I think it is becoming clear that neither activism nor glossy fundraising campaigns are going to save the day for us. We are at an epochal point in history where nothing less than a new world order, introduced by a global revolution, will do the trick. We are at the cross-over from the Era of Abundance and Growth to the Age of Depletion and Regression.
Although I still might need to point to the first manifestations of this new age – that is if you are one of those ostrich type hiding your head in the sand to escape reality – within 10 to 20 years it will become part of your miserable, everyday existence. I am not going to repeat a summary of the present scenario and try and proof the truth of what I’m saying. Maybe 50-years back it might have been necessary for me to try and convince you. Today you ought to be able to think for yourself.
We have reached the pinnacle of human development and – if we can still refer to it as such – human civilization. The parabolical curve has reached the top where it is hovering on the edge of an abyss. We have come through a period of exponential growth in every sphere of human existence and endeavour. In the process we have lost sight of what we are and where we are. We have squandered the opportunities we had to prevent the next phase – the Age of Depletion and Regression. At this stage the best we can do, is to soften the blow and level out the fall.
Unfortunately, leaving our comfort zones and implementing political strategies to prevent this calamity will no longer do the job. We need a revolution, a new world order – a new kind of humanity. Our problems is not the one dimensional, environmental problem we would like to make it out to be. It includes all aspects of human existence of which over-population is not the least. If global warming, for instance, was the only crisis we had to deal with, we could have tried to cruise to a point in the near future when oil, gas and charcoal shall be depleted. If nothing else, it would mean the end of greenhouse gases. But will that then be the end of all our problems? No, most certainly not.
The new world order will not be the product of a ‘carefully planned and executed re-positioning in the marketplace’ or a ‘slight shift in the focus of our policies’. No, a global revolution that demolishes our total frame of reference, our present value systems and our false self-image.
A new value system in which nature and the environment supersedes mankind in importance – in which the ecological health of the adjacent pond or creak is more important than your wife or your child’s life or happiness. Not human life but environment is the prime consideration, not ‘growth’ but sustaining a drastic reduced human population. If this means the extinction of large numbers of people, so be it. The Law of Nature prescribes that it is now a matter of killing-off 4 billion so that the remainder can live.
Not growth and economic prosperity at whatever costs, but only to the extent that it has no impact on the environment. If this means the closure of large industries because they can not make the mark, so be it. If it means the loss of hundreds of thousands of jobs, causing those affected to perish, that is the reality that you and I have brought over them.
This is reality. I may be wrong in the sense that we are dealing here with a phenomena which would have occurred notwithstanding anything we have done or failed to do. It might be the manifestations of a recurring, macro Cycle of Life. Babies and celestial stars are born, grow-up, age and then die. Eco-systems originate, develop and are destroyed only for new ones to develop in their place. The same with Man: He is born, develops up to a crescendo and thereafter rapidly regresses to the very point from which he had departed – to create space for ‘a next generation’? May this possibly be the explanation for Von Danniken’s ‘god’s’ or ancient mythology as explained by Zecharia Sitchin? (This is however a long story for another time).
This alternative however offers no escape. We remain in charge of our own destiny. We are left with the most fearsome of choices and solutions.
J.C.Grobler.
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