So the G-20 is meeting in London to figure out the best logistics and tactics to restore the global economy to its prior growth-oriented consumer-based ways. There is no strategic thought here at all. The strategy is 'Let's do what we did before because, well, that is what we did before and it all seemed to work OK.' Until it didn't.
And most of the world wants that to happen. Even with a very vocal crowd in the streets of London, some getting very put out about things, the truth is that almost everyone impacted by the current 'Great Recession' (oh, hang on a bit - that is everyone) wants the good life again. Or they want their chance at the good life. Even the protesters are just upset about the way the US has let things get out of control with capitalism. I doubt seriously if any of them are really advocating a 19th century lifestyle (or worse). They want wealth, fairly distributed. They just want it created with magic.
There are very few people in the world today who recognize that humanity cannot have its cake and eat it too. This is why there is no democratic way that truth will prevail with the least pain. Nature will prevail, but not to the liking of humanity. What is the foolishness here? That even though the reality of energy's relation to economic activity, and the latter's relation to global warming, and all of it related to overpopulation, is obvious to anyone who bothers to look, people still avoid facing the truth. Because the truth implies sacrifice and hard manual labor and giving up toys. Because the truth means that we have had it wrong about economics and values for the last hundred or more years. Because the truth means that we will undoubtedly need to relinquish some forms of previously imagined inalienable rights (such as unlimited procreation).
Fools (the exact antithesis of the wise) avoid and deny unpleasant truths. The human subconscious is a marvel for turning rational thinking into rationalizing in order to satisfy emotional demands. And our unconscious minds are fantastic at avoiding any sense of self-blame for anything that is going wrong in our world.
So happy April Fools day! I wish I were instigating a prank in what I wrote above, but I am not. Later today or tomorrow I will post on the nature of the scaling problem and human affairs. At some point size is a problem.
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