Why are they Deathtraps? Because nearly every city worldwide is built in a geologically unstable location. Oh, it may be stable for decades, or even centuries. But we KNOW that sooner or later, a devastating recurring natural event will occur--earthquakes, floods, volcanic eruptions, tornadoes and hurricanes, fires and wildfires, etc. And yet, we continue to expand these cities year after year. We continue to pack in even more people year after year. We create huge skyscrapers to squeeze in ever more people. Cities are the epitome of high density living.
We consider cities to be exciting and vibrant places to live. Should the natural disaster occur, thousands--hundreds of thousands or even millions--of people will die with no quick and easy way to leave the cities. Cities are built to take in thousands and thousands of people. They are NOT built or planned to allow fast and easy egress from the cities. Skyscrapers in the cities are another layer of the deathtraps. People will pay up to millions of dollars to live in uppermost floors of these skyscrapers. When a disaster strikes, they will be even more vulnerable than those at ground level if that's possible.
Why do humans put themselves in jeopardy daily and on a routine basis? Top reason: Denial. Second reason: They expect their government at all levels will "take care" of them if anything happens. Third reason: Natural disastrous events may have a long-term recurring period so they feel "safe." Fourth reason: They're feeding their enormous egos. These people put themselves in jeopardy, knowing the liklihood of a disastrous event, and these people will cry the loudest when disaster does strike. They will expect everyone everywhere to have sympathy and provide all the help and support they most definitely will need if they survive.
Because, people, these natural events WILL happen. It isn't merely Probable; it's a Certainty. The only uncertainty is: When will it happen? What happens in our cities will affect everyone everywhere.
We, as a specie, continually put ourselves and our futures in jeopardy. We feel that everything we do is an Acceptable Risk as long as our actions provide us with pleasure and comfort...today. Acceptable, that is, until it happens. Then we react as though we were blindsided. We ask, Why didn't our government foresee this? Why didn't our government provide more security? Why doesn't our government provide more help? We put the blame for our huge misfortune upon everyone and everything else. Even then, we Do Not accept the responsibility for our predicament on ourselves. WE PUT OURSELVES IN JEOPARDY with the expectation that someone else (everyone else?) will solve our problems.
For instance Climate Change aka Global Warming. We ALL KNOW that humankind is hurrying it along. True, it's a naturally recurring event in the Earth's history. But the Earth takes hundreds and thousands of years, sometimes millions of years, to phase in and out of these global events. In this particular instance, our human actions are accelerating the change. Humans have very very short lifespans; we may very likely Not Survive a global climate change. But, in spite of all the warnings and information, we are individually doing extremely little or nothing to at least try to avert or slow down this change. We do not want to give up our voracious use of all natural resources. We do not want to change our lifestyle to the extent we need to. We'll do a teeny tiny negligible bit and be proud of our personal effort. We assume and expect our governments can and will do the rest. We will not admit to ourselves that our "governments" are merely people just like us, who think just like us. We pass off our personal responsibility. We expect that someone else will "do something."
We'll buy a vehicle with a higher gas mileage, we'll put in a solar water heater, we'll recycle our glass and paper waste. Then we sit back on our collective asses and pat ourselves on our backs, proud of our effort. This doesn't help at all. Why not? Because when we have a fuel-efficient vehicle, we just drive more. When we have solar energy providing our power, we'll just use even more energy. We will NOT practice true beneficial lifestyle changes. We will NOT give up our electronic toys, our ego-boosting acquisition of material goods, we will not lessen our production of waste. In every area, we voraciously consume any and all natural resources. Our population growth rate negates any minor efforts we individually practice. We will NOT adjust our lifestyles to any significant degree.
We continue to create and consume even more toxic waste. We continue to clear our forests on a devastating scale--the forests that play a major role in providing all life with oxygen. We see and live the signs of climate change--more intense storms and weather patterns. We ignore them. We tell ourselves it's only temporary. If it gets worse, the government will do "something." We won't give up our vehicles. We will not cut down on our waste. We will not cut down on our use of any natural resource. Instead, we continue to burn energy at unprecedented levels. We continue to create, produce, and consume products that are toxic to our environment; that contributes to greenhouse gasses such as many if not all of our electronic gadgets, tools, and toys. Just consider all of the batteries we consume every day for each and all of our electronic stuff. We call it progress. We call it fun. And we continue to want ever more of them.
The environmental quality is steadily and rapidly deteriorating. We see and experience the weather changes, we are constantly reminded that our actions are driving climate change to accelerate ever faster every year everywhere! We, all of us, still refuse to alter our lifestyles to the degree we need to slow and adapt to climate change.
Being specific, our most pressing and serious problem is our uncontrolled and irresponsible population growth! Our ever-burgeoning population worldwide increases our depletion of natural resources exponentially. We profess to love "our children" and yet we're doing everything we can to ensure they have no habitable world and quality lifestyle in which to live their lives. We're causing the problems they'll need to face and solve. We tell ourselves that environmental groups will not "let" "It" happen and we go on our merry though extreme wasteful lifestyles way. How can Anyone say they love their children and not do anything? How can anyone today say that children are precious and our hope for the future? We're creating tremendous and extremely serious problems for them to solve in order to maintain our "quality" lifestyle today. As parents and responsible people, we are not living up to our responsibilities and our promises. Many of us, too many, are not even admitting that there are problems and that we are the creators of those problems.
I am so disappointed in the human race. We do not practice what we preach.
In the end: We will reap the disastrous and well-deserved results of our actions and lack of action today. But we are asking our children to pay for our lack of responsibility. Shame on us!
Saturday, June 28, 2008
Monday, June 16, 2008
Save The Honey Bees!
Yet another problem created by the human species. Honey bees that have survived and pollinated our plants are disappearing and haven been for nearly 30 years! Scientists predict that in the U.S. alone by the year 2035, there will be no more honey bees if we can't find out how to stop their dying en mass at their current rate. Honey bees makes possible 30% of all the food we eat. If we can't find a way to stop CCD (colony collapse disease), our grandchildren and all the children thereafter will never know what a fruit tastes like, may never see many of the flowers and trees we enjoy today.
The scientists around the world don't know the exact causes of CCD. But I can put forward a very probable and likely cause--human pollution of the environment, our huge numbers forcing farmers to expand food production in quantities to feed the ever-growing population. In some areas of the world, there are no more bees--where bees have become extinct due to heavy uses of chemicals to produce more food.
Some of the proposals to help solve this problem involve genetic engineering to produce more hearty and disease-resistant bees. From my point of view, that may just be a short-term fix for this huge problem. Genetically engineered bees could cause even more unseen and possible more serious problems for human food production. One such huge failure was the creation of the Africanized Honey Bees.
This huge and serious problem I feel is a direct result of human activity and our insatiable appetite for ever more of everything. In trying to fill this demand, famers, ranchers, manufacturers, corporations, and governments will do anything and everything they can--without doing extensive research in the possible consequences of their actions. It seems that people are only interested in what works "right now" with no thought of what the end result could be. Reference: DDT and other chemicals used in the production of food.
We humans seem to do things just because we can; with no thought of what the long-term consequences may be. Our attitude seems to be: If it causes a problem down the road, we'll work on the problem at that time.
Is it any wonder that my low opinion of human endeavors seem to drop ever lower? All of the hallmarks of our "high quality of life" today have caused, are causing, and will continue to cause all of the problems we have today. We are not satisfied with hastening severe climate changes, we're attacking our very survival from all fronts: we're destroying our oxygen-producing forests around the world, we're killing all of our wildlife by destroying the environment they need to survive, we're not slowing down in pollution of the air we breathe or the water we drink. It seems that humans are commiting mass suicide just by the nature of our wants and desires and our lifestyles.
Presidential candidate Obama proposes establishing $150B over 10 years dedicated toward the problem of global warming/climate change. I say, ONLY $150B? Bush spent IN EXCESS of $800B in just a few years on the war in Iraq!!!!!! Over $800B with no beneficial result whatsoever and no honorable end in sight!!!!!!!!!
C'mon, people of the U.S., wake up and look at what we're doing! Don't count on the politicians to solve our numerous and serious problems. Politicians do nothing that doesn't benefit themselves. The american public needs to become more active and vocal in getting their political representatives off their butts and actually earning their pay.
Our superficially 2-party system is a fallacy; we actually have just a 1-party system. Democrats say that Republicans cater to the wealthy and the corporations. Republicans say that Democrats create too many welfare programs. In reality and actuality, each party depends on the other party to do their part to keep the money pouring in. The Republicans' job is to keep the wealthy happy enough to contribute hugely to their campaigns to remain in office. The Democrats' job is to do just enough "welfare work" to keep the working class and poor happy enough to go on working. Neither R nor D really care enough to do what's right for humanity. Their job is to keep the money pouring in today and damn the future! If their inaction today creates serious problems in the future, then, in their minds, "let the future politicians" solve those problems.
All of the billions of words mouthed by the candidates, the parties, the media, the voters during each election year...all of those words mean absolutely nothing! Nothing they promise ever comes to fruition. They may make teeny tiny dents in their promises but that's as far as it ever goes except in those instances where the american public really gets pissed off on a particular issue. Then the politicians respond with just enough action to placate the public...but only temporarily. The politicians never actually really solve any problems.
I am so disappointed in humans and human nature. I am especially disappointed in americans. What they say and what they actually do are so vastly different.
The scientists around the world don't know the exact causes of CCD. But I can put forward a very probable and likely cause--human pollution of the environment, our huge numbers forcing farmers to expand food production in quantities to feed the ever-growing population. In some areas of the world, there are no more bees--where bees have become extinct due to heavy uses of chemicals to produce more food.
Some of the proposals to help solve this problem involve genetic engineering to produce more hearty and disease-resistant bees. From my point of view, that may just be a short-term fix for this huge problem. Genetically engineered bees could cause even more unseen and possible more serious problems for human food production. One such huge failure was the creation of the Africanized Honey Bees.
This huge and serious problem I feel is a direct result of human activity and our insatiable appetite for ever more of everything. In trying to fill this demand, famers, ranchers, manufacturers, corporations, and governments will do anything and everything they can--without doing extensive research in the possible consequences of their actions. It seems that people are only interested in what works "right now" with no thought of what the end result could be. Reference: DDT and other chemicals used in the production of food.
We humans seem to do things just because we can; with no thought of what the long-term consequences may be. Our attitude seems to be: If it causes a problem down the road, we'll work on the problem at that time.
Is it any wonder that my low opinion of human endeavors seem to drop ever lower? All of the hallmarks of our "high quality of life" today have caused, are causing, and will continue to cause all of the problems we have today. We are not satisfied with hastening severe climate changes, we're attacking our very survival from all fronts: we're destroying our oxygen-producing forests around the world, we're killing all of our wildlife by destroying the environment they need to survive, we're not slowing down in pollution of the air we breathe or the water we drink. It seems that humans are commiting mass suicide just by the nature of our wants and desires and our lifestyles.
Presidential candidate Obama proposes establishing $150B over 10 years dedicated toward the problem of global warming/climate change. I say, ONLY $150B? Bush spent IN EXCESS of $800B in just a few years on the war in Iraq!!!!!! Over $800B with no beneficial result whatsoever and no honorable end in sight!!!!!!!!!
C'mon, people of the U.S., wake up and look at what we're doing! Don't count on the politicians to solve our numerous and serious problems. Politicians do nothing that doesn't benefit themselves. The american public needs to become more active and vocal in getting their political representatives off their butts and actually earning their pay.
Our superficially 2-party system is a fallacy; we actually have just a 1-party system. Democrats say that Republicans cater to the wealthy and the corporations. Republicans say that Democrats create too many welfare programs. In reality and actuality, each party depends on the other party to do their part to keep the money pouring in. The Republicans' job is to keep the wealthy happy enough to contribute hugely to their campaigns to remain in office. The Democrats' job is to do just enough "welfare work" to keep the working class and poor happy enough to go on working. Neither R nor D really care enough to do what's right for humanity. Their job is to keep the money pouring in today and damn the future! If their inaction today creates serious problems in the future, then, in their minds, "let the future politicians" solve those problems.
All of the billions of words mouthed by the candidates, the parties, the media, the voters during each election year...all of those words mean absolutely nothing! Nothing they promise ever comes to fruition. They may make teeny tiny dents in their promises but that's as far as it ever goes except in those instances where the american public really gets pissed off on a particular issue. Then the politicians respond with just enough action to placate the public...but only temporarily. The politicians never actually really solve any problems.
I am so disappointed in humans and human nature. I am especially disappointed in americans. What they say and what they actually do are so vastly different.
Sunday, June 1, 2008
Do we know what we're doing?
I'm watching a documentary on TV about alternative energy sources. In this show, they focus on two possible sources of energy to feed our insatiable demand for ever more energy to power all of our needs and desires for pleasure and comfort. These two sources are: the oceans of the world and in particular, the Gulf Stream; and geothermal energy.
Scientists, researchers, and governments (in this instance, the USA) are actively working on these "solutions." We may be able to do it...but SHOULD we do it just because we can? In this show, I don't see them addressing the very real dangers to our world that could be the end result of their solutions.
The Gulf Stream is one of the most important entity on our planet. It plays a very major and necessary role in helping to keep our climate stable to enable us to survive liveable temperatures and to grow our foods. They discuss all of the problems of building, placing, and using giant turbines at the bottom of the ocean to use the power of the Gulf Stream to provide huge amounts of electricity for human use. They don't discuss or address the possible long-term impact this project may do to the Gulf Stream. We are already messing with the Gulf Stream's ability to be viable through our hastening of global warming.
As for geothermal energy, that would eventually provide a "renewable" clean energy source that could provide us with energy for thousands of years, they believe. However, this would involve drilling very very deep holes (in pairs: one to take water down, one to bring steam up) into the earth's crust. Maybe this may seem like just a tiny pinprick into the earth but they've already experienced the creation of small earthquakes in the proximity of these geothermal plants. One spokesman states that that's no problem. If "we created them, we can stop them." Oh, really?? We are all-powerful, are we?
Now consider this, if the few plants they build are successful, what do you suppose will happen? Eventually, there will be millions of these plants all over the world with millions and millions of holes dug deep into the Earth's crust. Do they not think or even consider what that would do to our Earth's crust? A few shouldn't hurt except maybe the people in the immediate vicinity of these plants where the earthquake events would increase and possibly over time increase in intensity as well. What would happen with multi-millions of these extremely deep holes throughout our crust? We already experience approximately half a million earthquakes a year around the world. Would we escalate that number to billions? Because, don't kid yourselves, as our population grows exponentially, so will our need for ever more energy.
Why can't our common sense and intelligence grow and keep pace with our increased use of technology? We are like the 2-year-old child who can learn to strike a match but not know of the dire consequences of starting an uncontrolled fire.
These people--scientists, researchers, inventors, governments--are focusing ONLY on finding more energy sources before the oil runs out and...it IS running out.
From my simple layman's mind, logic, and reasoning, I see only 2 viable sources of clean and renewable sources of energy that won't have a negative impact on our world. Those sources are solar and wind. Why don't these people merge all of their separate pet projects and focus on solar energy to begin with? We know it works. We can make it work better and cheaper and cleaner than anything else available to us. We don't know everything we need to know about how our climate works or about plate tectonics to mess with it without causing problems to our environment that we may not know of until it's too late (such as our use of oil and coal).
Our wanton and irresponsible and ignorant use of oil and coal in just the last 150 years have put us in this predicament of global warming. Our mentality has been: we can do it, why not do it? If it causes any problem down the road somewhere, we'll fix it then. The reality is, we created a huge problem with global warming and our efforts to date is negligible in slowing it down or getting anywhere near solving the problem. But we think we can control man-created earthquakes and possibly changing the properties and flow of the Gulf Stream?
We know global warming is causing all the ice of the world--the Antarctic, Greenland, the huge glaciers--that we depend on for our drinking water and maintaining our stable climate to melt, faster and faster EVERY YEAR! And still there is not enough interest to garner serious efforts from the governments and peoples of the world to try to solve this problem of how to slow down and/or eventually stop the melting of our ice!!! Messing with the Gulf Stream and other ocean areas and the Earth's crust worldwide will only add to the already very serious problem we have now. We are not seriously addressing that problem.
People, we are only treading water and are slowly losing ground. Maybe if we begin losing ground faster, we would take all of these problems more seriously. Will we become believers and problem-solvers only when the waters reach our chins????
Need another example of our arrogance? We know that black holes are some of the most powerful energy sources in the universe but we don't know very much else about it. So, what do our scientists want to do? They want to create their own tiny black hole believing they can control it and it won't cause any harm. Just how do they know this when they don't know much about how a black hole works? It's back to our arrogance. If we can do it, why don't we do it? Where is our common sense? Where are our priorities? What needs are we fulfilling that we would risk destroying our world? Are we so bent on satisfying our greed for energy and the goods it can provide our pleasure and luxuries that we would risk commiting genocide, not just for us but for All Life on Earth?
Why are we so arrogantly stupid and greedy to the point of self-destruction? If we're extremely lucky and if we can learn to be a responsible species, maybe, just maybe humankind can last a tiny percent of the time that dinosaurs existed. Why are we so hell-bent on shortening that time by millions of years? Why are we so damned arrogant in our belief that we can control nature? Our experience has shown that we indeed CANNOT control nature. Someone once coined the the phrase: Doing the same thing over and over again with the same (undesired or destructive) results is pure insanity. Are we then insane?
Scientists, researchers, and governments (in this instance, the USA) are actively working on these "solutions." We may be able to do it...but SHOULD we do it just because we can? In this show, I don't see them addressing the very real dangers to our world that could be the end result of their solutions.
The Gulf Stream is one of the most important entity on our planet. It plays a very major and necessary role in helping to keep our climate stable to enable us to survive liveable temperatures and to grow our foods. They discuss all of the problems of building, placing, and using giant turbines at the bottom of the ocean to use the power of the Gulf Stream to provide huge amounts of electricity for human use. They don't discuss or address the possible long-term impact this project may do to the Gulf Stream. We are already messing with the Gulf Stream's ability to be viable through our hastening of global warming.
As for geothermal energy, that would eventually provide a "renewable" clean energy source that could provide us with energy for thousands of years, they believe. However, this would involve drilling very very deep holes (in pairs: one to take water down, one to bring steam up) into the earth's crust. Maybe this may seem like just a tiny pinprick into the earth but they've already experienced the creation of small earthquakes in the proximity of these geothermal plants. One spokesman states that that's no problem. If "we created them, we can stop them." Oh, really?? We are all-powerful, are we?
Now consider this, if the few plants they build are successful, what do you suppose will happen? Eventually, there will be millions of these plants all over the world with millions and millions of holes dug deep into the Earth's crust. Do they not think or even consider what that would do to our Earth's crust? A few shouldn't hurt except maybe the people in the immediate vicinity of these plants where the earthquake events would increase and possibly over time increase in intensity as well. What would happen with multi-millions of these extremely deep holes throughout our crust? We already experience approximately half a million earthquakes a year around the world. Would we escalate that number to billions? Because, don't kid yourselves, as our population grows exponentially, so will our need for ever more energy.
Why can't our common sense and intelligence grow and keep pace with our increased use of technology? We are like the 2-year-old child who can learn to strike a match but not know of the dire consequences of starting an uncontrolled fire.
These people--scientists, researchers, inventors, governments--are focusing ONLY on finding more energy sources before the oil runs out and...it IS running out.
From my simple layman's mind, logic, and reasoning, I see only 2 viable sources of clean and renewable sources of energy that won't have a negative impact on our world. Those sources are solar and wind. Why don't these people merge all of their separate pet projects and focus on solar energy to begin with? We know it works. We can make it work better and cheaper and cleaner than anything else available to us. We don't know everything we need to know about how our climate works or about plate tectonics to mess with it without causing problems to our environment that we may not know of until it's too late (such as our use of oil and coal).
Our wanton and irresponsible and ignorant use of oil and coal in just the last 150 years have put us in this predicament of global warming. Our mentality has been: we can do it, why not do it? If it causes any problem down the road somewhere, we'll fix it then. The reality is, we created a huge problem with global warming and our efforts to date is negligible in slowing it down or getting anywhere near solving the problem. But we think we can control man-created earthquakes and possibly changing the properties and flow of the Gulf Stream?
We know global warming is causing all the ice of the world--the Antarctic, Greenland, the huge glaciers--that we depend on for our drinking water and maintaining our stable climate to melt, faster and faster EVERY YEAR! And still there is not enough interest to garner serious efforts from the governments and peoples of the world to try to solve this problem of how to slow down and/or eventually stop the melting of our ice!!! Messing with the Gulf Stream and other ocean areas and the Earth's crust worldwide will only add to the already very serious problem we have now. We are not seriously addressing that problem.
People, we are only treading water and are slowly losing ground. Maybe if we begin losing ground faster, we would take all of these problems more seriously. Will we become believers and problem-solvers only when the waters reach our chins????
Need another example of our arrogance? We know that black holes are some of the most powerful energy sources in the universe but we don't know very much else about it. So, what do our scientists want to do? They want to create their own tiny black hole believing they can control it and it won't cause any harm. Just how do they know this when they don't know much about how a black hole works? It's back to our arrogance. If we can do it, why don't we do it? Where is our common sense? Where are our priorities? What needs are we fulfilling that we would risk destroying our world? Are we so bent on satisfying our greed for energy and the goods it can provide our pleasure and luxuries that we would risk commiting genocide, not just for us but for All Life on Earth?
Why are we so arrogantly stupid and greedy to the point of self-destruction? If we're extremely lucky and if we can learn to be a responsible species, maybe, just maybe humankind can last a tiny percent of the time that dinosaurs existed. Why are we so hell-bent on shortening that time by millions of years? Why are we so damned arrogant in our belief that we can control nature? Our experience has shown that we indeed CANNOT control nature. Someone once coined the the phrase: Doing the same thing over and over again with the same (undesired or destructive) results is pure insanity. Are we then insane?
Matters that Break My Heart!
At the top of this list: The cruelty, abuse, and indifference of humanity toward all other animal life. A pathetic few make small efforts to try not to be...myself included. The problem is so huge it overwhelms me. It also severely diminishes my respect, patience, and compassion for humanity. Even indifference toward domestic animals and wildlife breaks my heart. Animals DO NOT deserve our cruelty to them. Life is violent and cruel enough for them and for us. Why do we make it worse?
But we, with our "intelligent" but non-compassionate brains, use and abuse all animals that share this planet with us. We are the only ones who kill for pure pleasure...or greed...or to fulfill or fill some empty need or part of ourselves. We have pets more out of love for ourselves than of love for them. Oh, we love them but we love more what they do for us. They fulfill a need in us that we cannot fill any other way. This is not always beneficial to them.
We use them as prey in hunts. We use them as display in zoos and aquariums to earn money. We use them to exercise our god-like desires in control and genetic engineering in breeding them. We use them in experiments to produce products that benefits only us. We tell ourselves we're helping them, we're conducting research in order to save their species, we're imprisoning them in tiny cages (zoos and aquariums) to educate people in order to save the animals, we force them to live unnatural lives by using them as pets or work animals. We justify all of these inhumane human behaviors in our minds. We pat ourselves on the back for our ineffectual and insignificant efforts on their behalf, we earn money and bolster our egos by forcing them to perform for us for our pleasure. We do not give them the respect they deserve as fellow animals sharing the same planet. We elevate our own needs over the needs of any and all animals.
Second on my List: Humanity's cruelty and irresponsibility to humanity. This is the only world on which we can live. For all we know or will ever know, we are the only living things in the entire huge universe. There may be other life "out there," but for all intents and purposes, we will Never encounter them. Our species, our world and all we know, could very well be long gone long before we ever know for sure.
Why then, in this short existence of life and our planet, do we practice such cruelty and indifference to all life on our planet? Nothing is safe from humans--not anything we can see, hear, touch, smell, or sense. If we can destroy something, we'll find a way to do it and a reason to do it. We'll even destroy other humans. We'll do it all even if it means we are also destroying ourselves. It seems as though our (humans) only reason for being is to be pleasured today in any and every way we can think of.
Why are humans so selfish and blind? We are at our basic level extremely selfish. We put our desires and needs above all other. We even include many of our desires and wants as Needs in order to satisfy our greed for ever more pleasure and material possessions. And to bolster our meager unimportant egos. We pursue and try to fulfill all of our desires in order to give our lives some kind of meaning.
We will NOT accept that Life Has No Meaning. Life just IS. We should enjoy it and share it with all other life. We should not use life in order to satisfy our own insatiable greed for pleasure. All life is here for only a VERY short time. We should learn and strive to make life pleasurable for everyone and everything--not just our own insignificant selves. We are NOT more important that other lifeforms. We are no more nor no less important than the bee that stings us...or the tree that shades us and provides us with the oxygen we need to survive. Why is our Arrogance so apallingly ferocious. Why, above all, do we use our brains to think of and justify our violent and negative actions toward each other and our world?
Third heartbreaker on my List: Humanity's need for dominance over each other and violence toward each other. Our history is filled and overflows with extreme violence. Throughout our entire history, we have killed each other in the hundreds of millions. We garner our identities as individuals and as nations and we garner our heroes from acts of extreme violence! We always have, we always will. Our species is TOO WEAK and we lack the desire and determination to fight this desire.
That's why every nation has a military force. Deep down, we are afraid of each...we want to dominate everyone else. As long as there is a military presence, there WILL NEVER BE PEACE. As long as there is a military presence, we will find reasons and means to have yet another war. There has never been peace among humans. There have only been respites from wars. We use these respites to build up our military and weapons, to wait for the next opportunity to declare war on each other. Our greatest heroes throughout history are the men and women who have been the most efficient or voracious killers. We justify their actions and reasons for all their killing. We call them patriots, defenders of the realm, heroes. But the bottom line is that they were killers, they were prepared and willing to kill on command. That is the ultimate mission of any and all military forces--to kill on command and without question.
Fourth on my List: Humanity's inability or lack of desire, conviction, and honesty to learn to enjoy and share life and this planet without violence. After many thousands of years and with all of our brash talk about it, we are no closer today than we were in the beginning to learning how to live peacefully with everything and everyone. We pride ourselves on all the things we've learned to do and accomplish. BUT, we've failed in the one thing that means anything: We have not learned to live peacefully; we have not learned to stop hurting each other and everything else. In all the thousands of years we've existed, the one thing we've always done best and with great gusto is to DESTROY. What does this tell us about humanity?
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