Before Civilisation We Were The Most Social Of Any Life | Critical Analysis |Axisoflogic.com

“Paradoxically, man has never been so much in danger as he is now, at the peak of his power. Mesmerized by our own power, we do what we can do, not what we ought to do.”

Aurelio Peccei*- 1908- 1984
(A founding member of the Club of Rome)

Why do we do that? Competition has created civilisation it’s in control and dominates everyone; we aren’t free, competition forces us to do what we do. We must replace competition with cooperation as a way of life to survive.

I evaluate competition v cooperation:

All forms of civilisation are aberration of social life
There's no question about it. A new epoch—the Anthropocene— the human bean — has begun. So many scientist say. It’s a misnomer it should be called by a more accurate name that describes global capitalism. The new epoch is more like - the fatal epoch. I don’t know how scientist would name that, nor I’m interested in scientific names, but the name as is, is dishonest depiction of the epoch. Modern humans have lived for near 200,000 years and if the new era appeared since 1950s- 60s? (Still vague) it coincides with the start of global capitalism. That’s world trade, container ship, ore carriers, and the use of oil engines instead of steam, private transport, jet liners, and the green revolution, plus a population explosion. All of it is only a tiny bit of human existence. It’s dishonest to name it the Anthropocene as it’s laying the blame on people instead of the system, civilisation is competitive and capitalism is its extreme version, it therefore is synthetic that is, it’s not natural as the more social life is, so it must be more cooperative and less competitive. But we sacrifice people and maybe most if not all life to save a system without life.

The synthetic nature of civilisation particularly capitalism is due to its contradictions, being social and competitive; it’s an unstable state that’s always and must be controlled but can never be stable, let alone fair and honest. Due to that unstable state cause by its diverse and competing interest of the world’s powerful few, it leaves most small business and its workers venerable to the unknown outcome of the competing interest of the 1%. In the last forty odd years of neoliberalist capitalism growth compulsion has damaged the ability of the planet’s and its life to maintain its self especially with the expected 9 billion people by the middle of the century. This is well beyond government controlled by capitalism to save anyone from its demise.

That globalised society is controlled by dominant people using weapons, religion, and in capitalism its fiat money, which has no limits therefore give the illusion of invincibility. The influence that manufacturers have in producing weapons of real mass destruction to disrupt international relations is part of its “wealth creation”.

Our problem now isn’t the unfairness, the thievery, the brutality, as that’s civilisation, it’s what we lived with for thousands of years, people and nature can cope with that. What nature can’t cope with is fossil fuelled powered capitalism as that system has no controls except that it must grow to be viable. Physically that’s impossible, however, capitalist economists aren’t bound by earthly constraints, but we and maybe all life are at stake due to global warming and the devastation we made on land and seas in the wake of capitalist economic growth. We can’t live that way for much longer so we must stop the now impossibility of growing the economy and fix the damage we have done to survive.

To reduce our output and consumption is easy, whilst to increase it is much harder at the best of times and this is the worst of times to maintain growth, which now will be fatal if continued, but only for all children. Life’s most important need is to procreate and ensure its ability to thrive.

* Aurelio Peccei was an Italian scholar and industrialist, best known as the founder and first president of the Club of Rome

Lionel Anet is a member of Sydney U3A University of the Third Age, of 20 years standing and now a life member.

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