The Condition of Our Anthropocentrism

Scenes like this on the Cumberland River will become quite rare in about a decade. Live Now!

I would like to start this article out with a story about a friend who went into a Verizon store to buy a new phone. Rather than a wide selection of phones on display from which to choose from, only the most expensive phones were on a display that one could compare. These were all over $800.00. Most were above the $1,000.00 price point. This friend wanted to know about my new phone I bought to replace my older flip phone, which had been slowly dying earlier last year. 

Now, compared to the expensive phones available, some of which are more than $2,000.00, my new  phone is still a bare-bones model. It still can do far more than I need and I really simply wanted a phone that could play my MP3 files, which the flip phone couldn't. In order to store as much music and media as I could, I also wanted a phone which could accept a 1 TB microSD card. I don't use my phone for much except for talking and an occasional text and the music. I did research all the available phones to see how they all compared with one another. Not being an expert myself, I had to take the word of the reviewers who rated these phones. 

My friend didn't see any of the phones I mentioned which had prices lower than $800.00. This experience shows how the marketing and advertising (propaganda) industries work to extract the largest sums of money by not displaying cheaper options for customers who don't need the best and/or newest item and/or the item with the most features. One notices these same types of tactics in store after store, especially grocery stores where all kinds of junk food that nobody really needs is placed in the middle of main aisles all through the store or on the ends of aisles in colorful displays, often using red as a color, attracting one's attention much more than products within the aisles.

The last three weeks I have written about radical acceptance (here and here and here) which have focused on multiple aspects of the predicaments we face, but which have pointed to one main theme over and over - our continued human supremacy across all spectrums. Almost anyone studying energy and resource decline will recall the name Hannah Ritchie from Our World In Data. This article explains that whole scenario in detail, and the title says it all. One could easily say that this is our wetiko laying out the reassuring lies our civilization tells itself.   

It's not much different from the nonsense spewed on the nightly news regularly where they talk about how great the economy is, how inflation is going down, and how the unemployment data shows very low numbers of people looking for work. Of course, everybody knows that the "official" numbers and data are complete crap as far as telling the real story, because if it was actually true, homeless people in this country would be next to nonexistent. On the contrary, the number of homeless people here in the USA is growing dramatically and one story explains precisely what it is like. Of course, this is just another symptom of overshoot and collapse, and Dave Pollard wrote an excellent rundown of the situation here which is leading to all sorts of other issues considering how the entire system is interconnected and interdependent on all of its subsystems. 

One factor that is causing homelessness is the constant rising costs of groceries, at least here in the U.S. I saw an article recently where eggs are going for $9.00 a dozen in California. Considering how bird flu is taking a serious toll on chickens with 1,000,000 of them affected in Ohio just a couple weeks ago, and how it is likewise affecting cattle (cows and pigs especially) prices, this alone looks set to continue grocery price increases for a while to come. With these kinds of increases, everything else will follow, and this pressure will likely increase homelessness dramatically. 

On my article a couple weeks ago (Radical Acceptance, Part Two), a comment by paqnation (Chris) led me to look up an article by Tom Murphy I had posted several years ago when I first learned that only a very select few people would even be interested in the topics highlighted here, and as a result, the illusion of getting this knowledge out to a wider audience would remain just that - an illusion. I recall a few people claiming that Myers-Briggs Personality Tests are inaccurate (see here and here) and even one person who told me that the tests are a scam of some sort. Of course, no proof of such a claim was provided which led me to discount that claim, but there is truth behind the inaccuracy issue. Still, M-B tests are useful for the discussion Tom pointed out.

Chris also collaborated on this article on Rob Mielcarski's blog, which he provided a link to in the comment on my article. Many valid and accurate points are brought to the forefront in it and many thanks to both Chris and Charles for writing it. 

Elisabeth Robson posted a rather short but concise article about overshoot rich with charts and graphs which ends with this quote: 

"We can’t prepare for what we don’t see coming. So let’s take our blinders off for just a few minutes, and see. We’ll put those blinders back on, so we can get through the day, but perhaps by seeing, we’ll work harder to protect what we love."

It sure is a nice thought, anyway. As an individual, we can make choices that reduce the harm done. Ultimately, however, as long as a majority of the world's people live within civilization, these efforts are too little too late. Oh well, we can still Live Now, for what it's worth. Accepting the truth of the situation we face isn't being negative or pessimistic or doomism. It is being realistic. 

I'm not quite sure how I came upon this article, but it mirrors a considerable amount of Robert Sapolsky's work regarding our lack of free will, which, of course indicates our lack of agency that I frequently discuss. It's not particularly long and provides plenty of evidence as to why we behave the way we do and that most all of it is predetermined. I frequently get folks who want to argue about free will and I find it somewhat humorous. I used to be there myself, so I understand. The more I learn, the more I realize how little I actually know. Perhaps this is why I find overshoot and related topics so interesting - there's always more to learn!

On a somewhat related note, a new development I am excited to report on is the World System Dynamics Model page on Wikidot. John Peach wanted to develop a model similar to the Limits to Growth model but with less emphasis on economics and more on ecological boundaries. To get started, he created this Polycrisis Wiki that includes major components of the polycrisis, and pages on individual stressors and their relationships. It can be used as a stand-alone reference, or as the outline for the model later. The wiki is incomplete, but has many of the most important features. 

Enough for today. I could add a ton of thoughts about recent events like the ongoing wildfires in Los Angeles, but I think others have covered the topic extensively enough. The simple fact that Accuweather has estimated damages to be in excess of $250 billion says more than I can in an article. I have been concerned that a similar occurrence could just as easily happen here in my own neck of the woods as it has in Lahaina and Gatlinburg [2024] and Gatlinburg [2016] and Paradise and untold countless other cities both in the U.S. and globally. We had an extended drought here last year that with sufficient wind and a spark could have had the same consequences. 

To end things in a lighter fashion and hopefully be more inspirational, check out today's pictures from Potts Mountain Wayside!