In Praise of Fairness Humanity will ultimately have to deal with the greatest issues we face in terms of survival - both individually and as a whole. The crisis is not in the future, at some distant date when the television news brings it to our attention, or it arrives on our doorstep. It is now. The television news will most likely disguise it from us as long as their advertisers and our governments want to keep selling products and avoid revolt. The world population is over 7 billion. This has nearly doubled within my lifetime alone. I clearly remember when it was 5 billion. Presently, the vast majority of those people are dictated to by a powerful and privileged minority who control the most of the world’s resources. Our current course is, ultimately, an organised madness of overconsumption and avoidable destruction. And it will lead to the premature deaths of billions of people. Almost all of us know the major threats to our existence - environmental damage, nuclear conflict and overpopulation to name three. These cannot be denied, and the reality of them will be unimaginable. Many might argue that the first two are the best way to manage the third, and if we are only savages and are to destroy this planet as fast as we can then they are right. But eventually we or our descendants will fall in the excess population, the surplus to requirements. What we are consistently told, implicitly or explicitly, is that avoiding these disasters must be achieved by respecting the current system, and being good citizens. We should recycle, while our tax dollars are used to mine, drill, make weaponry and steal. We can protest, but must do so obediently. Unless an individual has stepped outside the view of the ‘productive’ world that is presented to them from birth, it can be difficult to see certain truths about our manufactured reality. Our history, our present and our future are presented to us in a manner that is palatable for us and directs us where power wants us to go. Thankfully, great minds have already predicted and examined much of what we face. Some, like Marx, are now derided by the very people who are busy confirming the very predictions made. For myself, I found Betrand Russell’s essay “In Praise of Idleness’ very illuminating as to how we ended up where we are, consuming ourselves and our planet in endless and unwise destruction and constant work. He illustrates how easily avoidable such a situation should be, as through technological advancement only a small percentage of the world’s land and population are producing enough food to support the rest of us. 3 million children a year die from malnutrition, but they starve because of how food and resources are distributed, not because too little food is produced. I feel the title of Russell’s essay doesn’t do it justice. It is just as much in praise of intelligence, clarity and equality as idleness. The civilisation that began in ancient Greece, developed through European history and colonised much of the world, including the Americas, did so through scientific and technological innovation, and military force. It flourished through colonialism, capitalism and domination. Able to control and exploit resources and labour, it accumulated great wealth. In doing so, it has - along with the rest of humanity - created the current pressing issues we face. It cannot solve, or even lessen, those issues with the very patterns behaviour that created them. What is clear is that if avoiding this future devastation is left to ‘the market’, to self-interest, it will not be avoided at all. In our present reality, multi-billion dollar aircraft carriers and submarine launched ballistic missiles are a higher priority than the welfare and development of the majority of the world’s people. In fact, the multi-trillion dollar killing machine is pointed directly at the majority of the world’s people, and it is the main reason they tolerate the current situation at all. It is important to recognise that the cultural and political beast that drives this, that really runs the world, will not act out of humanitarian concerns. We have seen it time and again. It is the same power that acts in Gaza, and in Ferguson, and in so many other places around the globe. It appears to have little interest in making any sacrifices needed to avoid environmental disaster or ultimate nuclear conflict. This would be more tolerable, if the control of resources had been earned through merit and contribution to the welfare of the world’s population. But in the internet age, people are talking to each other a lot more. And it seems they are even reading more than we are led to believe. And they know that the public, for most of history, has been duped. A brilliant scientist makes a breakthrough, and it is purchased by a corporate giant, in order to maximise profit. Even the very knowledge of mankind, the greatest legacy, is controlled and distributed through institutions charging large fees with profit as a primary goal. The further we go back into the history of all this corporate wealth and profit, the more we see great wealth sourced, at some time or another, from great exploitation, injustice or war. Wisdom, compassion and long term benefits for all do not appear to feature often in the history of the corporate state, if at all. For some, their current wealth and privilege came about mainly due to their ancestors swindling or even killing the right people, at the right time. It would perhaps be even more tolerable if those who control the majority of resources and labour showed a proportionate sense of stewardship, of responsibility for those resources and most importantly the planet and its populace. But that is a long term view, and requires self-control. And wisdom. And patience. There is little evidence of this either. A glaring and specific example, provided by the military industrial complex, is the M1A1 Abrams main battle tank of the United States. Over 68 tons of steel, depleted uranium, state of the art electronics and weaponry that is accelerated to up to 72 kilometres per hour by a 1500 horsepower (1,100 KW) gas turbine engine. This engine is run on JP-8 jet fuel, a kerosene based high carbon fuel that is also used in US military planes. The tank uses 10 US gallons (over 37L) of fuel just to start the turbine. Fuel efficiency is 0.6 miles to the gallon. That’s burning nearly 4 litres of fuel per kilometre. How many units of this atmosphere destroying behemoth have been produced? 9,000 The sheer number, and real environmental impact, is never shown or discussed on television. Otherwise people would march against the use of the Abrams tank tomorrow. This is the case for all impacts made by the massive military industrial complex. And this is just one small spoke in a gigantic industrialised wheel that protects the interests of a minority. Modern war is an environmental and economic crime, as well as a crime on many other levels. Invading resource rich countries with mechanized armies - that consume huge amounts of resources and pollute the planet - to control resources. Many may point out that over population would be made worse by killing less people, by not producing so many arms, by seeking peaceful solutions. They forget that the current scarcity of resources is an entirely a manufactured one. Resources on this planet are not scarce. They are made scarce for most, and are being made even scarcer by the current course. Consider the amount of labour and resources that go into a single USD$12 billion aircraft carrier – an enterprise that produces mainly death and suffering – and you may start to get where I am coming from. Or look up super yachts – there is much to choose from - and consider again. Are we already overpopulated? Are resources scarce? Are the people who are most concerned about overpopulation, and most concerned about the scarcity of resources, the very same people who are using the most land and resources? Do they prefer a solution than involves the deaths of hundreds of millions, or billions, but protects their rights to a super yacht, golf courses and stately homes on three continents? Apparently so. Will they convince the rest of us – in fact have they already convinced us – that ownership must triumph over morality and equal opportunity? What I am getting at, is the principle of fairness, of social justice. This principle will, sooner or later, determine the rest of human history. Or massive unfairness and murder on an unseen scale will. All of our great wisdom teachings of mankind, and all of our spiritual traditions emphasise the importance of justice and fairness. Children have an innate sense of fairness. It is part of being human, and it takes massive indoctrination and propaganda to see unfairness as justly deserved by the unfortunate many. My dream is to see a peaceful resolution to these problems. I know this means a massive adjustment for the population of the ‘developed’ world. But i-Phones, cars, luxury goods and a million entertaining distractions are not bringing much progress, really, are they? It is a conversation that must be had, to avoid massive future conflict if nothing else. Is a luxurious lifestyle for a minority in this generation, an even smaller minority in the next generation, and eventually a small landed elite on a devastated planet in a neo-feudalist dystopia the best that mankind can do? It would appear that politics is the defining science of our age. Science and technology will not save us. And economics in its current form will only save a few.
Posted on: Mon, 18 Aug 2014 06:57:15 +0000
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