Three little things...

It seems to me that without three major upheavals, the human race—and perhaps all life on earth—is doomed.

1. An end to war, warmongering, the weapons industry and so on.

2. A rapid reduction in population, eventually stabilising at less than 10% of the current level, and perhaps as low as 1%.

3. Development of cheap—or preferably free—and abundant clean energy available to everyone.

That's all. Just those three little things. Not much to ask really... But without any one of them, what hope do we have?

But, I hear you ask, what about pollution? What about food production? What about climate change? What about the north-south rich-poor divide? What about... But if you think about it, those things all depend on the three things in my list. Pollution? Mostly caused by the use of fossil fuels, and of course by our bloated population, and by the agricultural methods that our population has forced on us. And by wars and weapons production. Also much easier to clean up if you have lots of clean energy to spare. Food production? We can easily produce enough to feed 10% of our current population. Even 50%. Just not 100%. (Or maybe even 100%, except that inequalities of distribution keep so many starving while others waste food in the most disgusting way. Ever watch children's TV shows from the US? Ever notice how often they have food fights?) Climate change? Again, the combination of population and the use of fossil fuels. The north-south rich-poor divide? Well that's a tougher one. But if there's abundant clean energy and no population pressure, it will certainly be easier to solve than it is in our current conditions.

Fifty years ago, I would have said that the priority was to work on human psychology: doing whatever is possible to keep people with personality disorders away from power, building people up, developing the captain and so on. If that could have been achieved, then point #1 above would follow automatically. Point #2 could have been achieved much more easily and with far less trauma, since the population fifty years ago was less than half what it is now. Potentially even point #3 could have been achieved by now, especially if the talents of all the mathematicians and physicists who work for the military-industrial complex turned their efforts in that direction.

But none of that happened. As Yoda might have said: Immaturity, childhood trauma and poor psychological development lead to fear. Fear leads to large families, greed and lust for power. Large families, greed and lust for power lead to overpopulation, war, pollution, poverty, pestilence, climate change and extinction... Now we're facing the results of that.

The plight of life on earth is now so fragile, so urgent, that it's too late to start from root causes. Without a short-term (a century or two?) effort to address the symptoms directly, the patient will not survive long enough for any vaccination to help. We need to act now, and boldly, to have any chance. Once we're more secure, then we can go back to working on psychology. But for now, I think we need to get on with it, and if a few people's feelings are hurt, well frankly that's a lot less serious than what would happen to them if things continue as they are. There are worse things than losing your job in the bomb factory, not being able to have children, or having your oil company's profits collapse. Sorry about that, but making bombs, having children and extracting oil are not just part of the problem: they are the problem.

Next question: What can I do to help with even one of these three?

And I have no idea.

Moron of the week

The prize for moron of the week must go to the Israeli naval commando—a member of the world-renowned Shayetet 13, supposedly one of the toughest special forces units in the world—who allowed a few unarmed civilians on the Mavi Marmara to beat him up and take his gun. What the...?

If there is any truth to this, then clearly the poor little boys of Shayetet 13 should all go home and have a nice warm cup of cocoa, but they should remember to get Mummy to check it first because if it's too hot it might burn their lips. Instead of handing out medals to murderers, the Israeli military should be conducting courts martial, not only of these laughably incompetent idiots, but also of the officers who selected, trained and commanded them.

But of course that's only if it's true. I doubt it. Even without his gun, a member of one of these units can kill you seventeen different ways with his bare hands, silently, in a couple of seconds. They are supposed to be the best of the best. Their training alone would break any normal man. The history of their unit is filled with daring raids on terrorist hideouts, assassinations, sabotage, infiltration far behind enemy lines... Are we seriously supposed to believe that they allowed themselves to be beaten up and captured? Excuse me?

One thing is for sure. Never again should Shayetet 13 be mentioned in the same company as the US Navy Seals, Sayeret Matkal, SAS, Rangers, Green Berets, Delta Force and so on. Instead they should be grouped together with such fictional incompetents as Inspector Clouseau, Austin Powers and—my personal favourite—Rowan Atkinson's bumbling secret agent Johnny English. Whether this shameful story is true or not, the loss of professional pride in the unit must now be so serious that for morale reasons alone it should be disbanded immediately, before the shame spreads to the entire IDF.

One last thing: the Turks have said that the next aid flotilla from Istanbul will be accompanied by gunboats from the Turkish navy. If a few unarmed civilian peace activists could make such a mess of Shayetet 13, what will happen if they attempt to engage the Turkish navy? I think, based on the evidence of earlier this week, that Israel would be well-advised to let them pass unmolested.