Descend into the Maelstrom

Let’s assume there is a God.  And He or She has recently given Mankind the technology and knowledge to quickly wipe ourselves off of the planet in the form of various WMD’s- chemical, biological, and especially nuclear.  Because it took us a while to figure out the science, it’s a recent phenomenon, which is why I feel that the last few generations of humankind have come to a real crossroads in history.  Although many people in America are scared or outraged when they hear about nukes in the hands of North Korea or Iran or terrorists, America has been the largest proliferator, and still the only country to use them.  We set an excellent example for everyone else to follow.   

Man’s hunger for advances in WMD technology often makes me wonder, were we always meant to wipe ourselves off the planet?  Was that the ultimate purpose for our creation?  Or (a more entertaining theory), are we a little experiment in God’s petri dish?  Did he buy us a shiny new bike, and after a while take off the training wheels and brakes to see what will happen when we end up in traffic? 

Of course, extinction is nothing new, and you could argue it is a natural part of life just as death is.  But unlike other species that went extinct, such as the dinosaurs and the dodo, to my knowledge human beings are the first species to ever exist that could bring about our own extinction by our own deliberate activities.  We don’t need to wait for the apocalyptic meteor that took the dinosaurs out after 65 million years of life, or a species-clearing pandemic.  Instead we could just commit collective suicide. 

We, with pea-brained talk about being created in God’s image, as the only animal able to think rationally, having higher philosophical thought processes, and being able to build stuff and fly around on aircraft, have lulled ourselves into some delusion that we are the best thing to happen to the world since before we created Apple Pie.  We think we are God’s gift to the universe. 

We need to get off our high horse, and forget for a second what our religions taught us.  I would argue that we are inferior so far, even that we are the lowliest of creatures.  I don’t believe in the Devil, but if there is one, it’s far more likely that we are his kids, not God’s.  The real Axis of Evil is not Iran, Iraq, and North Korea; it is all 6 billion humans roaming the earth, destroying the earth and thinking up ways to colonize space so we can fuck that up too.

In only some thousand years of existence, we have turned into an increasingly bad infection, ruining the earth’s natural systems so rapidly and convincingly that we are even scaring ourselves into worrying about global warming because it affects our survival as a species.  Al Gore is reduced to showing maps of Mickey Mouse’s home state under flood water, scary images of third-world refugees running around, and a discussion of economic consequences and national security to get complacent people to even watch his movie about global warming. Unfortunately, that’s what it takes because we don’t even pretend to care about other species or entire ecosystems that we are destroying at such a rapid pace.

People who think of themselves as "morally upright," like I do, are just as bad as anyone else.  I will personally account for many tons of trash, greenhouse gas emissions, toxic waste, torture and violence against people, animals and plants, and many other depressing consequences simply from being a worker, consumer and taxpayer of the modern age.  It is unavoidable.  To escape the system, one would have to live in the rough without electricity, communications, or other products made using artificially created materials.  But not all of us can be Ralph Waldo Emerson.

I have written and talked about this before, so bear with me if it sounds familiar.  I don’t have much confidence in man’s ability to control the weapons at his disposal.  I believe things will continue to get increasingly chaotic in the world, leading to a larger likelihood as time goes on of our own destruction.  The question is, should we have enough faith in humanity that when our moment of truth comes, when there is another Cuban Missile Crisis on a larger scale with far more advanced weapons, that humanity will be able to step back, rise above the chaos, and save itself?  And do it again the next time?  And the time after that?         

Ex-House Republican Mark Foley gets caught doing all sorts of lewd things with male Congressional pages who are probably under the age of 16.  Several feelings welled up inside me: disgust at his actions, pleasure that he lost his seat, hope that this would help Democrats take the House back.  But there was one feeling I felt more than anything else, by far.  Cynicism, and hopelessly large doses of it.  I became cynical about Foley, about Congress, about government in general.  Let me just give you a taste of the depressing thoughts I began thinking as a result of this Foley asshole.

* I wasn’t even suprised.  Were you??? With dozens of Republicans and Democrats involved in all sorts of scandals and crimes, some of them involving the tangled web of Jack Abramoff, I’ve become so cynical that I’ve come to suspect most of these guys are molesting teenage boys when they’re not engaging in corruption.  The Catholic Priesthood and American corporate CEO’s don’t have a monopoly on the abuse of ultimate trust and power, do they?

* I truly believe that the current administration stole the last two presidential elections- particularly Florida in 2000 and Ohio in 2004.  The electoral system is Bush-league (pun intended).  Hanging chads, uncounted provisional votes, standing in line for 6 hours, and wildly inconsistent voting technology from county to county: we’re  trying to encourage democracy in the Middle East but we can’t even get it right ourselves?  I went to vote two weeks ago and had ZERO confidence that the crappy old 1960s-era voting machine I used in the East Village would record my vote properly.  Why the f*** isn’t there one, nationally consistent, centrally administered electronic voting system?  Tell me one good reason.  To follow the line of reasoning which I’ve outlined here is to believe that we are functioning under an illegitimate government.  With Senator Kerry giving Bush the Skull and Bones handshake all the way back to Massachussets.

* I am certain Foley’s fellow Republicans are lying when they say they did not have prior knowledge of his escapades.  It is not a far stretch to believe that political machinations are more important to these slimeballs than protecting the young people who come to work in Congress, bright-eyed and fresh-faced to learn about how our great government works in the City that Washington and Lincoln built.

* Thanks to our government, our civil liberties and those of prisoners from foreign countries are eroding before our eyes, under the pretext of making us safer.  Torture at Abu Ghraib, secret torture prisons, indefinite detention without trial at Guantanamo, wiretapping without a warrant, and cold-blooded murders of civilians by half-crazed US soldiers, when they’re not dropping like flies in the Iraqi wasteland.  These have all become part of our not-so-shocking American reality.  Just a few years ago, wouldn’t all of this have seemed extreme and authoritarian?  And there are fools out there who would claim that they don’t understand why foreigners hate us?  I have become cynical about the collective IQ of our nation.  We’re idiots, and we’re making things worse.  With my taxpayer dollars, goddammit.

* DOES ANYTHING I’M WRITING HERE MATTER ANYWAY? My cynicism about the citizenry is the most depressing of all.  The media presents a watered-down, corporation-controlled, special-interest pandering version of government news hidden deep on page 12, behind coverage of celebrity gossip and human-interest bullshit.  Most people don’t read even this lame offering about politics.  Those who do, don’t seem to care too much.  The ones who care, like me, feel powerless because there are so few who (a) know what’s going on in our government and (b) care.

Our best people are clearly not in charge.  If the morons in charge right now are the best we have to offer as our leaders, we’re in serious trouble.  What’s that you say?  I’m not doing anything about it?  At least I’m writing this goddamn blog.