I deal, on occasion, with people who cannot see a world anew, because the hurdles of change to them seem insurmountable. To those I repeat a quote by Steve Jobs: “The people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.”
Real change is not for the faint of heart. But I, for one, cannot stand to see humanity make a fool of itself, for I am no greater-fool who bows down to manmade mediocrity. Below is the exchange with a Dutchman I reached out to, which pretty much stands on its own in answering why I bother to do what I do:
You seem to have quite lofty ambitions and much self-efficacy.
My lofty ambition is not to make a fool of myself, as the vast majority of people who ride the train of manmade mediocrity inherently do. And yes, the “doe maar normaal” [translated: be normal] makes anyone who sticks their head above “het maaiveld” [translated: ground level] in Holland look like they are insane. It is why many in Europe remain lame-ducks and submit to mediocrity. The same mediocrity they had to be rescued from, and will need again.
What you have discovered for yourself these past ten years has been obvious to many of us for quite some time: The Human Race has all but outlived its usefulness. This is just nature. Of course, humans – arrogant as they are ignorant – like to believe that they tamed nature, or have some control over it, but when we were to look back from the future, thousands of years from now, humans were no more than a sneeze in Earth’s existence.
There is no usefulness to any species, or existence in general, one could argue, hence there is no running out of it. Agreed, many of us can see that we humans have fucked up, and as we proliferate manmade cancer easy to spot, few can figure out how to cure our proverbial cancer. And unlike cancer, our dysfunction is rooted in a singular disease, lodged in a much higher normalization of truth than ever discussed.
The Human Race destructs itself. It can’t help it. It is in their nature to do so and there is no turning back. Surely, one could step up onto a soap box and shout like mad that we all should change and those who do could even be right. But the outcome would be just the same. We are what we are and our fate is sealed. Those, who delude themselves that they can make a difference will have exactly the same future as everyone else. Perhaps the only difference will be that their epitaph will be: “I told you so …”
Duh, of course, there is no turning back. Accelerated anthropogenic cascade is what we induce today. No, it is not a soapbox I am on. My efforts are to stave off the manmade falsehoods that are on the soapbox today, indoctrinating the vast majority of greater-fools of society, and as indentured slaves eagerly submit to. Sure, our long-term fate is sealed, so is the fate of anything in our universe. I admire the people who step out of their comfort zone and refuse to take manmade manacles lying down. Viva la resistance.
In my view, those who have seen what lies ahead of us, have (only) two viable options: 1. Go out kicking and screaming, or 2. Sit back and enjoy the ride while it lasts.
I personally have chosen option 2. The ride is beautiful.
Enjoy sitting inside the cave of Plato’s allegory, I’ll be on the outside running the gauntlet. For I care about inventing and pushing for a better future for our offspring than the mess I found.
The greatest threat to humanity is not that there is a lot of evil in the world, but that there are people who do nothing about it.
