The Bottom of the Ninth

Something has worked in the past, until - well, it unexpectedly no longer does, and what we have learned from the past turns out to be at best irrelevant or false, at worst viciously misleading. - Nassim Nicholas Taleb

I remember when I was a kid and would go to the baseball game with my grandpa. The family would all pile into his car and drive down Woodward Avenue to go watch our beloved Detroit Tigers. To a sports fanatic kid like me there was nothing like a night at the ballpark. I would be excited all day long just knowing we were going to the game that night. And when we'd walk up the ramp at Tiger Stadium and see those lights twinkling in the night sky, the gloriously groomed dirt diamond below, the bases radiating like comets and the emerald glistening grass, I was in seventh heaven. 

As the pitcher would go into his windup and hurl the ball toward home plate and the batter would swing at just the right moment, the sound of bat on ball was like a sweet Billie Holiday note, it would ring out into the night. The crowd would get to their feet, all eyes on the ball, as you watched it soar into the darkness out over the center-fielders mitt and into the bleachers for a home run. Unbridled ecstasy. Man, there was nothing like it. The purity of the game, the innocence of the moment, the joy of it all.

This memory came back to me quite unexpectedly recently as I was reading about the Doomsday Clock. According to the scientists who created this clock, humanity faces two existential dangers, nuclear war and climate change, and we've got only a handful of seconds left to address these predicaments before human civilization fades into oblivion. 

Meaning, if we don't radically change how we're organizing ourselves, we are likely in for a world of hurt. Which, for some strange reason, brought back those baseball game memories and made it feel like the bottom of the ninth inning, we're down by a run and the consequences of us striking out are inconceivably heart-breaking.

And yet, here we are, divided amongst ourselves like never before. Constructing an economic system which has 8 billionaires owning more than half the world's wealth. Losing our minds over a cold virus with a 99% survival rate for those under 75. And, perhaps most ridiculous of all, perpetuating a cultural system design which is omnicidal by its very nature. 

Humans (and our economy) are dissipative structures. Meaning, they require adequate energy to flourish or they will collapse. For humans, the primary source of energy is food, or more specifically the sun. For the economy it's growth. Both are dependent upon abundant energy (fossil fuels) for their continued survival. 

Given this, regardless of what the politicians, technocrats and talking heads tell us, if we don't radically alter how we live we are likely done for. At present most of us are unwilling (unable?) to stop and reflect on our collective choice-making and the fact that we are hurtling towards the cliff's edge. It may simply be that we a species hellbent on self-destruction and there is little we can do to alter our course. And just like the hominid species that proceeded us, we will be yet another evolutionary dead-end. 

Let's assume for the moment that we've got a chance at long term survival. The question then becomes, given what we now know to be true, why aren't we, as citizens, demanding that we live in a mindful way? And why aren't the governments of the world helping us collectively make the shift away from an industrial way of life that is akin to a death cult? 

My guess is that it's due to the human beings tendency to deny unpleasant realities whenever we can get away with it. Viruses, taxes, and war are very unpleasant, but they are so impossible to deny, that we 'do' something. Food shortages 5 years from now, a dead ocean in 20 years, a massive human die off by mid-century, our individual mortality - these things are easy to deny because they exist somewhere in the future. Given all of this, is there a way out of our predicament?

Highly unlikely in my view. But, just for fun, here's my prescription for what ails us. We must realize that who we truly are is not some skin encapsulated ego, separate from all that is, but rather, an inseparable part of all that is. We are each a wave in the ocean. An immensely miraculous mammalian thread in the web of evolution, whose survival is dependent upon a healthy, thriving ecosystem and the cooperation of all the life-forms we share this planet with. 

If we were to start from this level of consciousness we might have a chance at turning things around. At the very least we would be taking action that embodied our willingness to stop denying reality, and that alone would be a step in a healthier direction. And perhaps from there we could see the value in creating a future for our children and grandchildren that wasn't one of massive suffering and annihilation.

Oftentimes, when faced with challenging moments in life we look to those who have some wisdom, some dirt under their fingernails, to offer guidance. It is often the grizzled, learned elders, who in times of great crisis, can shine a light into the darkness to show us a way forward. The trouble is, very few of these wise souls are in positions of leadership in the world today. 

So how do we get leaders in place who's governing principles are love, compassion and unity? Simply put, by being that way ourselves. By not settling for anything less for one single minute more. By standing up for what we know in our hearts is right. By demanding excellence from ourselves and our leaders. By holding each other accountable for our choices and the results they bring. By being our brothers and sisters keeper. By acknowledging that our survival is dependent upon a healthy ecosystem. By refusing to be led to our destruction by a system that we created that doesn't serve our true needs. Ultimately, by being the change we wish to see in the world. As Bob Marley said, 'Emancipate yourself from mental slavery, none but ourselves can free our mind.'

So, here we are in the bottom of the ninth inning, and we the people either rise up in unity & love against our globalist oppressors and take back our freedom and sovereignty, or we fall to pieces in some deranged dystopia of technocracy and totalitarianism until the lights finally go out. What's it gonna be y'all?

The apocalypse is not something which is coming. The apocalypse has arrived in major portions of the planet and it's only because we live in a bubble of incredible privilege and social insulation that we still have the luxury of anticipating the apocalypse. - Terence McKenna