David Levy – Is occupying the moral high ground enough? – Feb 21
Thinking in global terms, I can scarcely recall any incident where the Governments of the World have acted in a totally unified way.
It took two World Wars to bring about the United Nations out of the League of Nations, establishing global rules and regulations such as genocide. But even then ecocide was shelved as being a bridge too far. Ever since its conception the United Nations has proved to have a design with failure built-in and it is easily side-tracked from its purpose.
It has only been the devastation that can be delivered by nuclear war that has kept the world from descending again into the abyss of another World War. However mankind has skated around the apex of the abyss many times with regional wars, famines, genocidal incidents and the kind of disunity that would make the eyes from another planet fix firmly on us for invasion, as envisaged in War of the Worlds by Jules Verne.
What is very clear is that we are tribal, nationalistic and self-serving, building empires which exploit resources whether they be ours or not. I cite the way the Somali fishermen have, due to industrial fishing by other nations, found their maritime communities forced into piracy. No apology from westernised exploitation, just a nod towards the freedom to do on the high seas what they want.
This constant drive by those with wealth and power to deprive poorer communities so they become the ones without is the reality of humanity.
Ethically, we should do better but we don’t and we certainly do not educate our public to the deficiencies of our own morals.
Nowadays I find I have become disgusted with our moral high ground positions, thrust at us by national treasures like the BBC and Sir David Attenborough. Certainly it is positive that we should aim for better and I applaud that, but we must also face ourselves with the truth of our avoidances to do better. The examples are there to be made, and they will be at the heart of any extinction scenario.
I have recall to one incident where the world eventually pulled together and that was over the destruction of the ozone layer by CFCs. It was the Montreal Protocol where scientists and politicians realised we had to act to save us from a global catastrophe.
It is my contention that there is already enough evidence to convince the world that unless we step back from the brink we face global extinction due to these many aspects of our complacency.
David Levy
One Response to “David Levy – Is occupying the moral high ground enough? – Feb 21”
Geoff Meaden
David,
Just to say that “I could not agree with you more”. As I believe I mentioned once before, I am now half way through writing a paper on “The interconnectedness of the theatres of demise”. This is just attempting to show all the main ways in which the 10 most likely avenues for global catastrophe are reinforcing each other and thus accelerating the chances of catastrophe. I’ll try to remember to send you a pre-publication copy.
Regards
Geoff.