On the 2nd anniversary of this article concerning the sad state of the human race, I revisit the topic with updated information and new outbreaks of war and genocide!
The State of the Wars Today
History at the beginning of the century seems to be adverse if not hazardous. The 20th century quickly saw relations in Europe deteriorate leading to WWI, after which the economy rebounded to a global financial surge which was rapidly followed by the worst financial depression in modern history. This collapse once again weakened European diplomatic international relationships and lead to WWII and one of the worst acts of genocide ever committed. I say “one of” because, as history has shown, countries are always out to best one another in the category of barbarism and murder. Who is to say that the deaths of 6 million Jews won’t be eclipsed in our lifetimes? C’mon humans, I know you’re good for it! Although World War II was supposed to be the “war to end all wars”, humanity got bored and settled into smaller skirmishes to pass its time. Wars in Korea, Eastern Europe, Africa, Central and South America and the first fully televised war in history, Vietnam, helped countries keep honed at the skills of developing the machinery of death and practicing the art of genocide which has dominantly characterized our species. Finally by the end of the 20th century, war was expanded into the realms of all media including TV broadcast, film, and videogames. During the next 20 years evolving technology would introduce a new player on the field: phone apps. By the beginning of the 21st century we were ready to graduate to larger platforms and greater arenas of interest. The War on Terror provided a staple source of sufficient dread and entertainment, beginning with 9/11. The United State’s involvement in the Middle East lasted almost exactly 20 years and generated a tremendous amount of attention. Broadcast empires got rich, movie studios got rich, software companies got rich, military contractors got rich. And lots more people got dead.
Welcome to “the biz”, that’s the way we roll. In fact, on a planet of 8 billion and growing, human life and the balance of warfare resembles more of a supply-and-demand chain than anything else. These days, war has competition though. Currently a global pandemic and the looming threat of climate change are looking to cut into the ‘industry’ of war. At this point it seems that the Covid-19 virus may be growing less lethal and more mundane, likening itself to an annual booster requirement instead of the havoc wrought by its predecessor the Spanish Flu which killed millions in the last century. If you’re the betting type, the global warming “hoax” is a good investment. Additionally, it should up the ante on conflicts as resource scarcity causes disputes in already struggling nations who are prone to sea level rise and suffer from poor infrastructure and political instability. Don’t discount the fact that several governments are always on the prowl to absorb more of these resources/countries when the opportunity presents itself. “Strike when the iron is hot” as the saying goes. Apparently Emperor Vladimir Putin sees this as his crowning moment to reabsorb Ukraine, a lost state of the former USSR.
During the invasion of Ukraine (aka: the Soviet liberation of Communist sympathizers), Russia consistently pushed back against western portrayals of the conflict as, “propaganda designed to cast them in a bad light”. For example, images of a column of military vehicles headed towards the Ukrainian capital were unsubstantiated and photoshopped images generated by media outlets. The destruction shown of public and domestic buildings were actually acts of sabotage by the Ukrainians themselves in an effort to overplay the “alleged” siege on their country. We are also to believe that reports of Russia jailing protesters and dissenters of the invasion are completely unfounded, in actuality very few in Russia oppose Putin’s decisions or motives. The west needs to recognize that Ukraine was and always will be part of Russia, they had been allowed to stray for too long but when they are reunited with the Motherland they will see the error of their ways. Putin’s recent sweeping re-election is proof that his country supports his leadership without question. The reunification of the Soviet states will soon be followed by China’s reunification with Taiwan and North Korea and South Korea seeing their country restored to its former glory as simply Korea.
One thing that has radically changed about how everything is interpreted and understood in this new century is that media consumption has evolved to encompass almost every aspect of consumer’s daily lives. For those living in first-world countries with all the amenities that technology affords, communications invades and permeates every aspect of their daily lives. In addition to the ubiquitous smartphone, sync that with a smartwatch. If you have a newer vehicle then your phone can be synced to the touchscreen interfaces so it is possible to drive without missing a beat on your favorite apps. Which brings us to another subject, the world of social media which is a world unto itself. The evolution of the developing metaverse subverts the outside real world by replacing it with a digital doppleganger world which they can be manipulated into whatever we want. America already has its own political movement fashioned after a proposed and ever-evolving digital metaverse where nothing in the real world is what it seems. I am of course referring to the phenomenon of QAnon. Not surprisingly, the QAnon universe closely mirrors that of countries such as China, Russia and North Korea who claim that the media is incorrect most if not all of the time. They also claim that their world views are justified because of secret societies and cabals of elites (the dark web, secret government organizations) trying to bring nations and governments down. Authoritarian regimes always paint themselves as the victims while maintaining strict control over information and media. They engage in these practices while engaging in alarming instances of human rights violations and a pretty decent share of shady operations themselves. With all of the technology available today it is too easy to manipulate images, articles, and even history. That’s one of the advantages offered by escaping into a fabricated digital world that caters to your own personal whims. But why stop there? One up the game and manipulate information in the real world. Any pushback can simply be chalked up to the “liberal media” as fake news. During the past two years a new threat has burst onto the scene: Artificial Intelligence. Granted that AI is in its infancy stage but as experts have warned it will learn exponentially and in 10 years or less we could have Skynet unleashing its army of cyborgs! The possibility that AI could actually outdo the human race in terms of committing mass murder is somewhat mind boggling. We’ve been at it for tens of thousands of years and a machine is going to best us in 10? Inconceivable!
“Do as we say, not as we do”
For a country that has invested so much of its history in war and influencing the outcomes of other countries affairs, the U.S. comes off as pretty arrogant sometimes. Its citizens, who largely supported a 20 year campaign in the Middle East and then cut-and-run after it was glaringly apparent that things were not going their way, are now more than willing to stick their noses in business being conducted thousands of miles away. However, ironically, the American government does not see it fit to put “boots on the ground” in Ukraine because the bottom line is that it could provoke WWIII? What happened? Where was this temerity 20 years ago when the U.S. invaded Iraq on the pretense of “weapons of mass destruction”? We all know that Russia DOES have WMD’s and our 45th President was so in awe of his prestige that he decided that cozying up to him was a better strategy than punishment for meddling in our elections! The saying “politics makes strange bedfellows” is a time honored and true saying indeed. Essentially, because Russia has almost as big a “stick” as the U.S. we won’t actively go to war if there is a risk of them getting directly involved. No one was going to have Iraq or Afghanistan’s backs when the tanks and bombers rolled into their territories. That’s just global politics. The media, government and other countries of NATO and the United Nations will just use most invasions to foment concern, panic, and most importantly the bottom line of how it will affect the global economy. And that is the end all be all of the world we live in. For Americans, fuel and resource shortages will prompt more inflation increasing the already stunted supply line due to the fake pandemic. And it’s all because Joe Biden stole the election! Why? Because “Q” and Donald Trump said so!
Fast forward to 2024 and now another player has entered the game: Israel vs Palestine. I suppose “entered the game” is more of a rhetorical declaration. Round one million of the never-ending death match that is the Jews vs the Muslims. In a conflict that has raged for longer than anyone cares to remember, modern-day Israel has once again engaged in conflict with their nemesis Palestine to “push them to the sea” (it could also work the other way around). We’ve all heard this before and realize that it will result in the deaths of thousands if not millions of innocent civilians over the Pyrrhic symbology of denying the Jewish state. At the same time you have Hamas claiming that no matter what happens in the current day conflict they will never surrender their goal of seeing Israel “annihilated”. So if you are looking for a progressive takeaway then you best look elsewhere. What you get in 2024 is the same rhetoric and action that has characterized this conflict always: no end in sight. As usual, it is a lose/lose for all humanity.
But 2024 has been an extraordinarily active year for uprisings and violence. According to worldpopulationreview.com there are currently 39 violent conflicts taking place at this time. Haiti has recently turned heads with their near anarchistic state following the leader of the country being refused access. It seems like we have decided to make up for a lack of a global conflict with a historic number of varied civil wars and border conflicts. Not to be outdone, America has thrown their hat in the ring with a specific faction of political followers (read: MAGA supporters) declaring that if their candidate does not get elected President of the United States then there must be a civil war to restore the political integrity of the country. If this seems a hollow threat then you only need to look to the “peaceful protests” of January 6, 2021 as an indication of what certain groups of concerned citizens are willing to do to support a fraudulent leader/ cult figure. Since this is obviously a Presidential election year and given the conscientiousness that has followed the past two cycles there is no doubt that the result of November 5th will attract the attention of the entire world. If you want my opinions on what civil war would mean in 2024 then you can read my most recent post on Trump.
Homo non-sapiens
If you look at world history, it’s really just a pattern of repeating cycles, cycles of violence and suffering. The 20th century began and ended with war, suffering and staggering advances in technology that human beings struggled to adapt to and control. The 21st century is eerily mirroring many of the same events, right down to the outbreak of a global pandemic in the first few decades. The dawn of the atomic age saw the introduction of the “doomsday clock” which portended the end of all we know as a result of human-caused armageddon. By the end of the last century it was thought that we had moved farther away from this possibility with some experts even declaring that the notion should be abandoned. Never discount fickle humanity and their propensity for ego over compassion; here we go again. If there is any point to this rambling diatribe it is that everything changes but nothing changes at all. We’ve been here before at multiple points of history only to repeat our same mistakes. There were two world wars within 40 years of one another after which we declared that the human race had made great progress. In reality we had just invented another way to destroy ourselves: the atomic bomb. The only reason we have staved off another world war is that thermonuclear weapons are a level of warfare that threatens more than simply cities and countries but the environment of the entire planet. Truth be told, we are still struggling to define who we are as a species. Human beings still view one another as individual races and distinct genders, some which remain undefined or forbidden in many cultures. However we’re also quickly recognizing the fact that we have made our only habitation more and more hostile to life. The 21st century will once again challenge the assumption of homo sapiens as “intelligent life”. Can we make it to the 22nd century or will our never-ending demand on resources and disposition for violence bring an end to this experiment in a cosmic petri-dish? Might we live to see our own creations bring the end to human beings in favor of cybernetic enhanced intelligence? It sounded like sci-fi not long ago but most of us have lived long enough to see fiction become reality. If what we create is truly a reflection of who we are then we probably don’t want to sit for the rest of this reality show.
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