Gaia will adjust -- but we may be in the way

Indicators of Political Will, Remedial and Coping Capacity? (Part #10)

---

[Parts: First | Prev | All] [Links: To-K | From-K | From-Kx | Refs ]

---

The argument above suggests that despair is warranted with respect to the future of the planet. It is strange that neither despair nor hope feature in the models assiduously designed to foresee that future, as can be explored (Implication of Personal Despair in Planetary Despair: avoiding entrapment in hopeful anticipation, 2010). Speculating further, and with "depression" a term common to both the personal condition and planetary weather, there is a case for exploring their interplay as assiduously as do meteorologists with respect to climate change. Is there a system of psychosocial cyclones and anticyclones meriting attention?

The future can however be understood otherwise. From a more general perspective -- a univeral perspective (?) -- there is no problem, as ETs might affirm. However, from the perspective of humanity, there is the question whether the failure to understand how it is part of the problem is an indication of an inability to comprehend the nature of the solution required -- and why Earth has seemingly not been a destination of choice for ETs (Earth as a Shithole Planet -- from a Universal Perspective? Understanding why there are no extraterrestrial visitors, 2018).

The deathly silence at this time of philosphers, and those with a meta-perspective, is remarkable. As articulated by Gregory Bateson: The pattern which connects is a meta-pattern. It is a pattern of patterns. It is that meta-pattern which defines the vast generalization that, indeed, it is patterns which connect (Mind and Nature: a necessary unity, 1979). To which he added in a much-cited phrase: Break the pattern which connects the items of learning and you necessarily destroy all quality. There is no lack of evidence that quality is being systematically eroded.

As a complex system, however, the planet will indeed adjust to rising temperatures, environmental pollution, the extinction of species, restricted availability of freshwater, loss of fertile arable land, desertification, and the like. The planet has seen "worse", but as a system other conditions will indeed be viable for some species -- which may well thrive (notably bacteria fatal to humans).

The question for humanity is the place it may be obliged to occupy in the new context -- if indeed the environment will permit the survival of some, if not many.

Curiously it could be concluded that humanity does not collectively need to "do" anything -- let alone "act now". A French political adage of Count Charles de Montalembert (1810-1870) could be appropriately adapted to read: You may indeed choose not to bother with the environment, but the environment will nevertheless take care of you. (original: Vous avez beau ne pas vous occuper de politique, la politique s'occupe de vous tout de même). The question is the nature of that "care".

Understood in this way, any concern with ungovernability (as highlighted above) can be set aside. Civilization has many processes in place which will drive "adjustment" by the environment without calling upon remedial capacity or political will -- or remedial intervention of any kind. The divisive dynamics of the social system, in conjunction with enviromental processes, can be relied upon without any need for humanity to "get its act together".

Examples include:

• overshoot with respect to availability of resources on which human survival is dependent (Checklist of Peak Experiences Challenging Humanity, 2008)
• reduction of the population as a consequence of production, marketing and consumption of substances which will prove to be toxic, cancerogenic or engendering infertility in the shorter or longer term -- a confluence of processes sustained by business-as-usual and perceived economic dependence on consumerism and growth at any cost
• widespread violent unrest as a consequence of increased inequality -- potentially associated with a variety of forms of genocide as different segments are framed as blameworthy
• implementation of ill-conceived remedies engendering highly problematic side-effects, most obviously in the form of geo-engineering
• increasing levels of despair provoking far higher levels of suicide

Curiously the ongoing adaptation by humanity to global crisis bears comparison with a form of regression "back to the Stone Age". This is already evident in the manner in which the deprecated conditions of developing countries are now engendered within developed countries, most obviously in the form of extensive slums and "no-go areas" controlled by gangs. There is a strange irony to the manner in which local "gangs" are now engendered -- to be compared with the local "community initiatives" so widely promoted as desirable alternatives to other modes of orgaization (George Kent, Can Flourishing Communities Fix the World? Transcend Media Service, 21 Oct 2019).

The chaotically irrational processes of democratic debate already bear increasing resemblance to the behaviour of competing tribes of monkeys -- as depicted by Banksy below. In that sense the environment is engendering behavioural functions to replace those lost through the exitinction of species in the wild. The systemic functions of prehistoric megafauna are already well in evidence (Systemic Biomimicry of Dinosaurs by Multinational Corporations: clearing the ground for future psychosocial evolution, 2011).

Human devolution? as suggested by a Banksy painting titled Devolved Parliament

Banksy painting of MPs as chimpanzees sells for £9.9m (BBC News, 4 October 2019) Banksy: Devolved Parliament back on show at Bristol Museum (BBC News, 28 March 2019)

In terms of the uncreative stasis patiently cultivated by religions, the biblical insight that the meek shall inherit the Earth merits particular reflection in the light of the levels of fatal disease foreseen by the above-mentioned report to the Pentagon (2019). It could be argued, especially in the light of ever-increasing resistance to antibiotics, that it is the bacteria and viruses which will inherit the Earth. Indeed it could be said that the "meek are getting ready". This suggests an urgent precautionary investment in the the possibility of transferring human memes to the smaller species as "carriers" -- namely to those most likely to survive (cockroaches, rats, etc), as a means of ensuring preservation of the human cultural heritage.

---

[Parts: First | Prev | All] [Links: To-K | From-K | From-Kx | Refs ]