I’ve been thinking about war, psychological war, waged on the world for a long time; benefiting some, not most, not the Earth.  Tactics commonly employed are delay, distraction & diversion, distortion; they all add up to deception. 

We live in times of deception, mostly from distraction.   

As an example, and not that Covid isn’t real, but it like so much else has been exploited to distract us from something we can’t afford to be distracted from, essentially the current central problem for humanity, our dependence on fossil fuel energy.  Currently, daily covid reports are normal.   How about daily climate calamity reports?    Reports on global heating, climate battles, measures of the now well-recognized existential threat not only to human survival, but to the survival of a much wider spectrum of life on Earth. 

This is part of a larger human problem, looming and progressive widespread resource depletion, of which petroleum is only the main one.   Essentially, we face one problem, depletions stemming from human consumption. 

This problem has an intractable nature.   It is that energy and resources have served us very well, and self-centred human nature does not want to let go of what it’s given us.  We’re all at least a little bit human.   We take more than our share, some of us a lot more; and we’ve multiplied according to availability of resources, pushing the limit of how they support us as a species.    For a few of us, it means opulent material wealth, for many, perhaps the dream of it, even just a nice place to live, and for many others, mere survival.   The consumption principle applies across the spectrum.  But we see how the lower (poverty, i.e., less consumptive) end of that spectrum is burgeoning.  That itself is alarming and distracting.  But, simply put, current problems of depletions and climate are but the effects of our human nature.  

We will not adequately address these effects until we address the underlying cause.   Humanity in its present state is likely incapable of doing that en masse.   Environmental catastrophes have helped us see change is needed.  How much more do we need to grasp the extent of essential change?

Consumption is the central issue.    It must decrease, and what we consume must change so that our consumption becomes a part of Earth’s ecology again.   This simple fact is beyond anyone who still believes in competition that separates us, the fundamental basis of our western market-based economic system.   Our understanding of economics must become ecological.    Until that happens, we will continue on the path we’re on, and as the old saying goes, “if you don’t change course, you’ll end up where you’re headed.”    It’s becoming easier and easier to see where we’re headed.   Not a happy destination.  

We must see past distractions like covid in the way it’s been used, and see why that has happened.  When we do, we can start seeing the way forward that isn’t as unhappy as the path we’re collectively on.  Is there any way for humanity but collectively on this small planet?  No, there isn’t.  This is where thinking globally comes in.   Increasingly obvious is that we are a species who must think collectively if we are to continue to thrive individually.   Can we do it?  

This is not original.   It is being thought and expressed by increasing numbers of people.    That gives me great hope because as there become enough of us who understand and make changes large and small, I believe we can do it.   We can make changes necessary to alter the course of humanity not only to survival, but to a world where we thrive.   How many times has that been said before?    Many.   Here we are again; we’ve done it before; we can do it again.     This time though, it’s never been as big, and it’s never really been for all.   Now it can be.   We can do it.