Category: world gone mad

The Future

On By Nicholas AlexanderIn New articles, World, world gone madLeave a comment

The end of any year is a great time to reflect and predict but this year instead of trying to nail short term events to consequences, looking at the longer term is more interesting.

The old forces, the old empire, the republic or the forces of evil are in their final decline to zero influence and the new progress and a new society is upon us.  Finally.

How? Progress is evolution. The human animal has risen beyond hunger and greed, through altruism, charity, organisation, consumption and arrived at a pivot point.  We have to change how we progress to continue to survive.  Climate change was always an extinction event until we understood that it was.  It is an event we thought we could leave until tomorrow but that tomorrow is passing by more quickly than we could predict.  Now we have to think differently to survive at all. We have to find new ways to adapt and find another planet to infect with our waste, our pollution, our greed.  Or we can change our way of living within the nature of the environment we inhabit.

We have found our political structures to be spinning out of the control of reason.  There is little to differentiate political fanatics from religious fanatics.  Insanity is what it is.  Political binary opposition provides us with the friction to stimulate discussion.  We seem to feel that conflict is a necessary component of movement.  We seem to believe that opposition synthesises better thinking.  Of course it is merely a stage of evolving.  It is not an end unto itself.  China with its totalitarian control is able to sustain a very large population, dynamic progress and will soon outdo the USA for economic dominance. Does that mean that the remainder of the world should suffer from poverty as they had a different political belief?

That is the American model being displaced.  Oppositional democratic switching, Left vs Right, every measure of progress requires an equal and opposite force to defeat it or reverse it or we do not feel safe in our construction.

The new world does not require political dominance of one form or another. Self sustaining households can effectively isolate themselves from needing trade to exist.  The Metaverse is simply a virtual space in which we can ‘do business’ (whatever that means).  Our homes can be constructed to be self-sustaining, requiring no external source of energy or hydrocarbons for warmth or light, and excavation under our houses or in our attics can provide environments to grow food for our families.  Why do we need the ‘Outside’?  We do not.  And if there is no need for trade, no need for efficiency and a place to compete and play, to educate and attend to health: we can effectively live anywhere.  On spaceships endlessly traveling to another home.  On another home.  If our internal philosophy of life is self-sustaining we no longer need political leaders, parties or any philosophy that underlies wars or famine.  Or creates unnatural disasters.  We can become at one with nature.  We can be far happier.

Nuclear Threat

On By Nicholas AlexanderIn North Korea, nuclear terrorism, War, world gone madLeave a comment

Does North Korea pose a genuine threat to the USA with a handful of nuclear missiles pointed in its general direction?

Does the USA pose a genuine threat to North Korea?

Both bear the scars of a dreadful war in the early 1950s; a war that has not officially ended. In the intervening years, South Korea has emerged as a powerhouse exporting nation with advanced technology competing with Japan and China boasting companies such as Samsung. North Korea, in comparison, has locked itself into a military specialisation to the detriment of its own people who slavishly admire their leader or land up in a gulag, starved to death.

And now they are testing ICBM missiles and it is only a matter of time before they are able to use one against its enemy, the sponsor of South Korea, the USA. And now both countries have belligerent leaders who want to prove themselves with a “good war”.

The USA accuse Russia and China of responsibility here. Russia and China would rather not be at war with the USAA, so having a proxy threat is perhaps useful. All out nuclear war, of course, is in the interests of nobody.

What is the endgame for this terrible standoff? It seems unlikely that either party would not blink due to the nature of Nuclear weapons. If North Korea were to risk launching one, the retaliation could be complete and final. They will never have enough weapons to stop a systematic invasion let alone a nuclear response, but America would most likely have to live with the threat until it can justify action to China and Russia or better yet, engage with them to finally oust the military regime of North Korea.

Guardian article

Reunification turned Germany into a world leader. It is time for Korea to reconsider its path for mutual benefit between the North and the South. Is it in the interests of the West, Japan or anyone for North Koreans to suffer so and for the shroud of death to hang over the region? Does Trump style diplomacy help or is there a better way to help the Koreans to unify?

Fear drives North Korea to act

Another Second Amendment Tragedy

On By Nicholas AlexanderIn America, world gone madLeave a comment

After Columbine, after numerous shootings and violence in America and copy cat events in other countries, what is to blame?

The crowd in a comic book violence movie were shot at by a young man bearing arms, smoke bombs and a gas mask.  Fundamentalists will blame the movie.  Others will blame video games and our violent culture.  But the real issue here is the right to bear arms forming a basic part of the constitution.

“There is no link to terrorism” – rubbish.  It is terrorism, domestically sourced and just as deadly.  It is wrong to allow people to carry guns.  They kill people.

Guardian article

 

The above item was published 20 July 2012 12:27 BST

Update: editorial in The Guardian Friday 20 July 2012 20.20 BST