They say alcohol is a suppressant and it is quite ordinary to hear of the famous little old men and ladies going to bed with a ‘night cap’ to swiftly put them off to slumber. Well, it is all quite misleading. Yes, alcohol slows down this and that in the body and so it is classified as a suppressant. And about the ‘night cap’ thing, I simply suppose this is all a massive lie – a society-wide conspiracy to cover up or euphemize the huge scale of prevalent alcoholism going on. There are no little old men or little old ladies who take just one drink before sleep. There are millions of little old men and little old ladies who get drunk and pass out.
But even ‘passing out’ presents a bit of a problem. They’ve done studies concerning chronic drinkers, whether bonafide alcoholics or not, and have found that alcohol actually contributes a great deal toward insomnia. You know, if you actually observe people’s drinking habits, you would not need so many Scientific Studies to point out what is clear enough already. People who drink stay up to do it. Then compare the sleeping hours of people who don’t drink versus the sleeping hours of people who do. People who don’t drink eventually get tired at night and then they go to bed, and sleep like babies (only an expression as real babies sleep rather fitfully). But a drunk will take another drink and stay up, and then another and then another.
If the Night Cappers have a secret, it is that they keep only a single bottle on hand at a time. They finish their bottle and can’t find another, and so off to sleep they go. Yes, this is why we attribute such behaviors to little old men and little old women. Such capacity for effective planning is a sure sign of the Wisdom that only comes with Age.
Anyway, what is it about a ‘suppressant’ that can keep people awake? It seems paradoxical, and it is. It is not really fully explainable in simple logical terms. There must be more about the bio-chemistry than simply being a ‘suppressant’. But in just examining the behaviors involved, it seems like Drinking mimics ‘something to do’. It seems like Drunks actually think that they are doing something when they are sitting around getting drunk. It’s an activity. And it is difficult to walk away from. Ask an ordinary drinker how many times a year he sees the sun coming up before having gone to sleep. In most cases drinkers are saved when the supply of alcohol simply runs out, as in the case of the careful Night Cappers. Bars close. The keg goes empty. The party planners had only bought 8 cases of beer… thinking that would be plenty for the entire weekend and not just Friday night. In cases where limitless alcohol has been stored up… when Miller goes on sale just after a big payday… then it is usual enough to set off on an entire binge, that is, days of drinking end on end. Not only sleeping is suppressed but even food is neglected… and I don’t know why. I suppose drunks begin to feel too queasy and nervous to eat.
Some Supermarkets have regulations in place to sell no alcohol in the early morning hours, for exactly the purpose of interrupting binge drinking long enough to allow the drinkers to go home and get to sleep. You see, binge drinking always depends on being able to reach for the next drink. Without the next drink, a drinker will pass out. It is not drinking that puts people to sleep. It is the interruption of drinking that puts people to sleep.
Well, that covers the Cons of drinking. What about the Pros.
What could possibly be good about drinking.
Well, it keeps one awake.
Churchhill stayed awake during the entirety of World War Two… oh, and World War One too while he was at it… stopping Hitler, and the Kaiser, almost single-handedly, by basically staying drunk the entire time. Roosevelt too. I don’t think he had a sober moment in his last ten years. No one did during the Thirties and Forties. The Golden Age of Drunks. Watch any Black and White Movie. Do they ever put down the Drinks and the Cigarettes? You would think it might have impaired their judgment a bit. Duh!? Well it did!? The Depression! The Wars! Does that all seem like sober behavior to you? The Whole World was Drunk and out of its mind!
Oh, drinking also aids with ‘Writer’s Block’ or at least with that part of writer’s block where the writer gets tired and decides to turn in for the night. Alcoholic Writers simply take another drink and power on through.
Who was it? F. Scott Fitzgerald or Deshiell Hammet who couldn’t finish a screen play for a big Studio Movie until they put him on an intravenous alcohol drip. For a whole week. But the Movie stayed on schedule!
We can all understand how a Writer might begin to be backed into a corner by a deadline and then need the ability to work straight through for a few days and nights. Nowadays we would think of solutions in terms of cocaine or methamphetamine, that is ‘Stimulants’, but when one thinks in regards to the quality of the actual end product, the Writing, then alcohol does much less damage to the written word than the hyper-activity stimulants. Writing is not like driving a truck. Yes, there is more surliness and sarcasm in a drunk’s writing than if he were sober, but so much of that can be mistaken for wit. However, a speed freak will be positively arrogant, even megalomaniacal. There cannot even be a passable pretence for intellectual integrity from the Speed Freak. They write like Lawyers!
Indeed, many a student working on some final Term Paper would be well advised to consider alcohol as an alternative to methamphetamine, if he needs something to keep him awake. The trick is to pace oneself, to stay just under the threshold of actually being able to detect one’s own inebriation. Just enough to stay awake and maybe you might still be able to get an ‘A’.
However, don’t get the wrong idea. I do not advocate the positive use of alcohol. I am only saying that the abuse of alcohol is better than the abuse of methamphetamines.
You see, at the point in which one begins to hope for a perfect product in one’s writing, then alcohol really does need to be dispensed with. One needs to plan far enough ahead so that writing during the days is sufficient. There is a subtle but damaging tone that inevitably creeps in when drinking. Yes, it looks almost indistinguishable from clever wit, but at a certain point in the development of one’s writing, even clever wit is a silly trick that one should make the effort to transcend. One should aim at presenting Wisdom in the Sublime…. Which you can’t do when you are shitfaced.
Sunday, September 6, 2009
Misconceptions about Serfdom
I had thought Malcolm Gladwell (“Tipping Point”) was a more careful author, but in his recent book “Outliers” he started droning on about how Asian Rice Peasants were so much more productive than the old European Serfs because they weren’t coerced like slaves and they only had to hand over a fixed percentage of their produce for their tenancies instead of being mercilessly beaten every day and having all their produce taken from them as were the poor miserable Serfs.
Well, it was obvious that Mr. Gladwell had researched Rice Farming, as he seemed to know something about it. But about Serfdom, he felt it enough to go along with all of the old middle class bourgeois propaganda on the issue. He did not think he had to inform us about it, because obviously we already know everything we are supposed to know about it. Only none of it is right. Maybe old Max was not intentionally lying. Maybe he thought it enough to rely on what his 7th Grade Teacher had taught him. And she was only teaching what the books had to say. Once propaganda is in print, it tends to stay there.
Facts be known, the Serfs were much as Malcolm Gladwell had described the Asian Rice Peasants. They owed the Lord of the Manor a fixed amount of their produce each year. And the amount of this turnover was fixed by tradition. Century after Century went by and the amount owed to the Lord of the Manor never went up, even when methods of cultivation doubled and then tripled the productivity of the land. By dawn of the Revolution the Serfs had enough produce to spare over their own needs that they were doing fairly well on the cash markets. In all respects they looked exactly the same as any small respectable Farmer. Because that is what they were.
So what is the argument that the Serfs were virtual slaves? Well, for some perspective on this issue, consider that the most horrible thing that the Serfs endlessly complained about was the Tradition of Corvée, that is, for several day, yes, just several days, for each year the Serfs had to report to the manor ready and willing to do some collective work for improving the roads, mending the common fences, and just doing whatever it took to keep up the general infrastructure of the neighborhood. A few days. Bitch, bitch, bitch. I guess people just need something to bitch about or they simply ain’t happy. Outside of that there were no complaints. Sounds like a pretty good deal compared to what we ordinarily would think of as ‘slavery’, if that was the only complaint they could come up with.
Yes, there were restrictions, but the same restrictions that applied to the Lord of the Manor. The Land could not be subdivided. With both Serf and Lord, only the oldest son could inherit, and they would necessarily get the whole package. Second and third sons could join the Church, become Monks, join some Army or go to the Towns and Cities to look for work. The whole Feudal System encouraged a kind of Population Awareness, and the Church was greatly benefited by having such a steady source of fresh personnel, as were the Armies, which was probably something of a mixed blessing.
The Propaganda of History bemoans the ‘fact’ that the Serfs were “bound to the land”. Yes, if absolute entitlement and ownership should ever be expressed in such terms. When we buy a house, do we call it being ‘bound’. Do the Family Farmers in America or France call it ‘being bound to their farms’? Indeed, it was even stronger, that is, better, than ordinary ownership. Nowadays our Society has a number of mechanisms for throwing people out of the homes and taking their property – foreclosures and bankruptcies. The Serf had no such worry. The Serf had a traditional and irrevocable claim to his Land. That History has been fooled into describing that as some kind of a heinous burden, well, that is precisely how Propaganda is supposed to work. Using language to tell lies.
But why all the lies? Well, when the Bourgeois Middle Classes during the Age of Revolution (still going on) went after the Lords to steal their land or take it on the cheap, it would do them little good unless they also went after the Serfs, for, after all, it was the Serfs who actually held deed to the land in question. Of course, the Bourgeois Classes could have felt free to dispossess the Lords and deal with the Serfs respecting the same Traditional Centuries old Contracts and Customary Agreements. But the Middle Classes were keen businessmen (then as now) and realized that they could find Labor far more cheaply than what the Serfs were effectively working for. It was all about who they could screw the worst, even if they could not put it in exactly those same terms.
Why else so much concern over “Liberating the Serfs” expressed throughout every Capital of Europe, after the Bourgeois Revolutions had taken hold. There was no concern for the City Workers. No concern for anybody or anything… except tossing the Serfs off their land under the guise of liberating them.
But it was all Centuries ago. Couldn’t we start telling the Truth about it by now? Yet the old propaganda persists. Having Hereditary Ownership of so much of the European Landmass was a terrible injustice to the Serfs, and kicking them out of their homes was the best thing for them. Hurray for the Modern World and the Selfless Bighearted Middle Classes… and the hope that they don’t start murdering us on our sleep.
Well, it was obvious that Mr. Gladwell had researched Rice Farming, as he seemed to know something about it. But about Serfdom, he felt it enough to go along with all of the old middle class bourgeois propaganda on the issue. He did not think he had to inform us about it, because obviously we already know everything we are supposed to know about it. Only none of it is right. Maybe old Max was not intentionally lying. Maybe he thought it enough to rely on what his 7th Grade Teacher had taught him. And she was only teaching what the books had to say. Once propaganda is in print, it tends to stay there.
Facts be known, the Serfs were much as Malcolm Gladwell had described the Asian Rice Peasants. They owed the Lord of the Manor a fixed amount of their produce each year. And the amount of this turnover was fixed by tradition. Century after Century went by and the amount owed to the Lord of the Manor never went up, even when methods of cultivation doubled and then tripled the productivity of the land. By dawn of the Revolution the Serfs had enough produce to spare over their own needs that they were doing fairly well on the cash markets. In all respects they looked exactly the same as any small respectable Farmer. Because that is what they were.
So what is the argument that the Serfs were virtual slaves? Well, for some perspective on this issue, consider that the most horrible thing that the Serfs endlessly complained about was the Tradition of Corvée, that is, for several day, yes, just several days, for each year the Serfs had to report to the manor ready and willing to do some collective work for improving the roads, mending the common fences, and just doing whatever it took to keep up the general infrastructure of the neighborhood. A few days. Bitch, bitch, bitch. I guess people just need something to bitch about or they simply ain’t happy. Outside of that there were no complaints. Sounds like a pretty good deal compared to what we ordinarily would think of as ‘slavery’, if that was the only complaint they could come up with.
Yes, there were restrictions, but the same restrictions that applied to the Lord of the Manor. The Land could not be subdivided. With both Serf and Lord, only the oldest son could inherit, and they would necessarily get the whole package. Second and third sons could join the Church, become Monks, join some Army or go to the Towns and Cities to look for work. The whole Feudal System encouraged a kind of Population Awareness, and the Church was greatly benefited by having such a steady source of fresh personnel, as were the Armies, which was probably something of a mixed blessing.
The Propaganda of History bemoans the ‘fact’ that the Serfs were “bound to the land”. Yes, if absolute entitlement and ownership should ever be expressed in such terms. When we buy a house, do we call it being ‘bound’. Do the Family Farmers in America or France call it ‘being bound to their farms’? Indeed, it was even stronger, that is, better, than ordinary ownership. Nowadays our Society has a number of mechanisms for throwing people out of the homes and taking their property – foreclosures and bankruptcies. The Serf had no such worry. The Serf had a traditional and irrevocable claim to his Land. That History has been fooled into describing that as some kind of a heinous burden, well, that is precisely how Propaganda is supposed to work. Using language to tell lies.
But why all the lies? Well, when the Bourgeois Middle Classes during the Age of Revolution (still going on) went after the Lords to steal their land or take it on the cheap, it would do them little good unless they also went after the Serfs, for, after all, it was the Serfs who actually held deed to the land in question. Of course, the Bourgeois Classes could have felt free to dispossess the Lords and deal with the Serfs respecting the same Traditional Centuries old Contracts and Customary Agreements. But the Middle Classes were keen businessmen (then as now) and realized that they could find Labor far more cheaply than what the Serfs were effectively working for. It was all about who they could screw the worst, even if they could not put it in exactly those same terms.
Why else so much concern over “Liberating the Serfs” expressed throughout every Capital of Europe, after the Bourgeois Revolutions had taken hold. There was no concern for the City Workers. No concern for anybody or anything… except tossing the Serfs off their land under the guise of liberating them.
But it was all Centuries ago. Couldn’t we start telling the Truth about it by now? Yet the old propaganda persists. Having Hereditary Ownership of so much of the European Landmass was a terrible injustice to the Serfs, and kicking them out of their homes was the best thing for them. Hurray for the Modern World and the Selfless Bighearted Middle Classes… and the hope that they don’t start murdering us on our sleep.
Rule of Law Meaningless as Judges Interfer
Yes, the Principle of Rule by Law was always perhaps well intended. Stop the bad guys without being all arbitrary about it. Yes, there was always the shortcoming that not all Immoral Possibilities could ever have been foreseen by the strict letter of the Law, and so any lexicon of Laws would necessarily come up short, with cracks between the boards. Legal Systems would always have their Loopholes. Hmmm, but maybe that was the real intent of Rule by Law… that the Lawyers had from the very beginning foreseen the business opportunities in loop-holing Laws. But actually my idea with this essay is to point out that while Rule by Law may have been a Noble Experiment, we should all concede now, at this point in our Collective Experience, that it was all futile and does not work when put into practice. You see, whatever the wording of a particular Law might be, the rules of Judicial Review now state that a Law is whatever the Judges say they are. Black is white if that is that the Judge happens to say. But is that what we meant be Rule of Law?
So we do not have Rule by Law, do we? We have Rule by Judges.
Take the American Supreme Court. When all the Judges are considering the same Law set before them, all in the same language, they divide exactly down Party Lines. It must be entirely obvious that the actual Laws involved no longer matter, but it has all become the province of Judges to decide in regards to their own political convenience. You know, if we wanted politicians to decide these things, well, we already have plenty of them. Judges are just hugely redundant pay checks. More fuss than they are worth.
You know, the American Constitution contains no specific quote giving such super powers to the Judges that they now assume is theirs by some divine right … making themselves the most powerful all deciding Branch of Government. Again that was the Judges themselves deciding what the Law meant. They used Judicial Interpretation to self appoint themselves. Really, they can say that the Constitution means anything they want it to. That is the problem. As soon as it means anything these men say it does, then it has become meaningless. That may be unfortunate, but it is just the way it is.
We need to realize that if our Culture has grown so corrupt that the language of the law would be ignored, circumvented, twisted and exploited for career and profit, then we should admit that for the lack of anything better we need to go back to Rule by Men. At least men can be appointed by some responsible process. And there would even be some advantages. No more Legalisms and Loopholes. Moral Considerations would apply. Bad people could be convicted for being bad people. It would be so much better than what we are doing now.
So let us do away with Judges and lets start electing Sheriffs to set things right. If we are worried about abuses, we could still have Juries, but with the improvement of not having to follow any Judges Divine Instructions.
So we do not have Rule by Law, do we? We have Rule by Judges.
Take the American Supreme Court. When all the Judges are considering the same Law set before them, all in the same language, they divide exactly down Party Lines. It must be entirely obvious that the actual Laws involved no longer matter, but it has all become the province of Judges to decide in regards to their own political convenience. You know, if we wanted politicians to decide these things, well, we already have plenty of them. Judges are just hugely redundant pay checks. More fuss than they are worth.
You know, the American Constitution contains no specific quote giving such super powers to the Judges that they now assume is theirs by some divine right … making themselves the most powerful all deciding Branch of Government. Again that was the Judges themselves deciding what the Law meant. They used Judicial Interpretation to self appoint themselves. Really, they can say that the Constitution means anything they want it to. That is the problem. As soon as it means anything these men say it does, then it has become meaningless. That may be unfortunate, but it is just the way it is.
We need to realize that if our Culture has grown so corrupt that the language of the law would be ignored, circumvented, twisted and exploited for career and profit, then we should admit that for the lack of anything better we need to go back to Rule by Men. At least men can be appointed by some responsible process. And there would even be some advantages. No more Legalisms and Loopholes. Moral Considerations would apply. Bad people could be convicted for being bad people. It would be so much better than what we are doing now.
So let us do away with Judges and lets start electing Sheriffs to set things right. If we are worried about abuses, we could still have Juries, but with the improvement of not having to follow any Judges Divine Instructions.
Tenured Research or No Research
One of the greatest and most effective institutions developed by Western Civilization is Tenured Professorship in the Universities. What Tenure means is that a Tenured Professor has a life lock on his Job. No one can fire a Tenured Professor. The effect of this is that Tenured Professors can act with complete Intellectual and Scientific Integrity.
But nowadays the Corporate Culture is making an end run around the University System of Research and setting up their own Scientific Research Companies. The difference is that the Corporations specifically stipulate that their Research Managers NOT BE TENURED. Indeed, there is so little integrity within Corporate Science that they make absolutely no secret that Job Security is directly connected to producing Stipulated Targeted Results – the Data will go the way the Company wants or everyone gets fired.
Corporate Research Grants are all issued on this same premise, that results come back pleasing to the Company or no further Grants are issued.
Why do we allow this pretence to continue masquerading as Science.
All Non-Tenured Research should simply be shut down. Every Non-Tenured Study should be thrown out. Yes, yes, yes, the Corporations can counterfeit perfectly acceptable looking Studies. They hirer Researchers who know what Valid Studies are supposed to look like. So Corporate Research will appear valid enough. Double Blind Controlled Studies are fine. Peer Review is fine. But these procedural safeguards can do nothing to prevent the simple fudging of Data. But when everybody’s Employment depends upon targeted results with Data leaning for the Company and not against it, then we can only be left to believe that secretly, covertly, and not even necessarily because any actual illicit instructions are given, that the Researchers will fix a point here and fix a point there, so they can all keep their Jobs. The only Procedural Safeguard that can be applied is to completely duplicate the Study and see if the results repeat, but the Corporation feel quite secure that nobody would wish to spend the money and commit the resources to go to such an extent, especially since anybody with that kind of Money probably belongs to their same Country Club.
So Tenure is the only practical answer. Unless there is Tenure, we cannot assume there is any Integrity in Science for Profit.
Oh, the same goes for Private Forensic Laboratories – those that contract out to Police Departments and Prosecutor Offices. You see, it has actually happened that when Evidence Laboratories had returned Findings indicating that certain Criminal Suspects were actually cleared of any wrongdoing, the Laboratories contract’s were dropped… they were fired… “blackballed” with the word going out for no Law Enforcement Agency to ever contract with that Lab ever again. Then the Prosecutors would go out and sign on new Labs who would understand that they would do what they were paid to do… certify evidence that could convict the indicated Suspects. Oh, the Prosecutors even argue that this is Ethical, since the Defense Attorneys are perfectly free to go out and get their own Lab Results (describing a system where we can no longer believe anybody, since Science shines the same subject equally White and Black depending upon who pays the bills). So all Forensic Labs used to process Evidence need to be Tenured. Contracts can not in any way be Results Oriented… not without some Contracting Officer going to jail for Corruption.
So, yes, anyway, Corporations and Civil Government should not be allowed to practice Science without Tenure. But the sad thing is that even the Universities are beginning to drop the Institution of Tenure. They have noticed that the Non-Tenured Employees and Contractors from the Corporate World are so much more pliable then their own Tenured Professors who are nice enough until they are Tenured, but then get so arrogant and stubborn about everything afterward. They quite forget that such is rather the point. But in this Age of Specialization, University Administrators are, well, administrators, and their only concern is that their own jobs be made easy. Understanding the Meaning of Life and their Role in Civilization, well, that had never been part of their Specialty – courses like that were merely elective while they focused mostly on their Business Administration track… where the money’s at. Anyway, these Deans and University Administrators, since they are told that they are the Bosses of the Colleges, they can’t understand why everything can’t go the way they dictate they should. The Professors work for them, don’t they? and ought to do what they are told. Tenure just makes them unruly.
But nowadays the Corporate Culture is making an end run around the University System of Research and setting up their own Scientific Research Companies. The difference is that the Corporations specifically stipulate that their Research Managers NOT BE TENURED. Indeed, there is so little integrity within Corporate Science that they make absolutely no secret that Job Security is directly connected to producing Stipulated Targeted Results – the Data will go the way the Company wants or everyone gets fired.
Corporate Research Grants are all issued on this same premise, that results come back pleasing to the Company or no further Grants are issued.
Why do we allow this pretence to continue masquerading as Science.
All Non-Tenured Research should simply be shut down. Every Non-Tenured Study should be thrown out. Yes, yes, yes, the Corporations can counterfeit perfectly acceptable looking Studies. They hirer Researchers who know what Valid Studies are supposed to look like. So Corporate Research will appear valid enough. Double Blind Controlled Studies are fine. Peer Review is fine. But these procedural safeguards can do nothing to prevent the simple fudging of Data. But when everybody’s Employment depends upon targeted results with Data leaning for the Company and not against it, then we can only be left to believe that secretly, covertly, and not even necessarily because any actual illicit instructions are given, that the Researchers will fix a point here and fix a point there, so they can all keep their Jobs. The only Procedural Safeguard that can be applied is to completely duplicate the Study and see if the results repeat, but the Corporation feel quite secure that nobody would wish to spend the money and commit the resources to go to such an extent, especially since anybody with that kind of Money probably belongs to their same Country Club.
So Tenure is the only practical answer. Unless there is Tenure, we cannot assume there is any Integrity in Science for Profit.
Oh, the same goes for Private Forensic Laboratories – those that contract out to Police Departments and Prosecutor Offices. You see, it has actually happened that when Evidence Laboratories had returned Findings indicating that certain Criminal Suspects were actually cleared of any wrongdoing, the Laboratories contract’s were dropped… they were fired… “blackballed” with the word going out for no Law Enforcement Agency to ever contract with that Lab ever again. Then the Prosecutors would go out and sign on new Labs who would understand that they would do what they were paid to do… certify evidence that could convict the indicated Suspects. Oh, the Prosecutors even argue that this is Ethical, since the Defense Attorneys are perfectly free to go out and get their own Lab Results (describing a system where we can no longer believe anybody, since Science shines the same subject equally White and Black depending upon who pays the bills). So all Forensic Labs used to process Evidence need to be Tenured. Contracts can not in any way be Results Oriented… not without some Contracting Officer going to jail for Corruption.
So, yes, anyway, Corporations and Civil Government should not be allowed to practice Science without Tenure. But the sad thing is that even the Universities are beginning to drop the Institution of Tenure. They have noticed that the Non-Tenured Employees and Contractors from the Corporate World are so much more pliable then their own Tenured Professors who are nice enough until they are Tenured, but then get so arrogant and stubborn about everything afterward. They quite forget that such is rather the point. But in this Age of Specialization, University Administrators are, well, administrators, and their only concern is that their own jobs be made easy. Understanding the Meaning of Life and their Role in Civilization, well, that had never been part of their Specialty – courses like that were merely elective while they focused mostly on their Business Administration track… where the money’s at. Anyway, these Deans and University Administrators, since they are told that they are the Bosses of the Colleges, they can’t understand why everything can’t go the way they dictate they should. The Professors work for them, don’t they? and ought to do what they are told. Tenure just makes them unruly.
Saturday, September 5, 2009
The Conservative Mindset is Adolescent
First, to save time, lets set out a few assumptions, firstly, that liberalism equates to Civilization – large cooperative social organizations, while conservative ideology equates to Barbarism where, for the lack of sufficient social guarantees for life and property, habits of individual initiative are culturally acquired which mostly aim at settling all disputes through violence.
Because Civilization has less conflict, the populations are permitted to age to something of an adult maturity. Barbarism, on the other hand, favors the young. A man is at his athletic peak at the age of 24, and after that it is all downhill. In a society where physical prowess is a Man’s Measure, then we cannot expect many of the active leaders to be much older than 24.
The Size of Social Organizations also fits into our figuring. I’ve recently read some book which states that the optimum size of a group, where everyone knows each other and where everybody is understood to have a place in the scheme of things, is about 150 people. When groups get above that number, then they subdivide into effective castes and classes, proletariats and elites. Civilizations, being much more populated than Barbarisms, would certainly evolve these much more specific and specialized Groupings. The Police and Security Castes would be on the watch for young aggressive males and through the application of numerical superiority, would be able to pacify these youngsters with not much danger of harm to themselves. Barbaric Communities, on the other hand, especially the smaller Communities, would be under the complete mercy of any especially big and stupid boy… unless some should get together and kill him while he sleeps.
So it is a certain amount of justified paranoia exists within the small barbaric communities. Rank and Property are acquired through force, but the exercise of force would engender resentment which would in turn engender an insidious sub-current of treachery. The Leaders would have to learn to sleep with one eye open, or not sleep at all… which would go a long ways toward making them even more crazy. We could expect to see young leaders who would lash out not only at overt challenges to their superiority, but also launch pre-emptive assaults on those who are suspected of not being entirely loyal and supportive. This would be an awful lot to think about even by the Old and the Wise, but we need to remember that most of the players in the Barbaric System are mere teenagers.
When we think of Barbarism, we should realize that the perfect model example of such a thing is the modern Urban Youth Gang. Defending Territory, posing Honor, chest-beating their Loyalties, but really an awful mess of dissention and conflict. They would have to be, just to make some kind of room for the personal ambitions of those growing up within the Gang. Allow me some space below to explain.
I have often contemplated Personality Types. I have noticed vaguely that out of every group of about a hundred people, one can find every sort of person that one needs, and about in the correct proportions that one needs them. There will be at least one True Healer. There will be one person who HATES cats, that is able to sense the presence of lions or tigers without needing to see or hear them… just know that they are there. This treat goes WAY back to Humanity’s earliest days, when we were still fresh out of the Trees and still probably had residual tails, and had to be very afraid of Cats, whatever their size. There will be one good Shaman, a few good Musicians and Storytellers, there will be a number of good selfless hunters, a number of caring women, etc. etc. The ordinary Mix of People is typically about just right. But what about Leaders? Out of a hundred or a hundred and fifty people in a primary social group, how many would be competing for the Leadership Role? And there would necessarily be more than one. Nature must see the competitive component in that classification and provide for it. So we see in many of the social and herding species that there is a struggle for Alpha Dominance as Redundant Leaders vie for power. Yes, most of the adolescent males would be happy to recognize that they are slightly too small to seriously compete for power, and would support whoever emerges as The King of the Mountain. However, there would always arrive the tall and big boys who had yet never lost a fight. These are the children that destabilize the Barbaric System. Nothing is ever settled… not for very long. Every year a few new boys hit their Growth Spurt and the consequential power shifts come into play. Life for these kids is definitely Nasty, Brutish, and Short.
Oh, by the way, nowadays there are so many Leadership Seminars, with so much advice about how to establish oneself as a Leader. They always leave out the most basic point… to kill off all of the competition.
Anyway, That is Barbarism. As much as we might now be frowning upon it, we still must accept the dark realization that such a Life builds into Culture, Traditions and Life Expectations. And Cultures persist. People from the Nomadic Steppes of Eurasia and Africa, the Hill people of Ireland, Scotland, Wales, the Iberian Peninsula, indeed anywhere that has not had a strong Civilizing Influence for at least 4 or 5 hundred years – in all of these Cultures much of the Behaviors and Expectations are formed up around these, well, adolescent, Barbaric Dynamics of Social Grouping and Aggression.
It goes a long ways toward explaining the problem that has always mystified the Liberal, and that is how otherwise intelligent adult Conservatives can be so, well, ‘stupid’? Basically it is because they come from Cultures that had never grown up.
Because Civilization has less conflict, the populations are permitted to age to something of an adult maturity. Barbarism, on the other hand, favors the young. A man is at his athletic peak at the age of 24, and after that it is all downhill. In a society where physical prowess is a Man’s Measure, then we cannot expect many of the active leaders to be much older than 24.
The Size of Social Organizations also fits into our figuring. I’ve recently read some book which states that the optimum size of a group, where everyone knows each other and where everybody is understood to have a place in the scheme of things, is about 150 people. When groups get above that number, then they subdivide into effective castes and classes, proletariats and elites. Civilizations, being much more populated than Barbarisms, would certainly evolve these much more specific and specialized Groupings. The Police and Security Castes would be on the watch for young aggressive males and through the application of numerical superiority, would be able to pacify these youngsters with not much danger of harm to themselves. Barbaric Communities, on the other hand, especially the smaller Communities, would be under the complete mercy of any especially big and stupid boy… unless some should get together and kill him while he sleeps.
So it is a certain amount of justified paranoia exists within the small barbaric communities. Rank and Property are acquired through force, but the exercise of force would engender resentment which would in turn engender an insidious sub-current of treachery. The Leaders would have to learn to sleep with one eye open, or not sleep at all… which would go a long ways toward making them even more crazy. We could expect to see young leaders who would lash out not only at overt challenges to their superiority, but also launch pre-emptive assaults on those who are suspected of not being entirely loyal and supportive. This would be an awful lot to think about even by the Old and the Wise, but we need to remember that most of the players in the Barbaric System are mere teenagers.
When we think of Barbarism, we should realize that the perfect model example of such a thing is the modern Urban Youth Gang. Defending Territory, posing Honor, chest-beating their Loyalties, but really an awful mess of dissention and conflict. They would have to be, just to make some kind of room for the personal ambitions of those growing up within the Gang. Allow me some space below to explain.
I have often contemplated Personality Types. I have noticed vaguely that out of every group of about a hundred people, one can find every sort of person that one needs, and about in the correct proportions that one needs them. There will be at least one True Healer. There will be one person who HATES cats, that is able to sense the presence of lions or tigers without needing to see or hear them… just know that they are there. This treat goes WAY back to Humanity’s earliest days, when we were still fresh out of the Trees and still probably had residual tails, and had to be very afraid of Cats, whatever their size. There will be one good Shaman, a few good Musicians and Storytellers, there will be a number of good selfless hunters, a number of caring women, etc. etc. The ordinary Mix of People is typically about just right. But what about Leaders? Out of a hundred or a hundred and fifty people in a primary social group, how many would be competing for the Leadership Role? And there would necessarily be more than one. Nature must see the competitive component in that classification and provide for it. So we see in many of the social and herding species that there is a struggle for Alpha Dominance as Redundant Leaders vie for power. Yes, most of the adolescent males would be happy to recognize that they are slightly too small to seriously compete for power, and would support whoever emerges as The King of the Mountain. However, there would always arrive the tall and big boys who had yet never lost a fight. These are the children that destabilize the Barbaric System. Nothing is ever settled… not for very long. Every year a few new boys hit their Growth Spurt and the consequential power shifts come into play. Life for these kids is definitely Nasty, Brutish, and Short.
Oh, by the way, nowadays there are so many Leadership Seminars, with so much advice about how to establish oneself as a Leader. They always leave out the most basic point… to kill off all of the competition.
Anyway, That is Barbarism. As much as we might now be frowning upon it, we still must accept the dark realization that such a Life builds into Culture, Traditions and Life Expectations. And Cultures persist. People from the Nomadic Steppes of Eurasia and Africa, the Hill people of Ireland, Scotland, Wales, the Iberian Peninsula, indeed anywhere that has not had a strong Civilizing Influence for at least 4 or 5 hundred years – in all of these Cultures much of the Behaviors and Expectations are formed up around these, well, adolescent, Barbaric Dynamics of Social Grouping and Aggression.
It goes a long ways toward explaining the problem that has always mystified the Liberal, and that is how otherwise intelligent adult Conservatives can be so, well, ‘stupid’? Basically it is because they come from Cultures that had never grown up.
War On Terror War On Crime
War On Terror War On Crime
War has ordinarily been understood to describe hostilities between Nations. Combatants acted with the endorsement of their Country, and it was insisted that they be identified by uniform. Being out of uniform in a combat zone was considered sufficient grounds to be summarily hanged. If Civilians wished to warrant the protections of the Rules of War, then they had to follow their own share of these rules. Simply stated, Civilians were not to participate in the conflict, not even as ‘Resistance Fighters’. Likewise, soldiers could not slip their uniforms and go off and hide, not unless they were careful never to be caught, as their own Side would hang them as deserters, or the Other Side would hang them as spies.
So if War is to be defined by hostilities between States conducted by uniformed personnel, then what is to be made of Wars against, well, private organizations and individuals whose only concession toward wearing uniforms is use ammo belts for carrying their ammo? One would think that the ordinary laws would apply where Mighty Nations were merely going after individuals and, well, Militias, that is Social Clubs with guns. Weapons charges could be pressed against these offenders. There could be conspiracy to murder charges. Treason. Found on foreign soil without the correct travel documents, then these people could even be tried and then hanged for espionage. No one really has to declare ‘War’ against these rag-tags.
But look at the advantages of declaring War! When the Laws apply, then there needs to be some good faith efforts made to arrest the suspects, and almost any ‘collateral damage’ or extraneous casualties would be cause for serious inquiry, demotions and even prosecutions against the offending police officers. But in “War” then suddenly it is okay to target individuals with missile bombs from unmanned airplanes circling miles above. Cars full of people are targeted if they think one important person might be among them. Complete Weddings or Funerals are bombed, destroying entire families, if they suspect their might be one bad Guest. Huge body counts are logged in without inquiry as long as they are all reported as being ‘terrorists’ or ‘combatants’…even when there are dead women and children! No evidence is ever required. And since it is War, all the facts are typically classified anyway. Everything worth knowing becomes “Secret” and so can’t be spoken of. Continuously we hear on the News of the Americans or the Israelis being perfectly willing to submit themselves to Open Public Inquiries except for those pesky concerns for National Security. Now you can only make those kind of dodges if one is at ‘War’. If only Law Enforcement had the same Powers and the same release from any effective regulation or constraint!
Imagine a War on Crime on the same scale as the War on Terror. There would be no more expensive Trials or costly prisons to maintain. Simply drop bombs on all of the suspects.
Oh, wait. In the War on Terrorism they DO in fact take prisoners. They don’t kill everybody… not immediately anyway. Some they keep alive in order to extract information and I suppose they keep others alive in order to encourage the rest to likewise surrender. Its always been part of Military Wisdom to give one’s enemy some other choice besides fighting valiantly to the death. Leave an open line of retreat, or publicize an almost luxurious concern for the welfare and comfort of prisoners, then many a pitched and costly battle can be avoided. Bravery aside, a great many military objectives are willingly traded away if it will make the battles easier and less deadly for the Victors. And so it is with Crime. Retreats are left open, that is, slick lawyers are provided that nearly always provide escape for the Criminals that would otherwise be the most dangerous. And for the rank and file of the common criminals, cozy prisons are promised to those who lay down their arms instead of standing to fight.
Of course, we then have Enemies and Criminals coming back to fight another day.
The problem is probably with Human Soldiers and Human Police with their Human Weaknesses and vulnerabilities. After all, we need to keep in mind that a job is just a job. Soldiers and Cops would naturally hesitate to put themselves into constant danger, and would of course arrive at methods and procedures that would prioritize their own wellbeing, even if such means also served to insulate their enemies from any decisive disposition of their Fate. Given such huge procedural limitations, there can never be any really decisive Battle, where the retreats are all blocked off and the enemy annihilated to the last man…with them shooting back the entire time!
Oh, it is cynical to say so, but maybe both Cops and Soldiers care enough for their own Job Security that they will never seek out any Absolute Victory. They do not want War to end. They do not want Crime to end. It is perhaps like the way that the CIA never captures Bin Laden, so that it can never be argued that the War on Terror has come to an end. They keep the conflict going so they will always have a Job to go to each morning.
The answer to our problem here may consist in automated information gathering, and robotic weapons systems. Identify the enemy. Tag them. Then destroy them. If Human Beings are not assigned the dangerous job of going after the criminals or the enemy, then there is no opportunity for them to shirk their duties in trade for their safety and comfort. Machines would truck on to the end. And Machines never worry about Unemployment.
Yes, they are even now beginning to implement some first stirring of an Automated Weapons System, but it is still so, well, traditional and military – crude and blunt. Huge bombs are used. Its all quite ridiculous’, considering the scale that is used versus the scale that is actually required. One does not need hundreds of pound of high explosives to kill a man. A 22 caliber bullet can kill a man. A micro-dart tipped with a nerve toxin can kill a man. The same Drone Planes that now release hundred pound bombs to wipe out complete cars and even buildings in order to get one or two guys, well, these same Drone Planes could release relatively tiny gliders or electric motor model airplanes that could carry simple small-caliber guns or dart shooters that need to be able to fire just one or two shots. These little machines gliding in with the sun behind their backs would be virtually invisible during the day. At night they would be entirely indetectable. They could deliver their deadly sting and then fly back up to latch themselves back upon the Mother Ship. The missile bombs they now use cost tens of thousands of dollars and can be used only once, and innocents more often then not are killed along the way. The Little Sting Model Planes would be cheap, clean and reusable. In a few hours I could draw up plans to build such a thing using common ‘on the shelf’ commercial electronics. And I am not even Japanese!
Just think about it… how much Crime or Terror would we really have to deal with if Criminals and Terrorists could be made to perfectly understand that no retreat would be left for them, no lawyers provided, and no surrenders accepted. Just set up the Algorithm for the Auto-weapons, load up the little machines with their precision bullets or poison darts and turn them loose. They would work even better and be even cheaper to produce if they did not have to be built with an OFF button. Then we would have nothing else to do but await the Golden Age of Universal Peace and Honesty.
As long as you are not a Criminal or a Terrorist you would have nothing to fear.
War has ordinarily been understood to describe hostilities between Nations. Combatants acted with the endorsement of their Country, and it was insisted that they be identified by uniform. Being out of uniform in a combat zone was considered sufficient grounds to be summarily hanged. If Civilians wished to warrant the protections of the Rules of War, then they had to follow their own share of these rules. Simply stated, Civilians were not to participate in the conflict, not even as ‘Resistance Fighters’. Likewise, soldiers could not slip their uniforms and go off and hide, not unless they were careful never to be caught, as their own Side would hang them as deserters, or the Other Side would hang them as spies.
So if War is to be defined by hostilities between States conducted by uniformed personnel, then what is to be made of Wars against, well, private organizations and individuals whose only concession toward wearing uniforms is use ammo belts for carrying their ammo? One would think that the ordinary laws would apply where Mighty Nations were merely going after individuals and, well, Militias, that is Social Clubs with guns. Weapons charges could be pressed against these offenders. There could be conspiracy to murder charges. Treason. Found on foreign soil without the correct travel documents, then these people could even be tried and then hanged for espionage. No one really has to declare ‘War’ against these rag-tags.
But look at the advantages of declaring War! When the Laws apply, then there needs to be some good faith efforts made to arrest the suspects, and almost any ‘collateral damage’ or extraneous casualties would be cause for serious inquiry, demotions and even prosecutions against the offending police officers. But in “War” then suddenly it is okay to target individuals with missile bombs from unmanned airplanes circling miles above. Cars full of people are targeted if they think one important person might be among them. Complete Weddings or Funerals are bombed, destroying entire families, if they suspect their might be one bad Guest. Huge body counts are logged in without inquiry as long as they are all reported as being ‘terrorists’ or ‘combatants’…even when there are dead women and children! No evidence is ever required. And since it is War, all the facts are typically classified anyway. Everything worth knowing becomes “Secret” and so can’t be spoken of. Continuously we hear on the News of the Americans or the Israelis being perfectly willing to submit themselves to Open Public Inquiries except for those pesky concerns for National Security. Now you can only make those kind of dodges if one is at ‘War’. If only Law Enforcement had the same Powers and the same release from any effective regulation or constraint!
Imagine a War on Crime on the same scale as the War on Terror. There would be no more expensive Trials or costly prisons to maintain. Simply drop bombs on all of the suspects.
Oh, wait. In the War on Terrorism they DO in fact take prisoners. They don’t kill everybody… not immediately anyway. Some they keep alive in order to extract information and I suppose they keep others alive in order to encourage the rest to likewise surrender. Its always been part of Military Wisdom to give one’s enemy some other choice besides fighting valiantly to the death. Leave an open line of retreat, or publicize an almost luxurious concern for the welfare and comfort of prisoners, then many a pitched and costly battle can be avoided. Bravery aside, a great many military objectives are willingly traded away if it will make the battles easier and less deadly for the Victors. And so it is with Crime. Retreats are left open, that is, slick lawyers are provided that nearly always provide escape for the Criminals that would otherwise be the most dangerous. And for the rank and file of the common criminals, cozy prisons are promised to those who lay down their arms instead of standing to fight.
Of course, we then have Enemies and Criminals coming back to fight another day.
The problem is probably with Human Soldiers and Human Police with their Human Weaknesses and vulnerabilities. After all, we need to keep in mind that a job is just a job. Soldiers and Cops would naturally hesitate to put themselves into constant danger, and would of course arrive at methods and procedures that would prioritize their own wellbeing, even if such means also served to insulate their enemies from any decisive disposition of their Fate. Given such huge procedural limitations, there can never be any really decisive Battle, where the retreats are all blocked off and the enemy annihilated to the last man…with them shooting back the entire time!
Oh, it is cynical to say so, but maybe both Cops and Soldiers care enough for their own Job Security that they will never seek out any Absolute Victory. They do not want War to end. They do not want Crime to end. It is perhaps like the way that the CIA never captures Bin Laden, so that it can never be argued that the War on Terror has come to an end. They keep the conflict going so they will always have a Job to go to each morning.
The answer to our problem here may consist in automated information gathering, and robotic weapons systems. Identify the enemy. Tag them. Then destroy them. If Human Beings are not assigned the dangerous job of going after the criminals or the enemy, then there is no opportunity for them to shirk their duties in trade for their safety and comfort. Machines would truck on to the end. And Machines never worry about Unemployment.
Yes, they are even now beginning to implement some first stirring of an Automated Weapons System, but it is still so, well, traditional and military – crude and blunt. Huge bombs are used. Its all quite ridiculous’, considering the scale that is used versus the scale that is actually required. One does not need hundreds of pound of high explosives to kill a man. A 22 caliber bullet can kill a man. A micro-dart tipped with a nerve toxin can kill a man. The same Drone Planes that now release hundred pound bombs to wipe out complete cars and even buildings in order to get one or two guys, well, these same Drone Planes could release relatively tiny gliders or electric motor model airplanes that could carry simple small-caliber guns or dart shooters that need to be able to fire just one or two shots. These little machines gliding in with the sun behind their backs would be virtually invisible during the day. At night they would be entirely indetectable. They could deliver their deadly sting and then fly back up to latch themselves back upon the Mother Ship. The missile bombs they now use cost tens of thousands of dollars and can be used only once, and innocents more often then not are killed along the way. The Little Sting Model Planes would be cheap, clean and reusable. In a few hours I could draw up plans to build such a thing using common ‘on the shelf’ commercial electronics. And I am not even Japanese!
Just think about it… how much Crime or Terror would we really have to deal with if Criminals and Terrorists could be made to perfectly understand that no retreat would be left for them, no lawyers provided, and no surrenders accepted. Just set up the Algorithm for the Auto-weapons, load up the little machines with their precision bullets or poison darts and turn them loose. They would work even better and be even cheaper to produce if they did not have to be built with an OFF button. Then we would have nothing else to do but await the Golden Age of Universal Peace and Honesty.
As long as you are not a Criminal or a Terrorist you would have nothing to fear.
Friday, September 4, 2009
Plan To Save the Warming World
So many of the current arguments concerned with Global Warming, as they call it, involve reducing the output of human-generated carbon gases, and other ‘green-house’ gases so that the warming trends will level off before they hit catastrophic proportions. The problem here is that our only prospect forward is being given to us from the eyes of Science which do not look forward at all. Science only looks back at the wake created by our technological world. Science tries to extrapolate where we are going by looking back at where we have been. Yes, it can give us an approximation, a direction. But they have had a problem estimating speed, particularly acceleration. Then there is the matter of all of the time consuming double and triple checking. When they are finally sure enough to predict something, it has already happened!
We read in the Newspapers all the time that the Scientists are surprised by the most recent disappearances of glaciers or arctic ices. It is all moving much faster than Science can track it.
On a personal level, I have had repeated dreams of being in a car that suddenly speeds up so fast that it rushes past turns that I had hoped to make. The speed becomes so great that any deviation from a straight line threatens to put the car totally out of control. This is the present condition of Science and the World. Looking back, they still see technology and industrialization at a manageable pace, but if they were to turn forward, they would see that all of the systematic inertias, momentums and accelerations are already driving the World toward what is almost certainly an inevitable fate. The worst consequences of Global Warming, we should begin to admit to ourselves, are certainly in our near Future.
So should we continue to try to steer back around, to somehow magically re-arrive at a World of the Seventeenth Century, or should we rather look ahead and try to plan for what we can make of our World if we just go straight and try to make the best of it.
First, what is going to happen? Well, the ice caps are going to melt, and very soon… sooner than predicted just as everything has been happening sooner than has been predicted. Also, Weather patterns will change. Southern deserts will expand while there will be a certain Greening of the North. This will be great for Russia and Canada and so don’t expect them to be of much help to the rest of us. They probably couldn’t be happier with their prospects.
But what can we do, the rest of the World? Well, with the Seas rising because of all that melted ice, we will have a lot of water in the Oceans to deal with. And with all of the new deserts, there will be a great need for water on Land.
Hmmmmmm. Are we seeing a trend here?
What we need to consider is not so much averting Global Warming, as engineering the World in order to deal with its consequences. We need to convert salty sea waters into fresh waters and then move it inland. The task is both difficult and easy at the same time. Getting water inland would be a monumentally arduous task, but once it is inland and made an integral part of the environment, in new Rain Forest Growth, and geographical Rain Basins, then it will stay put. Rain Forests, if not chopped down, are largely self-perpetuating. Rain Forests lock in and maintain huge amounts of water and moisture. And trees can store a great deal of carbon.
Can enough water be moved inland to offset the catastrophic rise in the sea levels. Well, yes, if large enough amounts of water can be stored in almost every available space. But even then, it would be wise to build sea walls around important Urban Lowland Areas while all the necessary inland water reservoirs and Rain Basins can be established. These Sea Walls would be a kind of ‘double edged sword’ against the rising seas. You see, these Continental Sea Walls can be made from materials dredged up from the bottom of the Oceans, thus making the Oceans deeper in the process, and if the Oceans can be made to be deeper, then obviously they will not be able to rise quite as high as they would have otherwise.
Much use can be made of water filtration machinery and pipelines. Also, it is ridiculous to allow fresh water rivers to simply empty into the oceans. Once water is fresh, it should be kept fresh. River estuaries should be dammed up and the fresh water should be piped back into reservoirs or the new Rain Forests.
Perhaps more significantly, a great deal of Fresh Water can be generated by actively influencing Coastal Weather patterns that bring storm systems inland. For instance, here’s an idea – hundreds of square miles of black heat-absorbing black foil can be floated out on coastal waters, that would flash evaporate sea water into the atmosphere whenever the sun poked out to shine even for a moment, and the water vapor would rise up to form clouds that would float inland and eventually come down as fresh water rains. Then the streams could be stanched, collected and moved inland.
Perhaps saltwater could directly piped inland, even by hundreds of miles. Then the raw salt water could be run into wide and shallow black bottomed pools, designed to collect the sun’s heat, so again we would have the effect of evaporation and down range rain storms of fresh water. Yes, and so while pipelines will do a great deal of the work in transporting water, we need not underestimate our ability to use the Weather itself to desalinate water and then to transport it, simply by taking advantage of which way the Wind Blows.
Probably the greatest impediment to any effective action is World Democracy, that is, the institutional limitations within the Democratic Decision Making Processes. Whatever the propaganda might be about the Will of the People, and Checks and Balances, actually, the way Democracy really works, when we tabulate all the end results, is to advance the causes of the various Special Interest Groups – to institutionalize and stratify the Wealth of Groups that are wealthy already. Democracy is the Inertia that the Rich apply to keep themselves Rich. Of course, the problem here is that all of the Vested Interests that now exist CAUSED the Global Warming in the first place. There are Billions of Dollars of Oil and Carbon Money available for bribing a World full of Politicians, of every political stripe… they all take bribes… they call it “Campaigning”. But now, this very minute, when we need the entire World to be moving at dizzy speeds toward a Universal Plan for Global Water Engineering, there is not a single penny of Vested Interest money to back up any of it.
I honestly expect that nothing will be done. In fact, as the disasters progress along, there will probably rise up a group of new Special Interests that can make money off of all the tragedies and losses. Politics of the Warm Tomorrow might rise and fall on the Will of the Fat and Thriving Mortuary Industry.
We’ve probably already missed our Turn. And I can’t see anybody willing to spend the money it would take to make a Warm World we can live in.
We read in the Newspapers all the time that the Scientists are surprised by the most recent disappearances of glaciers or arctic ices. It is all moving much faster than Science can track it.
On a personal level, I have had repeated dreams of being in a car that suddenly speeds up so fast that it rushes past turns that I had hoped to make. The speed becomes so great that any deviation from a straight line threatens to put the car totally out of control. This is the present condition of Science and the World. Looking back, they still see technology and industrialization at a manageable pace, but if they were to turn forward, they would see that all of the systematic inertias, momentums and accelerations are already driving the World toward what is almost certainly an inevitable fate. The worst consequences of Global Warming, we should begin to admit to ourselves, are certainly in our near Future.
So should we continue to try to steer back around, to somehow magically re-arrive at a World of the Seventeenth Century, or should we rather look ahead and try to plan for what we can make of our World if we just go straight and try to make the best of it.
First, what is going to happen? Well, the ice caps are going to melt, and very soon… sooner than predicted just as everything has been happening sooner than has been predicted. Also, Weather patterns will change. Southern deserts will expand while there will be a certain Greening of the North. This will be great for Russia and Canada and so don’t expect them to be of much help to the rest of us. They probably couldn’t be happier with their prospects.
But what can we do, the rest of the World? Well, with the Seas rising because of all that melted ice, we will have a lot of water in the Oceans to deal with. And with all of the new deserts, there will be a great need for water on Land.
Hmmmmmm. Are we seeing a trend here?
What we need to consider is not so much averting Global Warming, as engineering the World in order to deal with its consequences. We need to convert salty sea waters into fresh waters and then move it inland. The task is both difficult and easy at the same time. Getting water inland would be a monumentally arduous task, but once it is inland and made an integral part of the environment, in new Rain Forest Growth, and geographical Rain Basins, then it will stay put. Rain Forests, if not chopped down, are largely self-perpetuating. Rain Forests lock in and maintain huge amounts of water and moisture. And trees can store a great deal of carbon.
Can enough water be moved inland to offset the catastrophic rise in the sea levels. Well, yes, if large enough amounts of water can be stored in almost every available space. But even then, it would be wise to build sea walls around important Urban Lowland Areas while all the necessary inland water reservoirs and Rain Basins can be established. These Sea Walls would be a kind of ‘double edged sword’ against the rising seas. You see, these Continental Sea Walls can be made from materials dredged up from the bottom of the Oceans, thus making the Oceans deeper in the process, and if the Oceans can be made to be deeper, then obviously they will not be able to rise quite as high as they would have otherwise.
Much use can be made of water filtration machinery and pipelines. Also, it is ridiculous to allow fresh water rivers to simply empty into the oceans. Once water is fresh, it should be kept fresh. River estuaries should be dammed up and the fresh water should be piped back into reservoirs or the new Rain Forests.
Perhaps more significantly, a great deal of Fresh Water can be generated by actively influencing Coastal Weather patterns that bring storm systems inland. For instance, here’s an idea – hundreds of square miles of black heat-absorbing black foil can be floated out on coastal waters, that would flash evaporate sea water into the atmosphere whenever the sun poked out to shine even for a moment, and the water vapor would rise up to form clouds that would float inland and eventually come down as fresh water rains. Then the streams could be stanched, collected and moved inland.
Perhaps saltwater could directly piped inland, even by hundreds of miles. Then the raw salt water could be run into wide and shallow black bottomed pools, designed to collect the sun’s heat, so again we would have the effect of evaporation and down range rain storms of fresh water. Yes, and so while pipelines will do a great deal of the work in transporting water, we need not underestimate our ability to use the Weather itself to desalinate water and then to transport it, simply by taking advantage of which way the Wind Blows.
Probably the greatest impediment to any effective action is World Democracy, that is, the institutional limitations within the Democratic Decision Making Processes. Whatever the propaganda might be about the Will of the People, and Checks and Balances, actually, the way Democracy really works, when we tabulate all the end results, is to advance the causes of the various Special Interest Groups – to institutionalize and stratify the Wealth of Groups that are wealthy already. Democracy is the Inertia that the Rich apply to keep themselves Rich. Of course, the problem here is that all of the Vested Interests that now exist CAUSED the Global Warming in the first place. There are Billions of Dollars of Oil and Carbon Money available for bribing a World full of Politicians, of every political stripe… they all take bribes… they call it “Campaigning”. But now, this very minute, when we need the entire World to be moving at dizzy speeds toward a Universal Plan for Global Water Engineering, there is not a single penny of Vested Interest money to back up any of it.
I honestly expect that nothing will be done. In fact, as the disasters progress along, there will probably rise up a group of new Special Interests that can make money off of all the tragedies and losses. Politics of the Warm Tomorrow might rise and fall on the Will of the Fat and Thriving Mortuary Industry.
We’ve probably already missed our Turn. And I can’t see anybody willing to spend the money it would take to make a Warm World we can live in.
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