The Trade of Fear (i.e. of False Events Appearing Real)

In the year of the Lord 2022, which is soon coming to an end, the signs are once again alarming to say the least. It feels as if mankind is desperately nearing judgement day. In an endless beating either by Corona or by its lasting effects (physical, mental, factual), or by the never-ending war in the Ukraine and its own separate effects (energy, food shortage, the threat of nuclear disaster, you name it), the scale seems to be tilting towards doomsday. Add to that the invisible political struggle of different ideologies to dominate the political arena (elections in Brazil, upcoming elections in Greece and Turkey), each claiming superiority against the other and Papal infallibility for the past, the mix of mass paranoia does not seem to have an end. It feels, as if all forces of evil have come together these days to destroy the planet and all that comes with it. The voices of reason seem to have gone in hiding, the rhetoric of war and destruction is getting louder and louder amplified by what seems to be the complete lack of understanding that what will follow is irreversible.

And as if that were not enough, climate change is also making a strong stage appearance, claiming its own part and reminding us of all that we have done collectively wrong in the recent past by ignoring it and by abusing the planet, raping it from all its vital ingredients which safeguarded natural balance.

Lastly, the promotion of religious violence is complementing the round, which, supported by massive ignorance and the lack of solid education finds fertile ground in fanaticism and in the personal justification that violence is acceptable, so long as it means defending a religious belief whose main dictations elude most of its followers.

On the flip-side, the world has been “blessed” with thousands of mentors and life coaches, who have taken it upon themselves to provide noble, yet unvetted, orientation to the lost herd, providing arbitrary beacons of advice and hope to the millions who have lost their way in life, who are confused by the newly shaped realities forming their immediate environment and affecting their daily lives or who don’t comprehend the contemporary and complex technological environment they need to navigate in survival mode.

What a variety of options to choose from, when shaping your own life ideology. Most choices motivated by this ever-stronger emotion of fear, the fear for the complete perishing of mankind in its abstract form, all the way down to fear of personal demise triggered either by war, by poverty, by bankruptcy, by social and economic discrimination or by simply rubbing someone’s shoulder the wrong way at a traffic light. The value of human life -in economic terms speaking- has decreased by a multiple given the over-population of the planet without any protection against further limit-downs in sight. Even the definition of humans has gone over the top when it comes to understanding sexual orientation. The times of the two sexes are long gone. These days you need to expose your sexual preferences to a variety of tests in the form of multiple choices before you can reliably conclude which of the many categories you fall under. I am sure soon enough the answer will be provided to you on a ready platter by some AI software. The Diversity and Inclusion project that does nothing more than to compartmentalize societies in the end.

So, in simple words the planet in collision course or better said, the planet about to re-live its unlearned history. The signs identical to the signs of the past right before large scale conflicts. In the early days of the 2ndmillennium we developed the theory that modern warfare does not require the physical dimension to produce the results of the 1st and 2nd WWs. This now seems to be a theory that is being completely overhauled as it did not consider the aspect of the human nature, who in regular intervals seeks for blood and pain, for mass relocation and the glorification of vanity. As a result, henious crime has become a rising commodity, which is expanding its reach over to ever younger generations, with the strong appearance of juvenile gangs roaming and looting peaceful neighborhoods.

Life as we knew it does no longer exist. Especially if you are part of the Boomer generation, who was blessed enough to experience a flourishing planet and not a planet in decline. A planet where respect for one another was paramount in every human interaction, where white was white and black was black without the need for further interpretation of their different shades, where human rights were strictly observed and where every effort was directed towards improving things in a peaceful, productive and co-existential manner. A planet where “profit” was not among the predominant religions and where war was perceived as an obsolete means of resolving conflict.

Ideally, that is the planet I would like to return to. But realistically speaking, I know that this will never happen. A broken glass is a broken glass and it cannot be glued back to its former condition. And this is what the planet is today. A broken planet. And no matter how much AI and Internet of things we apply, 3D-printing or blockchain, the ingredients lost along the way are irreplaceable and hard to find again, if finding them means to erase the last twenty years. So, what is it that we can still hope for? That my friends, is to me the one million dollar question.