Wars - who are the enemies?

Wars have been disrupting and degrading society while damaging the infrastructure of civilization for millennia. It is one of the deleterious features of the operation of our society. This feature has been fostered by political, religious, racial and social animosity. But it also has also been fostered by those people and concerns that have gained by providing the implements of war and the postwar reconstruction. Ironically, countries and communities that have been bitter enemies at one time have often become friends at a later stage - and vice versa!

Societies have been very adroit in finding enemies (and friends) for a variety of reasons. Yet, ironically, society has never officially declared war on Mother Nature (Gaia) even though they have being do their utmost to ravish her for their selfish purposes for millennia. Money has been the tool for this divestment of the  natural material wealth of humanity's life support system. It has fostered the unsustainable growth of the population of parasitic humans. It has fostered the unsustainable growth of the technological infrastructure of civilization (Tityas) by the irreversible of some of Mother Nature's natural wealth.

But fiat money does not take into account the consequences of the ravishing that it has encouraged. So society will have the pay the price of treating Mother Nature as the enemy. She is slowly responding to the aggression of the parasites and the damage being done by their tools. She will win the undeclared war and the surviving parasites will find it hard to adapt as they lose the capabilities of Tityas (their aging infrastructure.)

A dose of reality every day

Every day:

•  twenty four hours go by as time passes in the natural operational cycles, day/night, summer/autumn/winter/spring.
•  more people are born than die in processes that happen naturally
• all people, organisms and plants age due to irrevocable natural processes
• the inanimate structures of civilization also irrevocably age due to irrevocable natural processes,  largely forms of friction
• so do cars, trucks, ships and airliners as they use up irreplaceable fuel produced from the global store of crude oil for operation
• water recycles naturally through evaporation and precipitation in the hydrological cycle but large amounts are contaminated by industrial processes
• but systems of civilization use up aquifer water (such as the Great Artesian Basin) unsustainably 
• carbohydrates are produced using carbon dioxide in the photosynthesis stage in plants of the natural carbon cycle
• carbon dioxide is produced from carbohydrates in the respiration stage in animals in the natural carbon cycle 
• the carbon cycle was roughly in balance for eons before technological systems started using fossil fuels so now the emission rate is  much greater than the absorption rate
• hydrocarbons are converted in fossil fuel combustion in temporary systems made of irreplaceable materials to increase the level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere sufficiently to change the climate and acidify and warm the ocean unnaturally
• hydrocarbons in fossil fuels are produced naturally at high pressures at such a slow rate that this does not influence the operation of civilization 
• the combustion of coal in aging power plants irreversibly emits gaseous, liquid and particular pollutants contributing to global warming, ocean acidification and harming organisms, including humans
• many millions of barrels of oil out of the crustal store are destroyed in a variety of manners, many of which are not very useful
• nitrogen cycles unnaturally in temporary plants to produce artificial fertilizers and naturally in biological  processes.
• phosphorus is so necessary in food production that its declining availability will increase starvation
• vast amounts of soil nutrients are flushed out from cities to contaminate waters
• all energy flows end up as waste heat after doing useless or useful positive work in natural and technological processes
• various forms of friction do negative work in transforming useful material to irrevocable waste during operations
• but friction also enables birds and airplanes to fly
• hearts pump blood against friction
• unexpected climatic events such as floods, droughts, storms, heat waves, cold spells, wild fires, sea level rise are growing evidence of climate change
• creation of fiat money increases the capability of people to continue their ravishing of the natural life support systems only so long as the value of the money is not irrevocably degraded by continuing inflation 
• society is  beguiled with the temporary availability of all forms of electronic gadgets for business, computing, obtaining information, banking, online shopping, communication and socializing.
• physical scientists continue using the latest technology to advance the frontiers of knowledge of how nature works, so illustrating how little was previously understood, while continuning to not take the impact of fundamentals into account
• social scientists continue to speculate on the behavior of all levels of the human race without understanding the limitations imposed by physical reality

 These activities will continue tomorrow and every day as long as natural forces allow society and its technological infrastructure to get away with freely degrading the eco systems and divesting natural material wealth. Society is so entranced with the power of fiat money that they will continue to ignore physical reality until it is too late to power down comfortably.

Imaginery wealth

Many people in developed countries have seen circumstances make money rapidly for them. They have become wealthy through the creation of fiat money rather than by their know how of physical efforts. Financial commentators argue that the growth of sovereign debt in many countries is a boom that is bound to bust. But the well off in society are living the day with their wealth which, despite the protestations that it is only fiat money, is still able to pay for their desires. It is real wealth as far as they are concerned as they indulge in tours to foreign lands, lapping up the sales that plague TV, live in McMansions, drive SUVs and glorify showing off their high material standard of living. It helps their self esteem to be able to show that they have made it. They do not understand that they are parasites feeding off natural resource
wealth without society paying for it.

Governments do their utmost to foster economic growth as it encourages full employment and their return to lucrative office. Businesses compete in their ability to sell goods and services so as to make money for their managers and shareholders. They build skyscrapers, housing estates, freeways, tunnels and other infrastructure by irrevocably using up limited natural resources.These powerful bodies lead the way in the ravishing of our life support system

Even scientists who strive hard to gain understanding in their particular field are victims of this rapacious disease. Climatologists fly to far off places to make measurements of aspects of climate change they can report on in peer-reviewed papers, so making their own contributions to greenhouse gas emissions! Government specialists fly to conferences so they can convey to like contributors their findings of what is going wrong in their field.

Many informed people know how numerous past civilizations collapsed. The ruins of cities in central America, Asia and the Middle East provide anthropologists with insight into what happened. Some authors have provided sound argument for the demise of our industrialized civilization. But the masses are uninformed and the elite have the irrational belief that the leverage of their money will ease their powering down. So it is still full steam ahead for the vast global population and the operation of the infrastructure it is so dependent on as the cliff gets closer. It is almost as though society is determined to go out with a flourish, the wish of addictives as their demise looms.

The unwinnable war

Centuries ago, human beings declared war on the environment. They decided they would do to the enemy, Nature, what was deemed necessary to ensure that their civilization would progress. They invented weapons, artificial agriculture then industrialization leading to exponential population growth, to improve their fighting ability. They still believe they can win the war simply because of the power of their beloved weapon, fiat money.

The war has not been going well for Nature in recent times. Resource stocks that were built up over eons by hard work of numerous natural forces using energy from the Sun have been devastated by the rampant misuse by the technology devised by humans to provide energy and materials wastefully used. The emptying of the underground stocks of many minerals (including the fossil fuels), the deletion of soil fertility and groundwater, deforestation, desertification, ocean acidification go with the noticeable rapid climate change are just some of the unintended blunders of the ignorant society as it builds up a vast infrastructure that will only temporarily provide the services that humans are now so dependent on.

However, society at large has been duped by the hype of its leaders. It still has the fallacious belief that technology will enable the tackling of emerging problems with the way Nature operates. They have yet to take into account the fact that technology created these problems. Many people will be bewildered as Nature strikes back. Few, even at this stage, understand that climate change is only one of Nature's weapons. Many already have to cope with a food shortage stemming partly from devastation of the environment. They have yet to understand that Nature bats last so the Anthropocene era is drawing to a close with a major dieoff of humans and the certain demolition of the much of the infrastructure of this civilization.

Dichotomy

We have a funny world! It is a dichotomy. On the one hand it is how people think the world operates. It is the anthropocentric view. On the other hand, it is what is really happening in all the operations. That is the realistic view entertained by few humans.Do you find the assertion of a dichotomy confusing? Some examples will help you to understand the difference.

You consider the car as being a convenient form of transport. You buy one if you can afford it and regularly fork out money for fuel. Insurance and maintenance are other outlays. You do this as you welcome the freedom to transport family and friends hither and thither because you have sufficient money. It is a symbol of your success. It helps you to understand the dichotomy to classify this thinking as an example of Myopia.

The other side of the coin about the car can be classified as an example of Real. The car if made of many materials that have been mined. The crustal stores of some of these minerals are running out. Replacing the car in the future will not be as easy as it is today even though some materials will be recycled. The engine of the car irreversibly burns irreplaceable fuel to provide the energy that propels it. Friction is a continuing natural force that ages the engine, the tires, other parts of the car and even the roads that it traverses.That is the reality of what is happening to the car and in its operation. You just take this for granted as you appreciate the convenience of having this convenient means of transportation, except when you are caught up in a traffic jam!

Consider another example - money. Most people work to earn money so they can buy the goods and services they need and want to enable their standard of living. Some are more successful in acquiring this filthy lucre. All have to manage their financial affairs during the booms and busts that characterize the operation of this aspect of Myopia. The powerful in society evoke fiscal and monetary policies to foster the foundation of Myopia, economic growth. Where deemed desirable, they conjure fiat money out of thin air, so degrading the hard-won savings of the masses. Those who become wealthy by fair means or foul have the intangible leverage to invest in means to make more money. This operation of Myopia has been successful for a long time but there are signs that the hallucination is coming to an end in developed countries and the developing countries will follow in due course.

Well-off people are so addicted to using money in the Myopia world that they take many of the Real operations for granted. They organize the construction, operation and maintenance of the infrastructure, from the cities down, (using up limited natural material resources) without taking into account how this infrastructure will be replaced when its time is up because natural forces are aging  it in the Real world. Ironically, people recognize their mortality, due to the way the Real world operates, but they have the hallucination that materialistic civilization can continue to operate on 'hot air'

Another example of how society views operations while having a distorted view of what is really happening is the operation of a city. The population lives in the suburbs in houses they own, are buying under a mortgage or renting. They enjoy the benefits of electricity providing lighting and powering many devices from the TV through to the micro wave although they do not like rising prices for this power and other services like the supply of water. The home is the center of family life: the refuge after a day's work and the commuting to place of employment by car or public transport.  They buy the goods and services they need at local supermarkets if possible. They rely as much as possible on the rule of law to aid social operation and on those, such as the police, who do what they can to uphold it. Schools and universities provide the forums for the formal education of the young  but they also learn much from their peers, parents and the media. The workplace may be an office using electronic equipment manipulate information or in a factory to operate machinery. Or it may be in providing educational, medical, financial or legal services. Or it may be to make the management decisions controlling the operations of a diverse range of organizations from the government cabinet through to small businesses. They do this to earn money to finance their standard of living. That summarizes the Myopic world of the population of a city.

The Real world in the operation of a city goes largely unnoticed by the population at large until something goes wrong. The sewerage system provides what is deemed to be an essential service by disposing of human wastes (containing valuable and irreplaceable nutrients), generally in nearby waters. The operation and maintenance of the systems providing this service is a part of the Real world that is taken for granted until it can no longer meet the demand. The same applies to the supply of electricity, gas, water and other essentials. The population is happy to buy their food from supermarkets, fast food outlets or restaurants without worrying about how it was produced, dealt with and transported to the outlet. Increasing prices due to crop failures brought on by climate change is Myopia's way of handling that Real world predicament for those having sufficient money. The powerful in cities glorify the facilities and buildings that grace the landscape and make policy and financial allowances for their development and maintenance while ignoring that fact that they only temporary denizens of Real.

It is ironical, is it not, that society believes in the operations of Myopia while Real continues to do what it has always done over eons and what it does in the operation of our materialistic civilization. Of course, Real will inevitably win out because it is the operation of natural forces that have been controlling what happens in materialistic operations for eons. Myopia is the hallucination Homo sapiens have believed in only for centuries It has been the basis of their decisions - wise and unwise.

Denis Frith