In math, there is a term that is used for that point where the numbers you are working with can’t be reduced any further, the lowest common denominator. In accounting, there is ‘the bottom line’. An often-used and relatable kitchen metaphor is ‘peeling the onion’. Regardless of what saying you use to describe the situation, there comes a point where the analysis reaches the eventual conclusion, and you have nothing left but looking in the mirror. We need to find answers to the existential problems facing humanity
To our best understanding, modern humans have been on this planet for 300,000 to 500,000 years, a sneeze of time in the life of the world, much less the cosmos. We are facing an event that has never occurred in all of that time; an existential collapse of global civilizations on an epic level due to chosen infertility. For the first time in EVER, an animal species has consciously elected to stop breeding.
How Did This Happen?
In a much longer study that I wrote, this has happened over the past 100 years. That represents 1/3000 of the time we’ve been here. The truth is, however, that it’s been coming for 2,000 years, as the result of the perversion of Christianity by the leadership of the early church. That perversion was handed down, generation by generation, and never corrected. In fact, not only was it not corrected, but it branched into all manner of ignorance, to the point of pervasiveness. Nearly every culture in the world accepts ignorance as truth.
Looking at human nature through two societies
Trust me, I know how arrogant and strange that statement sounds, but when you look at the state of the world, there can be no other honest conclusion. We have, in metaphoric terms, peeled that onion as far as we can.
We have large numbers of high school graduates who fail to meet basic math skills, and know little of human history or geography. They struggle to read and write without word processors or now AI tools. Without exception, they have not read the most profound books on subjects like economics, philosophy, and politics.
If you doubt my assertion, just ask any high school graduate you can find if they have read The Law, by Bastiat, or Democracy in America by de Tocqueville. Ask if they have even heard of Napoleon Hill, Og Mandino, or Ayn Rand.
The pathetic results of our education system, the ultimate oxymoron, are a population that passionately believes in liberalism, socialism, feminism, and social justice as politically viable tenets. The evidence of our profound ignorance is that most people reading that statement will argue against it.
Common Solutions
I wish I could tell you that I have a solution in mind that would provide an answer to The Existential Problems Facing Humanity. I don’t. There is an increasingly influential group of people who promote neuro-implants as the solution. If that term isn’t known to you, it is the implantation of a device into the brains of newborn infants. That would allow them to be directly connected to supercomputers. Imagine The Borg, of science fiction fame.
Another group, and I’ve written about them for more than 40 years, isn’t seeking answers to The Existential Problems Facing Humanity. They subscribe to the ‘they’ll think of something’ philosophy of kicking the proverbial can down the road. That concept doesn’t look enticing at this point; we’re out of ‘road,’ and nobody has any more ‘cans.
I think one of two paths seems to be the most likely answer to The Existential Problems Facing Humanity. First, there is the very probable doomsday scenario of the world’s nations racing headfirst into a global war. This will certainly not be like any war we’ve ever seen. Computers will control AI-operated offensive and defensive weapon systems, and the conclusion would be the end of it within weeks. Following that, the effects of cyber and kinetic attacks on globally vulnerable infrastructures would finish the job. Billions of people would perish within the following year.
Racing To Madness
I wrote a book about this, a post-apocalyptic adventure titled The Madness. Someone I respect very much recently told me it was the best book he’d read in more than twenty years. I’m honored. You might check it out; it’s a fun read about what comes afterward.
The other idea that I think has merit is that societies influenced by Christian history simply devolve through political, economic, and fertility crises, and are replaced by Humanist or Muslim cultures. In that scenario, the Muslims seem to have the advantage because, again, Humanists don’t reproduce.
There is a remaining scenario found in the Book of Revelations, but, of course, that answer to The Existential Problems Facing Humanity is scenario one, combined with an intervention by God. If I were God, I’m not sure I would bother. Many of us believe he died on a cross to save the world, and we couldn’t keep it on the right path for even one generation. Perhaps, in some existential argument, this was the plan all along. A conundrum, if ever there was one.
