First a note on the new blog, Rethinking Everything. I started the blog late last year with the intention of posting some possible "answers" to questions posed over the years in this blog. My thought was to start off with something somewhat limited in scope, rethinking democracy. A very thought-provoking book by Jason Brennan, a transdisciplinarian in social sciences, "Against Democracy", had reinforced my thinking that something was fundamentally wrong with the way democracy, at least as conceived in the US, was working. I had intended to further develop that theme based on the insights provided by Brennan and follow it up with some of my latest research in the systems approach to governance. Then January 6th happened.
What the events at the US Capitol did was stop me in my tracks and forced me to rethink rethinking, that is to reconsider the notion of starting off with a limited subject. The failure of democratic institutions isn't just an indictment of democracy, but of the whole nature of governments in which those institutions are critical. I had to reevaluate my plan for RE and I spent many an evening pondering a thread of thoughts about where this would lead.
Over the years, in this question asking blog, I have noted how many institutions seem to be failing. I've examined economics, education, even science itself, and more. In asking why so many social institutions were in failure mode, I eventually came to see that the one common denominator has always been human beings and their inability to make wise choices, especially when money was involved. I explored the phenomenon of human evolution that led to our current species with the brain capacity I dubbed "sapience", what I came to see as the brain basis for the capacity to gain wisdom (also see the book that emerged from those writings: "A Theory of Sapience"). What I found is that while sapience had emerged in the hominid line, it was underdeveloped relative to the species' capacity for cleverness (intelligence + creativity). Humans are good at solving problems, especially by creating new artifacts, but do not stop to consider long-term consequences. They are motivated primarily by greed, laziness, and fear, as these were necessary motivations in the context of biological evolution and the human condition in the late Pleistocene. Humans have always looked for an "easier" way, a way to accumulate more stuff (initially food), and were always primed to encounter danger.
My intent now, for Rethinking Everything, is to start with the big picture of the human condition, our social organizations, i.e., civilizations, and reconsider, in light of our general low level of sapience and the existential threats that we have ourselves created by virtue of our social organizations and behaviors, what should the human social system be like in order to integrate positively in the whole Earth ecosystem. The answer to that question will lead naturally into what the nature of our economic and governance systems should be like to support that organization. Along the way I will introduce you to a research program that I and several colleagues are engaged in looking to be able to answer the question: What is the future of the human social system?
So please don't give up on RE just yet.
Meanwhile, as we observe current events and consider how they support the notion that the current human social system is in collapse, let us try to appreciate the coming of Spring. Of course, many more of us will not be able to enjoy much of anything as the impacts of climate change and reductions in net energy per capita move apace and are being played out in the Middle East and North Africa (look at Yemen and now Mozambique) and Central America. The media continue to blame political unrest to a revolt against brutal dictatorships. They blame the migrant hoards to people escaping that brutality. But they never ask: Why are the dictators, or in some cases the rebels themselves, acting so brutally? The answer is right in front of their eyes but they are so used to thinking in terms of political reasons or neoclassical economics reasons (economies must grow to be viable) that they completely fail to look for deeper causes. And it is not really hard to see. People have lived peacefully under dictatorships before when the average person has been able to make a comfortable living within the context of the surrounding social milieu. This is not to say that political unrest or economic hardships are not playing a role in the sequence of causes. It is that they are not the ultimate causes. People cannot make a living in a region when that region is no longer able to produce most or all of its own food, clothing, and shelters. People become agitated and will tend to blame the governments for failing to make their lives livable when the capacity for the local economy fails. Foreign aid, food aid, fuel aid, etc. can delay the onset of the societal impact, but only for so long. This has been the case in much of the MENA region for decades. But eventually, with ever increasing population pressures, the cooker will explode. Unrest develops, dictators/autocrats start to repress it, and things rapidly escalate from there. Refugees from these regions are not just trying to escape repression and conflicts, they are also leaving because there is no way to support their lives. And why?
If you look at these regions you will discover that they are among the hardest, and earliest hit by climate damage. It has become nearly impossible for local people to grow food due to droughts and severe weather events are destroying whatever assets they have. Of course their situation is aggravated by the still increasing population growths and no small part of their unrest is amplified by their being able to compare their living conditions with other parts of the world (via the Internet, of course). But the single basic cause of the problems is climate change. Spring equinox means little to these people.
Then there is the growing extent of climate disruptions in more developed nations as well. 2020 saw some of the most severe weather events in history. There were more named Atlantic hurricanes than ever before. More tornadoes. More floods. More loss of life and of physical assets than ever before. Clearly, climate chaos is no longer a supposition. It is here. Crops all over the world are in jeopardy. Can much more extensive food shortages be far behind?
And then there is still the pandemic. In spite of the race to produce vaccines and get them into arms, we are still faced with economic hardships due to earlier responses to the disease. And what about the new variants to the SARS-CoV-2 virus? If any of them prove resistant against vaccines (even if marginally so), will this result in new waves and new lock-downs? We might not even need that to be the case. Look at the number of people still defying public health practices (for their God-given freedoms), the number of people who will not get a vaccine for fear it isn't safe or that Bill Gates will take control of their minds.
It is this latter point that brings me back to thinking about sapience, or rather the lack thereof. I said before that people are basically driven by greed, laziness, and fear. And when the latter begins to take over, even as a subconscious factor, whatever sapience a person might possess is submerged. Judgment is impaired. Paranoia takes hold. And QAnnon emerges.
I still think that we are observing an evolutionary event, where the pandemic is a major selective force. Those unwise enough to not moderate their greed, subdue their fear, and overcome their laziness will eventually succumb to the environment generated by the pandemic. The wise will inherit the Earth.
Get what enjoyment you can from Spring. The cheery blossoms and daffodils are popping out along with some under story green shoots. The bright green new leaves always cheer me up.