I was sent a link today to yet another of those idiotic rants that are so popular among that particular breed of so-called “activists” that would perhaps be better referred to as simply rebels without a cause, or at least without a cause that makes sense and may be worth supporting, seeing as their behavior and goals, inasmuch as they have any, tend to give activism a bad name. I’m talking about the rants about the supposed agenda certain “elites” have to depopulate the world, likely by killing people, usually for their own nefarious purposes.
Admittedly, this particular piece is less focused on those nefarious purposes, such as the need to maintain control, and actually makes a point of stating that those who call for a reduction of the human population appear truly convinced that it is necessary in order to save the planet, but the general idea that some terrible hidden agenda is at work and that those who try to push it forward must be stopped if humanity is to still have a chance remains. As such, I had to post a lengthy comment there, and I will copy it here as well, with just the few minor edits necessary to turn it from a comment referring to the post in question to something that would be appropriate on its own.
A bigger problem if we are to have a chance are people like these, which unfortunately are the tremendous majority, who reject any attempts to control population, whether they believe it’s some sort of evil conspiracy or just think with nothing but their gonads and are absolutely incapable of seeing how much of a problem population is. And the other problem is that the “elites” are either far from being as determined to do something about this as these people think, perhaps in large part because an increasing population is required to maintain the current economic model and the vast majority of them care for that far more than for the ecosystem, or they’re just not agreeing on how to go about it, so they keep pulling in different directions, because considering how easy to manipulate and control the vast majority of people are, if these “elites” would be acting on a clear plan to drastically lower population, it’d have started dropping significantly long ago and the planet would definitely be far better off. Whether humans, not counting said “elites”, would also be better off or not would depend entirely on the method used to reduce population.
The fact is that, while the top 2% do use about half of the resources that are currently used by humans, some 80% live in poverty, on various levels, and yet we still use 150% of what can be sustainably harvested. Align everyone to the “average” 18%, which include you and me and almost everyone else reading this, and we’d be at 250% with the current population. And that doesn’t just mean that we need a reduction to 40% of current levels, but to even less than that, because a lot of damage has been done already and the planet needs to be able to regenerate, plus that humans are just one species of many and the others that we share this planet with need to have enough to live good lives as well.
Now, of course, there are ways to reduce a person’s footprint, and a lot can be done by reducing that of the ones at the top, but that of the many who now live in poverty will need to be increased significantly if they are to have good lives, regardless of the advancements in green technologies. Of course, we should strive to reduce pollution, try to entirely eliminate substances that are harmful in themselves and not only because of the immense quantities that are currently used, increase reusing and recycling, improve efficiency and so on, but at the same time we shouldn’t reduce freedom by this, so we should be few enough so each person will have the resources and also the space available to lead what they’d see as a good life, within reason, without this having a noticeable negative impact on the planet’s ecosystem.
So we have three options here:
1. We move the majority of the human population to another planet. No population control here, but for one it’d just delay the inevitable, as continuing without population control would mean we’d be right back where we started on two planets instead of one before long. Plus that, of course, applying this solution is currently impossible and will remain impossible for a very long time.
2. We kill the majority of the human population, or let them die unnecessarily by not offering them access to resources, medical attention and so on. This is what the people who launch into such rants seem to believe the “elite” is up to and what some may unfortunately be up to if the problem isn’t solved otherwise. It would be a quick and easy solution, but of course an undesirable one, so in order to avoid it we must reduce the population through other means, so there will be no justification for this method… And so Nature itself won’t take care of the problem for us by doing this in one way or another, if said “elites” believed by some to have such a plan won’t “manage” it first.
3. We drastically reduce birth rates by any means necessary, perhaps to the minimum necessary to avoid a genetic bottleneck, and apply fair and objective eugenics rules to determine which few would still be allowed to have children, selecting for proven resistance to disease, extraordinary mental or physical abilities and special talents. Free sterilizations, free or heavily subsidized birth control, sexual education focusing on birth control, not counting abstinence as an option, direct rewards offered to those who’d willingly be childfree, freely waiving their right to even be tested, but also extremely harsh punishments for those who’d still try to have children despite not being allowed to.
I’d much rather go for option three, thank you very much, to both eventually reduce the population to sustainable levels and still maintain or even continue to increase both human lifespan and standard of living… But then there are people like these, who are unwilling or unable to see what’s right before their eyes, pushing us all towards solution number two, one way or another.
Let’s say that the author‘s heart was in the right place, and he did make some excellent points and put a few other interesting issues up for debate, but he mixed that with a bunch of truisms and plenty of other ideas that are just plain wrong, and then buried it all under an entire heap of horseshit… And using the term may be insulting to the digestive system of horses.
If you roll up your sleeves and get digging, you can get some good things out of this book, but it’ll take wading through an attempt to challenge a myth, taken to ludicrous extremes that may unfortunately be believed by many but which are probably recognized as laughable by anyone who’d ever willingly read something like this, by using another that’s just as wrong. Add the hypocrisy of those included rants about prophets and lawmakers while obviously striving to become one and the pathetic attempt at a story and I’ll say you have much better things to do with your time, whether you want to save the world or not.
Rating: 2/5
I like books, but it’s really rare that I’m awed by one, yet this managed that. Authors that try to create original fantasy worlds, with new or at least highly uncommon creatures and systems, also tend to make me raise my eyebrows and think twice, because all too often people struggle to just make something different and forget about making it actually good, but this one is once again an exception, creating a rather unusual world and being brilliant at the same time. And the names of the good characters can still make me snicker when I remember them, long after finishing the book.
There is something to be said about the ending, which features unnecessary scenes but remains forced even with them, and those who are bothered by “perfect” characters will find reasons to complain throughout, yet there’s simply too much done exactly right in here for a few perhaps questionable decisions the author made about a few elements to mar the overall impression. So just read it, all right?
Rating: 5/5
Note: This is the updated version of this quick review. The initial one was posted on June 26, 2006, with a rating of 10/10.
If you haven’t already, have a look at the latest trailer for Elder Scrolls Online and then try to imagine what will it take to top that this year. I for one keep wondering whether certain scenes, particularly those that show faces, are actually filmed, because if that’s entirely CGI then actors really have to fear for their future.
Back to the game itself, as you can see at the end of the trailer, you can now sign up for the closed beta if you are interested, though you shouldn’t also expect to be selected, considering the huge number of applications. In time, especially for the last month before the actual release, they may let in everyone, or at least nearly everyone, and let them actually play the game, but initially they say they’re looking for experienced beta testers to participate in very focused test sessions, lasting only a few hours and dealing with very specific issues, starting from simply creating a character and logging on and then moving on to specific areas, specific quests, the use of specific skills or basic guild interactions.
Perhaps rather strangely, with the obvious exception of the non-disclosure agreement that won’t even let me say whether I’ll be accepted or not without their approval, that sounds rather interesting to me, so I signed up, even if that required me to install Chrome again for it, since they only announced solving the problem that made the process not work for so many otherwise today. The game itself doesn’t have much of an appeal for me, due to reasons ranging from the basic fact that it’s an MMO, to its focus on player-versus-player combat, which I won’t engage in, to the associated costs, but the fact that I tend to be so thorough and nitpick so much means that I seem to be reasonably good at such tests, if I’m in the right mood for it, so why not give it a shot?
Realistically, odds are that there’s no such thing as magic, there are no deities or similar higher entities actually willing and able to directly influence our lives, our thoughts don’t have palpable effects on their own, prayers don’t get answered, wishes don’t get granted, there is no grand design and no purpose outside the one we choose or create ourselves, and all other such things that we believe in just to make our miserable existence more bearable are equally false. And if somehow they are not false, odds are that we still need to work for them, go through extensive training and perform exhausting rituals to correctly use that magic or those thought patterns in order to create the reality we seek, or wish and pray in very specific ways, perhaps make the necessary sacrifices and in all other ways prove that we are worthy of being selected for a divine intervention out of the billions of others with desperate needs and passionate desires.
We believe that it’s possible otherwise, that miracles can simply happen, that the blind forces of chance will just decide to work in our favor sooner or later, that spiritual guardians or other similar entities advise and protect us, that wise and benevolent entities put the current obstacles in front of us for our own good, or perhaps simply that something better awaits us on the other side, at the end of this miserable physical existence, merely because we have to, because otherwise the world would be even more hopeless and depressing than it is now. Thankfully, some of us are rational enough to realize this and act accordingly, seeing these beliefs as options that can’t be clearly ruled out and doing what we can to live according to those of them we deem suitable for us as long as by doing so we don’t harm or otherwise significantly hamper ourselves or others, yet many are either unable or unwilling to do so and end up either striving to impose their unproven and likely unrealistic beliefs on others and harming or even killing those who try to resist or, quite the contrary, unnecessarily accepting a fate worse than the one they’d be able to forge for themselves if only they thought it possible.
If and when we, or at least most of us, will realize this and start taking our beliefs for what they are instead of either what we stubbornly and senselessly wish them to be or what, perhaps even more stubbornly and senselessly, most of us have been taught they should be, there may yet be some hope left for us… Or, quite the contrary, nothing but an endless pit of despair when we realize that there is no hope, no purpose, no explanation and overall no answer, or at least none that we’d be able to accept and live with, to our most important questions, desperate pleas or fervent prayers. But that’s how life is and we have used our beliefs to hold ourselves and each other back for far too long, so this is the risk we’ll have to take if we are to ever move forward.
