Putting the Pressure On/The Real Problems (reply to Act@gmail.com)
Note: It turns out the "fake" e-mail address was not intended after all. However, I will leave this article as I originally wrote it, in order to express the urgency and severity of the present.
Today, October 26 2020, I received a message through the Contact form. The sender listed his e-mail address as Act@gmail.com. When I tried to send a reply to this address, the message was automatically returned to me. That means that this e-mail address does not exist.
Here is the message I received from this person:
So whats the mission? To get the masses to listen? Never happen. Best o e can do is help others by removing their burden.
For proof, here are two screenshots:
So this individual had the gall to tell me that the masses will never listen, and also list a fake e-mail address. That means that he was not interested in receiving a reply from me.
This individual listed his first name as Al. Al, if you are reading this-- do you realize that you are part of the problem? You say the masses will never listen, and you yourself have made it obvious that you do not want to listen, either. It's tempting to feel naïve making any kind of reply to you, as I am doing here. Unless you made an honest mistake in typing out your e-mail address, or you had enough foresight and cleverness to yield an alternate form of reply from me such as this blog post, you do not deserve a thoughtful reply. When I say you do not deserve a thoughtful reply, I mean that you have effectively made yourself incapable of understanding it via your own arrogance. In all likelihood, it is impossible for us to effectively communicate with each other. But I will carry on anyway.
Here is the e-mail message I attempted to send to Act@gmail.com at 12:10PM today:
“Hello Al,
I normally do not reply to e-mails as oversimplistic as yours, but I will give it a chance. I will ask you a question. What is the biggest burden on humanity at present?”
I wonder what kind of answer I would receive. Perhaps it would include stress, personal belongings in need of repair (e.g. car, appliances, plumbing, etc.), poverty, lack of money for other reasons, illness, lack of education, or loneliness.
The only one of those that gets close to the truth is lack of education. Even then, it would be more accurate to refer to this problem as, lack of knowledge. All of the other “burdens” listed are ultimately due to this problem. An answer that includes only the burdens stated above assumes that the way human life is currently structured is good enough, and the best you can do is assist people on an individual basis.
It is true that humans have free will, and we have used that free will to nearly destroy this planet and perpetuate misery species-wide. It is also true that this misery has been distributed in a wide variety of forms. Depending on the particular forms their lives have taken, some humans may be content enough with things as they are-- even if they experience such displeasures as stress, anxiety, distrust of the people around them, and frustration. In general, people are more content with the current ways of human life the more money they have. Money is not the only factor in people's attitudes, but it tends to be a major one. The rich generally do not want the current way of life to change much, unless it means they can add to their monetary wealth. People who are considered to be “middle class” might ask for changes within the system such as being taxed less, but they tend not to ask for fundamental change. Then there are those who would welcome change from a life based on money. It is possible for them to belong to any socioeconomic class, though they tend to be monetarily poor on some level. This means they may be poor solely as an individual, their family is poor, or they live in an entire community or nation which is impoverished.
In spite of the differences in outlook people tend to have due to their financial status, the solution is not a redistribution of money. Money is incapable of solving the real problems because solving those problems is not profitable. On the contrary. For example, the Earth's oceans are in a state of hypoxia. This is due to overfishing. One aspect of the solution to this problem will have to be an indefinite moratorium on ocean fishing. That will lead to a huge loss of profits for any who participate in that industry-- both the rich and the poor.
The “real problems” are indeed all global. Al has made an error in assuming it is good enough to just “help” people on an individual basis without fundamentally changing the way they live. The problems do not exist on a mere individual basis: instead, the real problems are both perpetuated and faced by all humans, no matter where they live and no matter how much money they have. Salvation is species-wide: either the entire species makes decisions which contributes to its success, or we all go extinct.
It is true that it is nearly impossible to get the masses to listen. As a collective, people are content enough with life as it is. Even if they are seen complaining, protesting, and fighting with each other, few ask for truly fundamental change. A redistribution of money, or a change of who has the power in society, is not good enough. Relatively few have enough foresight to accept that fact. Even fewer have the ability to conceive of a thorough and effective set of solutions. In fact, as far as I know there is only one individual who has truly achieved this, and that man is named Brian Harner.
I do not write about Brian to kiss his ass. We are both dead serious in everything we say. We are genuinely looking out for the survival of the human species, and right now this species is as close to destroying itself as it has ever been. I am not playing games, Al. Especially if you are a middle-aged and financially well-off man, I know you might look at kimwrate.com as the cutesy expressions of a frustrated young white American woman-- or something like that. It would not surprise me if you think I have my head in the clouds and am naïve-- or something like that. I do not know for sure because I cannot stand to think in such petty manners as these, but apparently other people can and do.
I am aware that the amount of information Brian and I have distributed is massive. That is unavoidable because this information is the solution to the essential problem, which is lack of knowledge. Of course, lack of knowledge is not necessarily the real root problem. Lack of knowledge is caused by another problem-- arrogance. When people are arrogant they assume that their current trajectory is good enough, and they are not interested in listening to alternate suggestions-- not necessarily because they are right, but because they want to maintain the illusion of control. Arrogance is a widespread problem. Just look at political elections: both sides insist that their political party will keep things from falling apart, when in reality they are fighting over who gets to be in charge of leading humanity to extinction. The political spectrum is disingenuous because the viewpoints of the various political parties are not fundamentally different from one another. No one is asking for real change. Instead their differences are only minor differences within the current system.
What are the fundamental changes which must be made? First of all, understand that the biggest problems faced by humanity are not exclusive to this species. This is another error made by Al. Al is assuming it is good enough to solve those problems which are exclusively human. Removing people's burdens such as the broken down car and the mortgage on the house will make everything better-- right, Al? Wrong. Problems such as these are laughable compared to the real problems we face. If the human species both remains on the current trajectory and survives that long, the people who will be alive 100 years from now will not be worried about whether the hot water system in the house works. They will be worried about whether they can find water that will not poison them to some extent and whether they can find enough food to carry on. 8 billion people living lives based on money within a plutocratic system, dependent on a crude oil economy, depleting resources, breeding and polluting unmitigated and without a care for the distant future, is not sustainable. It would not surprise me if you were born between 1950 and 1970, Al. This is not the same world you grew up in. In 1970 the human population was not yet 4 billion. By the way, 1970 is approximately when the overshoot of the human population began. Likewise, I know you might think your “solution” is good enough because you will not live long enough to face the unavoidable consequences of the real problems. That might be true, especially if you are so unhealthy that you could drop dead at any minute. But if you have children, then your descendants will have to face the consequences. Do you care about them, or are you content with the knowledge that your children, grandchildren, and beyond will have to increasingly bear the brunt of a dying planet? If you ever wonder why young people talk about “Baby Boomers” in a frustrated manner, look no further: it is due to callous attitudes such as yours. It may be true that your generation worked hard, and also that everyone has gone along with the effects, but what you built will fall just as quickly as it was constructed.
Do not get the wrong idea by thinking I am advocating for “social justice.” On the contrary. I would displease the hippies with whom you possibly grew up and even joined. The idea of “social justice” in its current form is about nothing more than replacing the people who are currently in power with someone else. Those who advocate for “social justice” are blind to the real problems and are not interested in fundamental change. In fact, many such people are fine with unmitigated selfishness as long as the people engaging in it are “oppressed” groups and not “privileged” ones. You are right that it is just about impossible to get the masses to listen, because everyone is wrong somehow.
The real problems are those which affect all humans and ultimately every form of life on Earth. The depletion of ocean fish populations and the consequent hypoxic state of the oceans; the contamination of ocean fish and the entire linked food chain by plastic and heavy metals; the contamination of the water supply by female hormones; the contamination of water via hydrofracking; the depletion of nutrients from the soil; the spread of invasive species; population overshoots often followed by die-offs; the depletion of aquifers; the proliferation of greenhouse gases; the lack of equilibrium in environmental feedback loops; the depletion of atmospheric layers such as the ozone; the steady increase of Earth's exposure to UV radiation; the massive landfills and other litter that will take thousands of years to decompose; nuclear fallout; and the consequent mass extinction of plant and animal life and loss of genetic diversity amongst non-human species-- these are the real problems, and humans collectively have caused them by their own free will. I have not even mentioned the consequential human health problems, which I have addressed elsewhere such as my articles on heavy metals detoxification.
Let us not forget, by the way, the inevitability of a Carrington Event, which is a low pulse of electromagnetic energy that results from a solar storm. This type of Coronal Mass Ejection occurs roughly every 150 years by nature of the sun, and with the last one having been in 1859 we are overdue. Back then the electrical grid was relatively new and primitive, so the consequences were liveable. Now when the Carrington Event occurs, every device that is powered by electricity will be rendered useless. As Brian explains, “Any exposed wire, basically the entire energy grid worldwide and almost every electronic device will accept the supercharged particles like an antenna. The wires then super charge like short, and if the storm is sustained, they will catch fire, explode, or outright melt.”
By the way, what happened in Quebec in 1989 was only a mild Carrington Event. So unless you drop dead in the next year or two, you very likely will have to face the real problems after all. Are you still feeling smug, Al? Or are you starting to sweat a little in the potential realization that everything you have worked for and taken for granted might soon be destroyed by means outside of your control? What is your plan-- to escape in a cowardly manner, like a bullet to the head? Or can you face reality like the big man you think you are, and implement real solutions?
The solutions to the real problems include ending our dependence on a crude oil economy, ending our dependence on the electric grid, and ending our dependence on the housing industry. I defer to Brian Harner on these matters because he has dedicated his entire life to figuring out how to implement these solutions. At the age of 40 Brian is not that old, but he has made serious use of all his time on Earth. His age will test the arrogance of those who think they have it all figured out. Indeed, his solutions are unique and, moreover, have the potential to return our species to its original state of perfection as much as possible. I say this in consideration of the possibility that you have a cynical view of “God.” Consider that such attitudes perpetuate the problems.
The three solutions listed (end dependence on crude oil, electricity, and housing) are not all that we must do, by the way, but they do encapsulate the bulk of what is needed.
I am aware that the fake e-mail address supplied by Al might be his “clever” way of telling me to act. This leads me to think that he has barely viewed any of the information that has come from Brian, since the reality is that there is far more action to be taken than Al has likely conceived of. Again, the problem is not lack of action. The problem is lack of knowledge. People don't know what the right actions are and, furthermore, the extent of possible right action is limited by people's willingness to capitulate to the right way. I can assure you that if it was not for such limitations, Brian, myself, our friends, and others interested would be building “holy grails” (as he has titled them) and using them to construct pyramids-- and that is not to say we are not trying. When people can live in these structures which stand for tens of thousands of years with little to no need for repair, they will indeed be relieved of all the burdens that come with the current ways of housing. There would be much else to build, too, such as farms which utilize regenerative grazing; steam-powered machine shops; aquaponic systems on the outside of the pyramids; forests to be planted around the pyramids; cavitation water heaters powered by nitinol engines; water farming systems; hydraulic ram pumps to transport water vertically; distilleries to produce ethanol; pyrolyzers to convert plastic into oil; air pressure tanks to be used as batteries; the machinery to produce hydrogen; wood cribbing which can move stones weighing thousands of pounds; geothermal systems; elevated micro hydro power plants; and more...
Yes, I do want to act. First I have had to figure out what is needed and why: I have spent the last eight years of my life trying to do this. The next step is what I am currently doing, which is to learn how to implement the solutions and share all relevant information with others. Finally, I can act as much as possible in a manner which will relieve real burdens permanently. Again, how far I can get depends on how far others are willing to go as well. Salvation is species-wide, and no man is an island.
I hope you can see why it is essential to think things through completely, and thus why I have referred to Al's e-mail as “oversimplistic.”
If anyone is wondering how I could come up with such a lengthy reply to such a short e-mail, that is partially due to me thinking this is a person I know. Even if I am wrong about that, my thinking this has helped me to make points which need to be made anyway.
By the way, Al, if I ever find out your last name and real e-mail address, do not think it is beneath me to state it here. Congratulations on gaining potential fame for yourself by showing the world your asshole. Making you public is about the only thing I can do to feed the ego you have displayed. In the unlikely event you become open to a worldview aside from the ill-fated one you currently hold, then use your proclivity for action to solve real problems with real solutions. In order to do that correctly, you will have to gain the knowledge of how to do so-- and that means that you will have to listen. Can you do that, or would you rather remain arrogant while the planet becomes increasingly inhospitable, and this species gets closer to its death?
If the masses do not want to listen, it is because they find the proper information to be inconvenient, when in fact such information is their only chance at long-term survival.