Hear you not the rushing sound of the coming tempest?
Do you not behold the clouds open, and destruction lurid and dire pour down on the blasted earth?
The titles are quotes from Mary Shelley, The Last Man, 1826. A dystopian story — not well-read at the time. Here’s a little bit more…
“Feel you not the earth quake and open with agonizing groans, while the air is pregnant with shrieks and wailings, — all announcing the last days of man? No!”
I’m having a very hard time understanding the human reaction to the existential threats that are not only accumulating — they’re coming true right now.
How can people be discussing how to invest money, the best SUVs of 2021, how to get more followers on Twitter, how to choose compelling titles and subtitles, and other irrelevancies when considered in light of the widespread destruction already upon us?
It’s driving me crazy. I took action and moved to Las Tablas, Panama nearly two years ago. I saw the United States crumbling years ago. But I don’t see widespread reaction to the current existential threats, or at least, I see inaction in response to the threats.
I’d like to post this partial list of threats on every article I write on Medium. Like this:
Existential Threats (A Partial List)
- Artificial intelligence
- Biotechnology
- Cyberattack
- Environmental disaster
- Experimental technology accident
- Global warming
- Nanotechnology
- Warfare and mass destruction
- World population and agricultural crisis (starvation)
- Asteroid impact
- Pandemic
- Volcanism
- Nuclear disaster (e.g, Chernobyl)
- Nuclear war
Maybe the apparent inaction of Americans has explainable causes. Certainly they have been manipulated by media reporting and it’s clear that that reporting incites fear or even terror in the average citizen. The human mind and animal doesn’t function well or properly when in a state of abject terror.
If government, corporations and media are ganging up on people, denial and avoidance might be their psychological response. I suspect this to be the case — an explanation for the irrational behaviors exhibited in the U.S. by its citizens.
Even so, I still wish they’d shake themselves and organize to take direct actions before the entire American infrastructure crumbles.
… Fred Ermlich
