MHEM
To Join or Not To Join the Modern Human Extinction Movement
Inquiring minds want to know (and not believe)
So, could you, should you join the Modern Human Extinction Movement? First, know that MHEM is apolitical. No politician nor anyone recently engaged in political activity (e.g. environmentalists) can join. If you believe in political solutions, you can call yourself an MHEM supporter, but you will not be.
We will consider policies that limit human demands on Nature’s resources, but the condition of being a political animal is non-viable, a pathological condition we cannot support (those afflicted we can but pity in all due compassion).
Modern humans cannot find a common ground within politics. We of MHEM may beg to differ with one another, but we find common ground in acknowledging that we are Modern humans and that there is an Anthropocene mass extinction event (whether good or bad is not certain, is a socially constructed narrative).
Not unlike Alcoholics Anonymous members, MHEM Or-not supporters will meet’n greet by acknowledging that they are denormalized humans, e.g. “My name is _____, and I’m a Modern human,” which is short for “I am a product of an expansionist monetary culture and form of civilization that is not remotely viable long term due to a blend of ecological overshoot, density overshoot, complexity overshoot, and psychosocial cognitive/cultural/civilizational overshoot that selects for a loss of functional behaviors, individual and collective, for a behavioral sink that leads to extinction (e.g. to a humans of NIMH condition — to death squared)”.
Political ideology is a subset of human centrism, human exceptionalism, and in more general terms we Or-nots cannot view belief-based assertions as a way of knowing/understanding the nature of things (systems). We foundationally understand that we are modernized humans, domesticated to serve technology and ideology, who are not remotely normal animals, anymore that our 41 and counting animal domesticants. We merely have the distinction of being the first domesticant.
We note that the alternative to believing, to claiming certainty in knowing, is not knowing, a condition that enables inquiry. When the believing mind goes quiet, the mind doesn’t wither away, curl up and die. The mind is not turned one into a comatose, vegetative being. What manifests instead appears to be a default condition, that of unknowing and inquiry unto death (listening and learning).
Prior to the dominance of political control systems, early modern society was dominated by religious control systems, e.g. the Holy Roman Empire that arose in 800 CE with Charlemagne, who stumbled as first emperor, but the Holy Roman Empire (that was neither holy, Roman, nor and empire) dominated affairs of state/principalities for centuries, to weaken and effectively dissolve post-industrial revolution in 1806.
As we MHEM are unable to believe in belief, religious ideology in all forms is also viewed as a social pathology of overcomplex society. Religious inquiry, however, may be a need for many, and MHEM, as a non-ideological culture based on inquiry (non-belief-based cognition) readily combines all forms of inquiry with an all consuming doubt of all claims (beliefs). If you are a true believer, you will shop for certitudes apart from MHEM — you cannot choose not to.
To be MHEM, you need believe nothing and couldn’t if you tried. There are no calls to action, as being apolitical excludes doing so. As a product of Modern Techno-Industrial society, you cannot be MHEM and deny your condition as a denormalized form of animal (whether proud of it or not). Our modern form of expansionist human has been millennia (about 75k years) in the making.
No one who would endeavor to can renormalize in a mere lifetime, but if each generation succeeds in helping their children be less denormalized humans of NIMH domesicants, then in perhaps as little as 8–20 generations a transitional form of civilization (Civ4) could made irreversible, incremental steps towards a viable form of civilization (Civ5).
anti-human E.O. Wilson who advocated for merely a Half Earth for humanity.
The EOs came to accept the term but translated it as ‘ecolate ones’.
Civ 4.x would be transitional, likely taking 8–20 generations by following the prime directive:
each generation must objectively become more functional than the last to become Civ 5.0
containing humans who can understand the planet and live with it properly (to persist).
It’s been a long way up as it will be down, see full graph.
Listening to primate prattle differs irreconcilably from listening to Nature who has all the answers. To the extent that you listen to Nature, you cease to be a modern human. To know thyself as a modern domesicant, as obligate expansionist empowered by a fatal dose of hubris, is to become MHEM.
The recognition that you are a modern human, an Anthropocene enthusiast (Or-nots are less enthusiastic than Hypers), has only one determinant outcome — your enthusiasm (and hubris Lord Manism) will diminish. The recognition that the end of all of our empire building, including narrative empire building, is extinction will dim your enthusiasm for making money, building ruins, achieving social approbation, focusing on “what’s the buzz” prattle, or serving a form of civilization that is not remotely sustainable.
If saving the world (biosphere and maybe the cosmos if moderns become Borg-like galactic expansionists) from modern humans (to iterate towards a planet posterity could live on) seems sane, then coming to know thyself by listening to the still small voice of data (what’s in front of your pug-nosed primate face) is a condition that will come. If it doesn’t, you’re not listening.
The believing mind is one that would rather believe that know. If you, by no intent or choice of your own, find that your mind would rather know than believe, even at risk of being put to death, then you may be a MHEM.
If you self-assess to be Or-not, then expect your enthusiasm for the Anthropocene to diminish. Likely no one you know, including family, will share your existential concerns for modern humans and the biosphere. You may be tempted to associate with others who also self-assess to be MHEM supporters who would know themselves (it follows from ”world rather know than…”) as moderns.
The idea of questioning the modern form of civilization (worldview/mindset/culture) cannot be spread unless the intelligentsia (thought leaders from tavern talkers to NYT’s best selling authors) view a message to humanity as coming from a group (as distinct from an individual on a soapbox wearing a tinfoil hat or small group of same).
VHEMT was given consideration by mainstream media when they were perceived as having a significant number of supporters. Having 50k followers on Facebook is evidence of support, so MHEM has a Facebook page for no good reason other than perhaps getting enough followers to be considered a point of view journalists could/should consider covering. The assumption is that radical self-honesty can be a source of change at the individual to civilizational level, and if enough modern humans can question their normality, then change at a sub-collective level becomes possible. The number of those who would renormalize may be a small fraction of those who double down on modernity.
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For involuntary change, join the Or-not MHEM. The belief that you are a free agent, with free will to choose your future (or get modern humans to choose their future), is error floating on a sea of ignorance in a thick fog of illusion.
[Note: MHEM membership excludes politicians and the recently (<1 year) politically active, including environmentalists. Otherwise, with the exception of the San, Hadza, and Pygmy, all other humans are Modern humans, and acknowledging that such is who and what you are is the requirement for being MHEM. MHEM includes members who celebrate Modern human life and favor the extinction of all life that humans do not value (aka “Hypers”). Hyper MHEM supporters may prefer to join Hyper MHEM. A minority faction views the condition of being a Modern human the way AA members view the condition of being an alcoholic — i.e. non-viable. The author is obviously one of the “Hypers” before breakfast (but an Or-not after) who seek to “just say no” to the Anthropocene.]
