Waste AM

Man going over the cliff with his fragile craft

with the wings flapping, and the man flapping the wings.

The wind’s in his face, the poor fool thinks he’s flying!

But in fact, he’s in free fall.

He just doesn’t know it

because the ground is so far away…

The high cliff represents the ALMOST unlimited resources we seem to think we have at the beginning of the journey before our craft takes flight.

Of course the craft isn’t going to fly; we’re taking a running jump right over the cliff face in a craft subject to gravity that isn’t built according to the laws of aerodynamics.

Our civilisation isn’t flying because it’s not built for civilisations that would fly.

The ground is still a long way away, but is coming up faster with ever wasteful technologies.Some people have seen the ground sooner than the rest of us. The visionaries have seen it, and they’ve been warning us that it’s coming.

There’s not a single scientific paper published in the last twenty-five years to contradict this scenario. Every living system belonging to Earth is in decline. Every life support system is in decline. The sum of all these suffocating parts constitutes the biosphere, the biosphere that supports and nurtures all of life, not just our life, but more than 30 million other species that share this planet with us.

The typical company of the 20th 21st-century is a extractive, wasteful, and linear in all of its processes. It leeches from the Earth, wasting its products, spewing them into the biosphere, or wasting them in landfill.

And what remains is a terrible legacy of poison and diminishment for our children or our children’s children. Some people have called this generational tyranny – a form of taxation without representation whereby we decimate future generations through our brainwashed actions in the present, animated by the puppet strings of corporate greed.

Riding an air current of ignorance and denial – it really is exhilarating to fly. As long as we don’t look down we need not anticipate our fate, and the wreckage it will leave in its wake.

My blog has become an entity, a place. A little community of people passing through who share the same concerns.

Most of the passerby are silent – it isn’t a very chatty blog. Often it’s just Stephen and me talking to each other in the comment section.

While most of the writing on this site is my own, I see the blog itself as a collaborative effort. It’s nice whenever somebody engages and leaves a comment. I don’t always reply but I remember you and begin to construct an idea of you as a person.

In thanks for your collaboration, I dedicate this post to my regular visitors – lovely Sooz, kindred spirit Jennifer, and industry man Peter  You transform this blog into a place to share ideas and values; and your presence helps turn a fixation (with blogging) into a justifiable hobby.

And then there’s Stephen…

• He comments on every post, he even has his own series of posts about our Rotten Society
• He visits the sites of my other commentors and goes to their sites and leaves comments
• He roams the internet finding and sharing obscure links about environmental atrocities

• He ceaselessly campaigns about all kinds of environmental issues
• He makes liberal! use of the exclamation mark

There’s a funny story about how Stephen became associated with wasteAM. I wrote a post disagreeing with ‘the armagedonist attitude of over-population campaigners’ and singled out one of Stephen’s comments I’d read on another website to argue my point.

When Stephen and his partner Bev became aware of my post they left comments that sought to bring me round to their point of view – to convince me of the peril we face.

Stephen uses an audio recorder to transcribe his comments, and at that time I don’t think it worked very well. I remember seeing all these really long comments with loads of spelling mistakes and thought he and Bev were absolute nutters! I thought they must be from another country there were so many errors. (As an ex-student of literature I read too much into this kind of thing)

I think they were the first people to ever comment, and as much as I was elated to be receiving comments, I did wonder what I’d got myself into.

Over time we just got to know each other through the comment section. If you’re wondering, we have never met in real life.

And the funny this is, in the end, he succeeded in bringing me round to his point of view. I would write a very different post on over-population now.

So I wanted to say…

Thank you Stephen. I’ve learnt so much from you.

The Power Structure, Part One of Our Rotten Society, a Series by Stephen

An honest evaluation, with no preconceptions, and no holds barred, looking into our rotten society. Critiquing the all-pervading denial and indoctrination that inculcate our wasteful existences, and suppress the good buried deep inside.

Creating the Monster

Historical anthropology traces mankind’s encroaching progress from a cohabitant species to a dominant species. What brought about this transition? And why has it been so destructive?

Sociopathic Leaders:

Since time immemorial there have been rulers and leaders in any given society upholding positions of power over the weak and perceived ‘less worthy’ whom they exploit for profit. Examples of such leaders include: ‘Alexander the great’, Emperor Nero, ‘William the Conqueror’ Genghis Khan, Adolf Hitler, and Rupert Murdoch, to name but a few.

In our own land which is nowadays called Britain, from the Mercians to the Iceni, and beyond in a never-ending pageant of dictatorial thugs and downright criminals, right up to the present day ruling class, the masses have been controlled by a smaller, power-crazed subsection of society.

The power bases are continually seeking to extend their controlling influence, through either annihilation or assimilation of neighbouring regions or nations. Even in our own time battles continue to be fought for the gain of rulers by the unfortunate people beneath them.

Were it not for sociopathic leaders, millions upon millions of people would not have been treated as cannon fodder in trench warfare, for no more valid reason than to satisfy the blood lust of a few generals, and undemocratic leaders. It is always the ordinary people, following like sheep, who go to war on behalf of the people barking commands from their nuclear bunkers. These sociopaths have an aptitude for manipulation, and churn out phrases such as ‘it’s your patriotic duty to die for your country.’ In more recent years, the rhetoric is to go to war for democracy/peace.

Such power grabs by monomaniacal rulers have happened everywhere inhabited by mankind. The modern word for an individual who exhibits such a lust and facility for domination – who exists at the top of the chain, calling all the shots – is ‘sociopath’.

Profile of a sociopath (full definitions here):

• Manipulative and Conning
• Grandiose Sense of Self
• Pathological Lying
• Lack of Remorse, Shame or Guilt
• Shallow Emotions
• Incapacity for Love
• Need for Stimulation
• Callousness/Lack of Empathy
• Poor Behavioural Controls/Impulsive Nature
• Early Behaviour Problems/Juvenile Delinquency
• Irresponsibility/Unreliability
• Promiscuous Sexual Behaviour /Infidelity
• Lack of Realistic Life Plan/Parasitic Lifestyle
• Criminal or Entrepreneurial Versatility.

One hasn’t got to demonstrate all these traits to be classified as a sociopath, but to exhibit most of these social markers would mean one is classifiable as a ‘sociopath’.  (And obviously not all sociopaths are in positions of power!)

But it would seem such ruthless characteristics enable one to prosper in society. The similarities between sociopaths and political movers and shakers is markedly apparent when a mere moment is spent reflecting upon politics in general, and the decisions our political leaders make on our behalf.

Sociopaths can’t help it!

Indeed, it is unsurprising, even, that those whom elbow their way into positions of power have sociopathic tendencies. This is because their thirst for the acquisition of power and the drive to dominate others is for them a compelling impulse. They seek out positions where they can exert their authority and dominate others – whereas to people who lack the same controlling impulse, such roles are unattractive propositions.

Of course, the problem is that the controlling, leaderly characteristics of the people who have trampled their way to the top come bound up with negative sociopathic traits, which are incompatible with fair and just decision making.