Through modern Archeology and Antropology, we have accumulated detailed
knowledge of several hitherto unknown 'civilizations' that
flourished for sigificant periods of time, only to eventually fail for
a variety of reasons such as climate change, deforestation and
political implosion.
In the last entry, I suggested that the emergence of
scientific thought in the middle of the last millennium radically
changed the world. That's because Western Europe, was soon
encouraged by its superior weapons and deep water navigation
capabilities to 'explore' (and pillage) a world previously inaccessible
to them. That quickly led to an orgy of exploitative colonization which is
still going on and has often been justified by notions of
cultural, 'racial' or religious superiority.
The process of forced cultural diffusion gradually 'opened up' not only
the Americas, but the entire world; it was soon accompanied by
sustained growth of the human population despite two 'world wars'
during the Twentieth Century. Significantly; the only war with the
potential to arrest population growth–– a nuclear World War Three––
was narrowly averted in 1962. Nevertheless, the detonation of a third
nuclear weapon in anger now seems more likely than at any time since
then.
In fact, all modern wars, including those now either in
progress, threatened, or smoldering around the world, are clearly
related to colonial and post-colonial resentments, a judgement still
not acknowledged by 'world' leaders, who can't seem to admit that
the intensity of those resentments and the manifest impossibility
of ever addressing them within the context of the global economy has
never been more apparent.
We can also see in retrospect that the avarice and cruelty of
European colonizers toward those they exploited was nearly universal;
yet, the same behavior quickly became the norm for the
leaders of former colonies who came to power after World War Two. Like
earlier imperial expansions, the pivotal one enabled by European
science also delivered a measure of economic 'progress' to those it
exploited; however, unlike them, the economic expansion
launched from Europe in the the Fifteenth century never collapsed of
its own weight; probably because it also marked the beginning of
today's competitive global economy. Human population
growth has been sustained through the plethora of scientific advances
(many of them unexpected) generated by economic and military competition. That a global
economy can thrive on greed, fear, and dishonesty has remained evident despite the
nearly constant background of wasteful open warfare somewhere on the
planet.
Unfortunately, the rigorous intellectual honesty required for success
in science and technology has not spilled over into the political
domain. World leaders have continued, to retain enough tacit approval
from the people they govern to cling to the same time-honored political rhetoric
employed throughout history.
As noted earlier, the consequences of such intellectual schizophrenia
can be seen all around us. Cognitive dissonance is openly embraced as
national policy with no sense of shame; Indeed, it's brandished; with
little evidence that those doing so are even aware of the ignorance
they are admitting to; nor do 'responsible' scientists who should certainly know
better ever speak out.
American drug policy, is simply one of the world's oldest, most irrational,
cruel, and counter-productive policies. it survives only because it
has become too politically correct to challenge; however, it's not the
only such example.
Also, because a unique study of recalcitrant cannabis users was
(unexpectedly) enabled by passage of a fiercely resisted state initiative, it
is both distressing and revealing that those with the most reason
to be curious about the phenomenon of pot use have solidly committed
themselves to embracing many of the same irrational assumptions
of their political opponents.
