Humanity has become a parasite on the earth. When you have a third of the people support someone like Trump, or just be totally apathetic, there is no hope. I’m just ready for humanity to be gone completely and the Earth can heal and go back to it beautiful natural self with nature, floral and fauna. After all, it’s still gonna be around for millions of years and in that time it can heal and produce all kind of new life.
There's no doubt about the destruction we have wrought. It's extremely sad as someone who has spent considerable time hiking NYS mountains. Our disconnection from nature is profound and the results unforgivable. I stopped watching nature documentaries for years because they filled me with sadness. There are good people, but the planet is not going to differentiate.
In terms of medicine, we have a disease management system, not healthcare. Chronic disease is profitable, prevention is not. It reflects the short-term thinking endemic to our society. “Healthcare” reflects the same issues everywhere else. It is a mirror of the same extractive logic contributing to climate change, political tribalism, economic turmoil, and social disarray.
I absolutely agree, and it's good to hear what I am experiencing of healthcare reflects your words. My PC directs traffic, that's it, little doubt she is overloaded by the system. I have a friend who was a nurse practitioner who was often expected to see up to eighteen patients a day. She went back to school for psychology, such was her stress.
Yes, healthcare seems to avoid cures and favor "managing" chronic disease. I have an autoimmune disorder — psoriatic arthritis — which has wrecked the physical part of my life as a serious cyclist and hiker, one of the reasons I turned writing. One medication after another, all losing their efficacy over time
Healthcare indeed reflects other issues all driven by greed. I'd be curious to know your thoughts on autoimmune disorders. I suspect they are mostly environmentally caused, but have not researched the issue as that has not been my intended focus.
Autoimmune issues are difficult to point the finger on any one cause. Some are related to environmental exposure in terms of the increased IgE immune response targeting the body. Some are related to viral illness where the immune system is confused and inadvertently targets native tissue.
Others are related to lifestyle, gut disbiosis, or hereditary factors.
This is part of the challenge when it comes to autoimmune illness. The other aspect is how to treat them.
I think we’ll always face disease in some form. But in terms of chronic illness, we continue to treat it as an acute problem instead of focusing on the upstream issues. Part of this is due to incentives within medicine. But it goes beyond the healthcare system into politics, agriculture, processed food production, economics, and social structures. These are the upstream leverage points we need to focus on if we wish to make an impact on chronic illness.
Thanks. No doubt it's true there are multiple factors to consider in autoimmune disorders. Part of my condition may be genetic — my maternal grandmother had RA that my mother avoided. My version is psoriatic, a bonus.
Totally agree the problems in healthcare are related to the factors you list. The exposure to chemicals and processed foods must play an important factor.
It's deeply unfortunate that our capitalist system doesn't address foundational problems, but rather exploits them for profit. That's an entirely different health issue, mental, possibly a manifestation of the survival instinct that harnessed to technology elevates sociopaths to lethal levels of damage, IMO. I appreciate your thoughts.
I think regardless of economic system there is a push for exploitation of profits. American style neoliberal capitalism is a different animal unto itself. I see that more as a fundamentalist economic philosophy that ignores evidence of its detrimental effects. It loves to claim scientific rigor but its only answer is more deregulation.
I agree. Regardless of the political system, the push for power and wealth depends on extracting the planet. The Chicago School/Friedman neoliberal version of capitalism is significantly worse than Keynesian capitalism under Roosevelt, but both have the same outcome.
The argument of deregulation obscures the fundamental. It's a finite planet and as such demands limits. There is no freedom without also accepting responsibility and embracing sharing. Winner take all is a dead end.
First article of yours I’ve read. Agree with your sentiments. At nearly 81 I can’t even convince our son (53) about the likelihood of systemic collapse. And I’ve taught him about peak everything good for two decades. (His wife too) they has twin boys 13 years ago , and 2 years later she wanted a girl. Got another son. Been trying to convince thyroid set up a small farm. Too much work. I’m going to unsubscribe as I am overloaded, and we agree on a lot. Cheers on the Downslope
Hi Steven. I feel your frustration about your son and his wife. I have friend whose son and spouse just announced they are expecting, and felt forced to feign excitement. My next door neighbors have a toddler and a six-year-old. Friendly, nice people, but clearly unaware of our predicaments. They are in the majority based on what I know of my family and acquaintances. There are many reasons for this failure starting with the MSM which barely scratches the surface of what's happening to this planet. It's why I write and promote other "Cassandras" doing good work on these subjects.
I hear your frustration and think the idea for your son to set up a small farm makes sense. I have given similar advice. Hands on skills are going to be of more value than college degrees going forward (depending on the degree, horticulture for instance would make sense).
Sorry to lose you as a reader, but I understand. I am overloaded, too.
Thank you, Geoff. In reference to your father and ethics, he was one of a kind. What strikes me as a core issue is the economic driver that feeds the systems that do so much harm. I think our country has an underdeveloped sense of ethics and morality. Some religions would claim that education of this type is core to the underlying values they tout. I wonder about putting the education in public schools. I recall taking a philosophy class in High School where I learned about "might makes right." It made a huge impression on me. I see it acted out in so many settings, most pungently in the current administration's M.O.
Sorry for the delayed response, been under the weather. The system that does so much harm is in the roots of the country in the atrocities of Native American genocide and slavery. This administration feeds hatred that has always been percolating just below the surface. The Civil War did not resolve this as we can clearly see.
Religion often brings its own prejudice and violence.
Education in principle should raise everyone, but US culture has devolved to self-entitled ignorance and addiction to entertainment. The energy glut of fossil fuels created an artificial reality. There are studies that indicate falling IQs.
Might makes right is destined to implode. The delusional billionaires ramming AI down our throats seem to have no clue AI job replacement equals no consumers. Of course mindless consumption and exploitation of the planet got us here anyhow. The crisis is accelerating.
Sorry to hear you're not feeling well. Wishes to a quick recovery. I have a gnawing emotional need to find the best path for ethics and morality teachings, right vs. wrong, and the set of values that our country was formed around. Yes, the founders were hypocrites and some downright nasty. However, the words were on paper, and the dialogue existed.
Yes, the words written in The Constitution had much right. Setting the hypocrisy aside, I would say the words the "Pursuit of happiness," was inadequate and poorly defined. Who defines happiness and at what cost to whom?
In light of the various ecological crises promulgated by unfettered pursuit of "happiness" resulting in yet another wave of forever unhappy oligarchs, this thinking is shown to be false. Without also owning responsibility to each other, there is no freedom, just a system built on oppression. You and I have had the good fortune of living in a gilded cage. That gilding has worn off.
A new constitution needs to start with the rights of the Earth, IMO, and life isn't all chocolate and roses. It's also responsibility. I know you know this better than most. Thanks for hanging in there with me.
Excellent piece. Any comment of mine would be but a poor imitation of what you so eloquently laid out. People today seem oblivious to what has, is and will happen. The fear I have is the loss of agency that comes with age and the inevitability of joining the long list of victims: past, present and future. We do, however, have our oxy and plenty of our favorite spirits.
Thank you, Wayne. Those of us aware and able to see the big picture are rare. I too, feel the loss of agency with age, at least the physical part. My brain remains sharp and we can still use our voices. Much of the physical lifting needs to come from younger people. I've got no oxy, but am not opposed to tipping a spirit occasionally, although honestly it doesn't offer much relief tome at this point.
As I was reading this, what I kept thinking was to get our villains straight. Trump is sick. Pure villainy, but also there's an element of his not being able to do anything else.
The villains of this tragedy are the Republican Congresspeople. The Democrats come in a far second, where they are too weak to actively destroy us. But the Republicans, who have the power, are so vile that I'm for a coup, as I wrote about here, along with some other immediate things to do: https://suzannetaylor.substack.com/p/my-money-for-your-life.
"The mandate for us, in creating a different system when we haven’t got ourselves organized, is for each of us to do what we can. Since nobody’s called a meeting, I’m taking it on myself to call up a Zoom. If you have ideas for getting us to the promised land, let’s talk. Please, only people who have some sense of destiny about an involvement with the big picture. Email me at suzanne@mightycompanions.org, introduce yourself if we don’t know each other, and include where you live to be invited."
Yes, Trump is mentally ill, professionals who knew it in his first term are finally speaking out. No, he is not in control of himself. While the Republicans are worse, there are plenty of shitty Democrats that deserve equal castigation — look at their campaign donations from AIPAC and Big Oil, rats sinking and abandoning ship.
As you know from being one of my best supporters I have repeatedly asked readers to move their money out of fossil fuel banks, boycott the likes of Amazon, sick out, strike and protest. These actions while meaningful, fall short. Most drearily I have suggested we will not get justice without blood. I believe history shows this to be true, and humanity has never been in more profound trouble.
I'll connect through your email, but you and I see our predicaments differently. Although there are enlightened people, they are a tiny minority. An epiphany isn't coming, just a slide of desperation that may hit extremely soon with the growing agriculture crisis enormously exacerbated by the Strait of Hormuz situation. Will we erupt or wither?
A cogent description of where we are. And as trouble mounts the fringe belief that we are doomed becomes mainstream. As the contradictions of our existence mount, tensions that will trigger change now pull hard. A change is near, and we do not know which way the dice will roll. Will the adults in the room put their pants on? We shall soon know. A feeling of foreboding is appropriate.
And how can I not post this article on the Doomscroll. It starts with a picture of Seattle's Hooverville which is now known as the Seattle SODO, and SODO is less than 15 miles from where I am right now.
Humanity has become a parasite on the earth. When you have a third of the people support someone like Trump, or just be totally apathetic, there is no hope. I’m just ready for humanity to be gone completely and the Earth can heal and go back to it beautiful natural self with nature, floral and fauna. After all, it’s still gonna be around for millions of years and in that time it can heal and produce all kind of new life.
There's no doubt about the destruction we have wrought. It's extremely sad as someone who has spent considerable time hiking NYS mountains. Our disconnection from nature is profound and the results unforgivable. I stopped watching nature documentaries for years because they filled me with sadness. There are good people, but the planet is not going to differentiate.
In terms of medicine, we have a disease management system, not healthcare. Chronic disease is profitable, prevention is not. It reflects the short-term thinking endemic to our society. “Healthcare” reflects the same issues everywhere else. It is a mirror of the same extractive logic contributing to climate change, political tribalism, economic turmoil, and social disarray.
I absolutely agree, and it's good to hear what I am experiencing of healthcare reflects your words. My PC directs traffic, that's it, little doubt she is overloaded by the system. I have a friend who was a nurse practitioner who was often expected to see up to eighteen patients a day. She went back to school for psychology, such was her stress.
Yes, healthcare seems to avoid cures and favor "managing" chronic disease. I have an autoimmune disorder — psoriatic arthritis — which has wrecked the physical part of my life as a serious cyclist and hiker, one of the reasons I turned writing. One medication after another, all losing their efficacy over time
Healthcare indeed reflects other issues all driven by greed. I'd be curious to know your thoughts on autoimmune disorders. I suspect they are mostly environmentally caused, but have not researched the issue as that has not been my intended focus.
Thanks for commenting.
Autoimmune issues are difficult to point the finger on any one cause. Some are related to environmental exposure in terms of the increased IgE immune response targeting the body. Some are related to viral illness where the immune system is confused and inadvertently targets native tissue.
Others are related to lifestyle, gut disbiosis, or hereditary factors.
This is part of the challenge when it comes to autoimmune illness. The other aspect is how to treat them.
I think we’ll always face disease in some form. But in terms of chronic illness, we continue to treat it as an acute problem instead of focusing on the upstream issues. Part of this is due to incentives within medicine. But it goes beyond the healthcare system into politics, agriculture, processed food production, economics, and social structures. These are the upstream leverage points we need to focus on if we wish to make an impact on chronic illness.
Thanks. No doubt it's true there are multiple factors to consider in autoimmune disorders. Part of my condition may be genetic — my maternal grandmother had RA that my mother avoided. My version is psoriatic, a bonus.
Totally agree the problems in healthcare are related to the factors you list. The exposure to chemicals and processed foods must play an important factor.
It's deeply unfortunate that our capitalist system doesn't address foundational problems, but rather exploits them for profit. That's an entirely different health issue, mental, possibly a manifestation of the survival instinct that harnessed to technology elevates sociopaths to lethal levels of damage, IMO. I appreciate your thoughts.
I think regardless of economic system there is a push for exploitation of profits. American style neoliberal capitalism is a different animal unto itself. I see that more as a fundamentalist economic philosophy that ignores evidence of its detrimental effects. It loves to claim scientific rigor but its only answer is more deregulation.
I agree. Regardless of the political system, the push for power and wealth depends on extracting the planet. The Chicago School/Friedman neoliberal version of capitalism is significantly worse than Keynesian capitalism under Roosevelt, but both have the same outcome.
The argument of deregulation obscures the fundamental. It's a finite planet and as such demands limits. There is no freedom without also accepting responsibility and embracing sharing. Winner take all is a dead end.
Interestingly enough, I just wrote a piece on responsibility with that idea in mind.
Great insight Dr. Mirrer. Thank you for your comments
First article of yours I’ve read. Agree with your sentiments. At nearly 81 I can’t even convince our son (53) about the likelihood of systemic collapse. And I’ve taught him about peak everything good for two decades. (His wife too) they has twin boys 13 years ago , and 2 years later she wanted a girl. Got another son. Been trying to convince thyroid set up a small farm. Too much work. I’m going to unsubscribe as I am overloaded, and we agree on a lot. Cheers on the Downslope
Hi Steven. I feel your frustration about your son and his wife. I have friend whose son and spouse just announced they are expecting, and felt forced to feign excitement. My next door neighbors have a toddler and a six-year-old. Friendly, nice people, but clearly unaware of our predicaments. They are in the majority based on what I know of my family and acquaintances. There are many reasons for this failure starting with the MSM which barely scratches the surface of what's happening to this planet. It's why I write and promote other "Cassandras" doing good work on these subjects.
I hear your frustration and think the idea for your son to set up a small farm makes sense. I have given similar advice. Hands on skills are going to be of more value than college degrees going forward (depending on the degree, horticulture for instance would make sense).
Sorry to lose you as a reader, but I understand. I am overloaded, too.
Thank you, Geoff. In reference to your father and ethics, he was one of a kind. What strikes me as a core issue is the economic driver that feeds the systems that do so much harm. I think our country has an underdeveloped sense of ethics and morality. Some religions would claim that education of this type is core to the underlying values they tout. I wonder about putting the education in public schools. I recall taking a philosophy class in High School where I learned about "might makes right." It made a huge impression on me. I see it acted out in so many settings, most pungently in the current administration's M.O.
Sorry for the delayed response, been under the weather. The system that does so much harm is in the roots of the country in the atrocities of Native American genocide and slavery. This administration feeds hatred that has always been percolating just below the surface. The Civil War did not resolve this as we can clearly see.
Religion often brings its own prejudice and violence.
Education in principle should raise everyone, but US culture has devolved to self-entitled ignorance and addiction to entertainment. The energy glut of fossil fuels created an artificial reality. There are studies that indicate falling IQs.
Might makes right is destined to implode. The delusional billionaires ramming AI down our throats seem to have no clue AI job replacement equals no consumers. Of course mindless consumption and exploitation of the planet got us here anyhow. The crisis is accelerating.
I like the phrase “addiction to entertainment.” I have noticed this for a while, but putting out there as an addiction is spot on.
The more exhausted people become from trying to survive, the more potent this tool becomes. Just like a drug, it's an escape from reality.
Sorry to hear you're not feeling well. Wishes to a quick recovery. I have a gnawing emotional need to find the best path for ethics and morality teachings, right vs. wrong, and the set of values that our country was formed around. Yes, the founders were hypocrites and some downright nasty. However, the words were on paper, and the dialogue existed.
Yes, the words written in The Constitution had much right. Setting the hypocrisy aside, I would say the words the "Pursuit of happiness," was inadequate and poorly defined. Who defines happiness and at what cost to whom?
In light of the various ecological crises promulgated by unfettered pursuit of "happiness" resulting in yet another wave of forever unhappy oligarchs, this thinking is shown to be false. Without also owning responsibility to each other, there is no freedom, just a system built on oppression. You and I have had the good fortune of living in a gilded cage. That gilding has worn off.
A new constitution needs to start with the rights of the Earth, IMO, and life isn't all chocolate and roses. It's also responsibility. I know you know this better than most. Thanks for hanging in there with me.
Excellent piece. Any comment of mine would be but a poor imitation of what you so eloquently laid out. People today seem oblivious to what has, is and will happen. The fear I have is the loss of agency that comes with age and the inevitability of joining the long list of victims: past, present and future. We do, however, have our oxy and plenty of our favorite spirits.
Thank you, Wayne. Those of us aware and able to see the big picture are rare. I too, feel the loss of agency with age, at least the physical part. My brain remains sharp and we can still use our voices. Much of the physical lifting needs to come from younger people. I've got no oxy, but am not opposed to tipping a spirit occasionally, although honestly it doesn't offer much relief tome at this point.
As I was reading this, what I kept thinking was to get our villains straight. Trump is sick. Pure villainy, but also there's an element of his not being able to do anything else.
The villains of this tragedy are the Republican Congresspeople. The Democrats come in a far second, where they are too weak to actively destroy us. But the Republicans, who have the power, are so vile that I'm for a coup, as I wrote about here, along with some other immediate things to do: https://suzannetaylor.substack.com/p/my-money-for-your-life.
Also, how about this, from last week? https://suzannetaylor.substack.com/p/when-audiences-applaud-a-sleeping
"The mandate for us, in creating a different system when we haven’t got ourselves organized, is for each of us to do what we can. Since nobody’s called a meeting, I’m taking it on myself to call up a Zoom. If you have ideas for getting us to the promised land, let’s talk. Please, only people who have some sense of destiny about an involvement with the big picture. Email me at suzanne@mightycompanions.org, introduce yourself if we don’t know each other, and include where you live to be invited."
You don't need to introduce yourself...
Yes, Trump is mentally ill, professionals who knew it in his first term are finally speaking out. No, he is not in control of himself. While the Republicans are worse, there are plenty of shitty Democrats that deserve equal castigation — look at their campaign donations from AIPAC and Big Oil, rats sinking and abandoning ship.
As you know from being one of my best supporters I have repeatedly asked readers to move their money out of fossil fuel banks, boycott the likes of Amazon, sick out, strike and protest. These actions while meaningful, fall short. Most drearily I have suggested we will not get justice without blood. I believe history shows this to be true, and humanity has never been in more profound trouble.
I'll connect through your email, but you and I see our predicaments differently. Although there are enlightened people, they are a tiny minority. An epiphany isn't coming, just a slide of desperation that may hit extremely soon with the growing agriculture crisis enormously exacerbated by the Strait of Hormuz situation. Will we erupt or wither?
All well and good. We really don't disagree. I just pick up wher you leave off. How about responding to what calls for a response to me?
A cogent description of where we are. And as trouble mounts the fringe belief that we are doomed becomes mainstream. As the contradictions of our existence mount, tensions that will trigger change now pull hard. A change is near, and we do not know which way the dice will roll. Will the adults in the room put their pants on? We shall soon know. A feeling of foreboding is appropriate.
And how can I not post this article on the Doomscroll. It starts with a picture of Seattle's Hooverville which is now known as the Seattle SODO, and SODO is less than 15 miles from where I am right now.
https://chasingthesquirrel.com/doomstead/index.php?topic=1260.msg7431#msg7431