentalists have no accurate conception of how different the world will need to be in order to be sustainable at this population. We simply cannot cut or even reduce carbon emissions and other general forms of pollution without DRASTICALLY altering our lifestyles. DRASTICALLY, that means a SEVERE alteration to our consumption levels, which I think can only mean a severe change in how our economy works — which means DEEP AND MEANINGFUL adjustments to the way of life we have come to know — this means difficult and sometimes uncomfortable adjustments that will take quite a lot of getting used to, and most likely getting by with much much less “stuff”.

How to get there if it could happen? I haven’t the slightest clue. Is there an army of very persuasive people that can set about convincing humanity to stop bigotry, embrace and use science in decision making, learn about evolution and natural history, learn about astronomy and genetics, start living within your means individually and collectively, care about and appreciate the natural world, stop worshiping celebrities, stop trying to impress people with your material accumulation, be creative and joyful and appreciative and curious and kind, ask yourself real questions about sustainability and set out to support efforts which will lead to it, care about the future, stop stealing and cheating and lying etc. etc.

Even if that army of convincing folks did exist and succeed, I doubt they could do the work before the populations of China and India mostly joined the middle class and burned that much more coal, killed that much more ocean, etc.

Thanks for reading, and good luck folks! For those of you who see where I’m coming from, I would start getting ready, there is a slight chance that it could help. For the rest of you, keep buying them fancy cars to impress people and puff up the ol’ ego, and buy lots of stuff that you can later put into a storage space for when you buy new stuff, and drink lots of bottled water, Smart water makes you look sharp, oh and Fiji water shows that you are rich and well traveled, and…………