Why we must fight unbridled
population expansion and unfettered capitalism.
Land Patriotism is the act of advocating for the
land. It involves a commitment to
keeping the country as unspoiled as possible.
I should note that land patriots are not aligned with the Right or Left;
in other words, they’re not liberals or conservatives unless one opts to use
conservatism in a traditional sense as it relates to conserving the land. We are
now, however, at a precipice where the destruction of the land is being
conducted at an ever increasing rate.
For those who feel no connection to the land this is not an important
issue. But for that distinct minority
(call them bushcrafters, woodsmen/women, naturalists or perhaps simply Land
Patriots) then being stewards of the land is paramount. Even so, we find ourselves in a situation
where those who care nothing for the land are in control. The American political/plutocratic class has
developed into an oligarchy centered in rapacity and consumption. At the center of this establishment is the worship
of materialism and the concept of endless “growth and development.” It can be argued, however, that what we see occurring
today is, in fact, not development but
instead a self-indulgent destruction of both the land and any sense of community. Please allow me to give you my take on how we
reached this point in American history.
Population experts have long determined that the world
reached its Maximum Carrying Capacity at about two-billion people. Note that the current world population is
over seven-billion and the numbers are growing exponentially. In other words, if the artificial production
of food around the world were to fail (as a result of drought, disease, war,
pollution etc.) then there would be a sudden and dramatic population
collapse. Factually, the current world human
population density is unsustainable no matter what anyone might try to do. The normal (un-artificial) maximum carrying
capacity in the United States’ is about 200 million. That means that at 200-million-people the US
was maxed out. A human population
exceeding that number is essentially on life-support and can thus become
subject to eminent collapse if any singular “limiting factor” plays its hand. Therefore, the US (which now approaches 340
million people) has substantially surpassed its maximum carrying capacity. Drought, pollution, cyberattack, anarchy,
political dysfunction etc. will all create the possibility for a domino effect
that will crumble the “system.” And for
those of you who have been brought up to believe that we simply must produce
more food to feed the people then allow me to refer you to the writings of
economist Thomas Malthus who decades ago made it quite clear that such a
strategy is a fool’s game. Malthus
determined that when food is produced geometrically then populations grow
exponentially. In other words, you can never
catch up! The more food you make, the
more people are born and the number of people will always outstrip the amount of food you
produce. We have thus created a near
perfect trap for complete and utter population collapse. Add to that the amount of pollution generated
by the artificial production of food, and you have only hastened the inevitable
downfall. It really can’t get any worse
unless you include a phenomenon that the US and most of the world has embraced
where there must be endless “growth and development” in order to assure “economic
prosperity.” This ethos has for many
become a religion; their god is built on the idea of consumption, materialism
and rapacity. As proof of this fanaticism note that anyone
who dares fault the current system is almost immediately attacked, slandered
and rebuked.
So why is the current era so dangerous? Two things come to mind: First, exponential
human population growth will create the collapse previously mentioned. Second, human avarice wedded to narcissism is
nurtured by the religion of endless growth and development. Its practitioners seek to maximize profits at
the expense of their fellow humans and by the systematic destruction of the land. Perhaps the most dangerous aspect of all of
this is that the fanaticism of endless growth and development and its
corresponding greed blinds humans to thinking logically and analytically. I can find fewer examples of this flawed
thinking than the idea of deregulation.
In its truest sense, the term regulation
means anything that hinders human greed and rapacity. And de-regulation
cultivates narcissism and material gluttony.
Allow me to provide an eclectic example of why the de-regulation of any complex system is
dangerous. First, all systems function
in what amounts to a linear fashion.
Whether the system is biological or mechanical or based on economics it
runs in orderly sequences and they are all essentially the same. So let’s examine regulatory mechanisms going
from the simple to the complex. The
one-celled organism called an amoeba is relatively simple and thus needs few
regulatory mechanisms. An amoeba has no
eyes or brain or legs or muscular/skeletal system. It has no emotions or analytical thought
process. It does not walk or run nor
does it build tools. Now compare the
amoeba to a human being. In order for a
human to function properly it must have trillions of regulatory
mechanisms. In my study of biology I was
often amazed that we are able to function at all. Take the vital processes known as glycolysis or
chemiosmosis. Compared to other systems in the body these
are relatively simple; but when examined in detail one finds them to be
incredibly complex. What we find is that
the more complicated a system then the more regulation it must have in
order to function properly. Remove the
regulatory mechanisms and you have anarchy, chaos, collapse. The same holds for all economic systems and
that includes the prevailing economic system in the US. In other words, the more complex the system
becomes the more it must be regulated.
Now let me show you what happens to a complex system that is
deregulated. Let’s assume you’re not
feeling well and so you go visit your doctor.
After conducting a few tests your doctor calls you in and says: “I’m
afraid you’ve got cancer.” After you get
over the initial shock I imagine the first thing you say is, “Can we stop it or
maybe at least control it?” But your
doctor looks at you aghast and says, “I am so sick of hearing people wanting to
regulate cancer! Don’t you realize that
cancer, when left alone, grows and develops and matures! In fact, cancer is one of the most successful
mechanisms known to mankind. It’s
beautiful. I firmly believe in
unregulated cancer!” At that point
(assuming you haven’t already walked out) you have concluded that your doctor
is nuts. But apply that same principle to
what we hear many corporatists and politicians with the same rationale the doctor
used and you’ll find nobody complains. Trouble
is that both cancer and what we call Capitalism must consume resources in order
to “grow and develop.” And any rapacious
form of Capitalism (just like cancer) eventually kills its host if left
unchecked. We caught a glimpse of this back
in 2006-2007 when a decade-long trend in deregulating the banks triggered a
monumental financial collapse. We saw the
same thing with the Savings & Loan crisis and with the 1929 economic crash. And yet, despite the evidence, despite the sound
analytics behind this truth, we continue to hear people say, “I believe in unregulated Capitalism” as if
it were a religion. Perhaps for them it
is their religion. I guarantee that you
would not hear those same people say, “I believe in unregulated cancer” even
when the two processes are basically the same in their consumption of
resources, their polluting effects and their eventual destruction of their
host.
Now I fully expect to get all sorts of attacks from trolls
and true-believers and those who will mentally shut down when they hear
anything that goes against what they’ve been taught to believe. In America today we have created a class of
people who are easily duped and who flock to those unsound doctrines I referred
to in the previous post.
ONE MORE NOTE: After a while, Mussolini began calling Fascism
“Corporatism.” Corporatism is where the
government is no longer a system based on “by the people for the people” but
instead by the corporations for the
corporations. That is precisely what
we see happening today. In fact, studies
have shown that our politicians often ignore what is best for the people and
instead do what is best for their donors, which are the banks, oil companies,
Wall Street, insurance companies, big Media etc. You can call what we see happening today Neo-fascism if that pleases you. I and many others choose not to mince words
but to instead refer to it as Fascism pure and simple and evil. Please don’t attempt or waste time making
this a Republican/Democrat argument. The
Corporatists want you to be diverted with those frivolous arguments so they can
continue with their destruction of the Land.
Besides, the problem runs across the aisles in Washington and across the
states and if you choose to say things like, “It’s those other guys” then you’re
among the easily duped and perhaps not prone towards analytics.
Okay, enough for today.
Besides, I’d rather be walking in the woods and that’s exactly what I
intend to do next.