We've Built A Monster

The global economy is a Frankenstein's monster out of control, about to turn on its masters. Soldier on in the smart cities or run for the hills?

The holiday season is over. Many people are back at work and already dreaming about and planning for the next break in the daily grind. In Spain, the return back home after local vacations and the last few waves of summer tourist excursions into the deepest corners of the peninsula have been heavily affected by the largest ever wildfires in this country's history since records began.

Travelers have been stuck at train stations and airports—not all due to forest fires, travel workers like to go on strike at this time of year too, just to add to the pain. Trips have been canceled, postponed, rearranged in an attempt to adapt to the ongoing situation. Chaos ensues. Tempers flare. 40 degrees Celsius in some parts of the country only adds to the literal melting pot.

The critics have surfaced as they always do to place the blame on the usual suspects: politicians, climate change, unrestricted tourism, mismanagement of resources, lack of funds for preventive measures, poor urban and rural planning etc.

The big elephants in the room that are always brushed aside or rarely mentioned at all are that fires have always happened, the climate always changes following natural cycles (even without human inputs), politicians always lie to cover up the truth so that voters will continue to vote for them, and mass migration of people has been going on for thousands of years back and forth according to the needs and wants of any given culture and the environmental pressures that come along to upset the locals just when they were getting settled in.

The one thing that has changed in the great equation of life is that there are far more humans than there used to be. Where small tribes of hunter gatherers used to track the large herds of buffalo across the plains of North America we now see urban sprawl containing millions of humans catering to their every need and want with a vast network of industrial farms, factories, roads, airports, train stations, refineries, mining operations, warehouses, workshops, hospitals, power plants, cables, wireless connectivity, orbital satellites, military bases, ports and government buildings.

And this is only the beginning of the 'monster' that I'm referring to in the title of this article. It appears to be taking shape and is showing signs of transformation or mutation into a new form as yet undefined although many have attempted to describe these future forms through inspired works of science fiction.

Of course, this appearance of transformation or a Fourth Turning as some prefer to call it does not mean that the perceivable process of change will be successful. We could simply be winding up to the greatest let down in our entire history particularly when the required and overly-promised scientific discoveries fail to materialize on time or at all. Either way, it would lead to the same conclusion and fatal outcome for a majority of the species—something no politician is going to step forward and announce even if they have been briefed on said potential outcome by the very best minds on the planet.

I try not to be swayed by the Pessimism Press, as I call it, because I see little value in trying to second guess negative outcomes for humanity as a whole. In general, I lean heavily into forward looking trajectories and technological solutions to current bottlenecks such as the current energy crisis. It's what makes sense to me based on the historical patterns of change over the previous millennia due to the implementation and widespread adoption of technology.

The fear as expressed by the Pessimism Press is that we will always hit a wall when efficiency increases, energy and resources stop being cheap to extract or produce, and society inevitably gets high on its own gases as they tend to do at the end of every civilizational cycle just before a collapse and rebirth much like a phoenix rising from the ashes.

And this is where the metaphors and the wishful thinking based on previous performance starts to break down and become over-stretched like an elastic band that is about to reach its breaking point. The few people that have considered this predicament, taken it seriously, studied the potential outcomes, and come to their various conclusions are still essentially making guesses, attempting to foresee what is to come based on past outcomes and timelines. Even the pacing of cycles and potential 'downtime' between peak activity can vary greatly leading to assumptions that if a major downfall of humanity were to happen, the phoenix-like rebirth and ascension to greater heights may take longer than expected or not happen at all due to physical and other constraints.

My first reaction to this line of thinking would be that in such a scenario we would have more recyclable material and equipment available than at any other time in history. My second thought would be that we probably would not have the ability to use the pile of available junk in any meaningful way because we would lack refineries and all the other just-in-time elements that enable our current cushy lifestyle. Maybe some engineers and scientists could whip something up with their knowledge of chemical processes and machines but without the economy at large to support these kinds of endeavors it's unlikely that their efforts would make much of a difference.

The truth of the matter lies somewhere in between the resilience of humans and their ability to leapfrog from one economic reality to another across eras spanning everything from the Stone Age to the present techno-invasion of everything in our lives and the potential for humanity, as a whole, to drop the ball or misjudge the distance to the next lily pad thereby failing to connect with the next potential life support mechanism causing a permanent halt to progress and the end of all our 'dreams.'

Again, it has to be said that as much as people may hate the technological and societal 'monster' that has developed throughout the ages, it's the only thing that is keeping everyone alive at this moment in time and if it were to suddenly grind to a halt, the majority of people would not be able to survive.

Can the 'monster' improve its ways? Can it clean up the pollution it creates or not create it to begin with? Can humans evolve in some way to become less dependent on the consumerist model that has taken over the world? Will our machinery take preference over human needs and wants when it comes to the final showdown with resources and energy production?

These are questions that are very much in the minds of the Pessimist Press. Even the general media covers these topics fairly well. You can find opinion pieces on futurism, transhumanism, AI and robotics, nanotech, new energy production ideas and farming techniques going back many decades. What you'll also find is the usual conclusion that everything will be peaches and wine if we can just get the right mix of scientific discoveries, manufactured choice, continued bread and circuses, and a heavy dose of global government technocratic oversight to keep the ship from falling apart.

Unfortunately, that's how I tend to look at the big picture now. If we all go our own way, the glue of industrial civilization will cease to function, the supply chains will break down, governments and banks will fail, cheap flights to everywhere will become a thing of the past, the general public will panic and finally start to do something about their situation (when it's already too late), allopathic medicine will suffer shortages and people will start dropping dead for lack of medications.

The 'monster,' as I see it, is attempting to hold some of the larger parts of the ship together using all manner of makeshift arrangements (quantitative easing) alongside the oldest tricks in the book (distractions of war, fear of plagues and natural disasters) to boost political power and foment the creation of a one world government either before or after the dust settles.

Now, the Pessimist Press have always suggested, quite rightly so, that a global government would be unfeasible under the strain of a collapsing system and that what would most likely ensue would be the fractioning of existing regional powers into much smaller and more manageable fiefdoms under local warlords.

This line of thinking makes perfect sense if and when the truth about energy and resource constraints were to finally emerge and politicians were no longer able to obfuscate and deflect with the customary and routine Hopium drops. The lies of a green energy transition will simply fall flat when reality hits home for the general public and they don't see real alternatives presented. All we're getting for now is the 'Drill baby drill' routine from Trump based on the idea that if China can still get away with the blatant disregard for CO2 limits etc then so can the good 'ol US of A. It's not easy to put the paste back in the tube though once you've committed to shutting down all fossil fuel operations in the West. I doubt that America can achieve a return to greater days and fuel independence. Has this ever happened before to a crumbling empire? Especially one that is up to its neck in trillions of dollars of debt with no real plan other than further expansion of the military pharmaceutical industrial complex into all areas of life brought to you by the most deranged, power hungry people at DARPA.

No, it doesn't seem feasible. The relevant academics have run the numbers and everything points to collapse and rebirth if rebirth is even possible after such a major setback in the current age. The Make America Great Again slogan should have alerted people to the impossibility of this dream from the very beginning, but everyone loves Hope and Change and it should be apparent by now that the best laid government plans are often enormous lies to hide the fact that the greatest thieves of all time are at work diligently stealing your wealth.

In the meantime, the counter articles and videos promoting abiotic oil theory convince at least some people (usually the conspiracy minded) to believe that everything will be okay because oil wells will replenish on this planet and others where we will tap into the oil supply too once we set up a base or two throughout the solar system. There are elements of this theory that kind of make sense such as the idea that we're drilling deeper than the original level where fossil fuels were expected to be found, but even so this does not solve the issue with the rate of replenishment of individual wells. How long do we have and what do we use in the meantime while wells are replenishing? We're already having plenty of issues with current oil production, refineries, pricing and future demand.

The myth of endless economic growth is being challenged and exposed as we speak. The warmongers are warmongering and the peacemakers are attempting to make peace, but when we pull back the curtain we see the vultures lining up to collect their chunk of flesh fresh off the battlefields of Ukraine and Gaza where land and resources are ripe for the picking. Similarly, but not so often in the news, across much of Africa, the same game is being played and the winners always appear to be the same crowd, sitting pretty in their European castles, palaces and mansions, far away from the screams and yells, fire and brimstone of ongoing conflicts.

If a new type of energy production exists and it is being held back for geopolitical, oligarchical, 5d chess advantage on the global stage to be played like a trump card at an appropriate and opportune moment, then so be it. I just would prefer not to have to go through all the prophetic religious narrative bullshit or the alien invasion psyop before moving on as a species to greater heights. Maybe the Decision Makers require some sort of sacrifice, another mass obedience and humiliation ritual, or a mass cull, or the acceptance of global rule under a messianic figure before the surprises are unpacked. Who knows? I just don't accept that the people running the show are clueless as some like to suggest. They have seen the real numbers on everything and are making moves accordingly so that they continue to rule the roost with as little friction as possible from the masses. Hence the push for Global Digital ID, Total Information Awareness, total surveillance of all activity and transactions through CBDC and/or stablecoin adoption. A few more well-placed crises and the sheep will be locked in the pen for good.

So, to round it all up, the Green Revolution gave us copious amounts of food with acceptable levels of nutrition allowing for the rapid growth in the number of humans. Economies of scale and increased efficiency allowed for the mass production of household goods and vehicles of every kind to flood the world under a new religion—consumerism. Then, computing revolutionized the world of work leading to increased productivity across all industries including leisure and the arts to the point now where we are suffering under information and entertainment overload. Beyond this point, we face mass AI and robotics disruption, but only if the global economic glue can stop things from falling apart just a little while longer until the relevant pieces are slotted into place.

When taking the present slightly pessimistic outlook into consideration, many observers will naturally want to retreat into nature and a natural way of life building homesteads in rural communities far away from all the noise and technological disruption, far away from the face and hand scanners required just to buy a sandwich or a cinema ticket in the big cities.

Unfortunately, this idyllic option is out of reach for most people that are trapped in the daily grind of city life where the jobs happen to be. Or maybe there is a way out. Maybe the cubicle-inhabiting button-pushers collecting a slave wage, just enough to pay the rent and little more, can find a way out of the trap? Maybe if they were offered internship at one of these rural communities for food and lodging while they brush up on other skills in demand in the community, maybe there could be a way out... at least for a few lucky ones.

For the rest, it's forward into techno-salvation and slavery until the rules of economics break down and the laws of physics take over as the main driver of the consequences of our collective actions to date.

If we hold up a mirror that exposes humanity as we really are and not how we perceive ourselves we probably wouldn't like what we see.

Maybe we're starting to realize that the 'big bad monster' ... is us.

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