The downfall of mankind

  Wouldn't it be nice to live in a world where everyone got along? A place without fear and intimidation, power and corruption, discrimination and prejudice. What a perfect world that would be.

  The age we live in, what so many people believe to be the best period of man kind, is far from that perfect place we all hoped it would be, in fact, some claim it to be the beginning of the end for our species. You would wonder why people would say that; the world isn't that bad of a place is it? Then slowly you see the pieces fit together, you start to see how the greed, the corruption and the need for ever more power is slowly eating away any chance for that world we all hope for, it is the downfall of man-kind.

   Greed, is one of the most influential concepts of man? Nothing is enough, the constant need for more of whatever it may be, even when faced with the fact that you may never need that much of any one thing; we still seem to need more of it, just so that we can feel superior to everyone else.

   (The starving of 3rd world countries for the over-consumption in richer countries.)

 Why is that we as a people are compelled to have more then others. We know that there are people in the world that literally have nothing, who are starving and dying as we speak, yet the mere fact that we in the 1st world are not, is enough to condemn the rest of the world to whatever fate they meet. While we have the luxury of having all these resources at our disposal, they go for days with nothing. The rich countries over-consume the world’s food supply, leaving the rest of the world to suffer. 

   “Enough food is available to provide at least 4.3 pounds of food per person per day worldwide. The problem, therefore, is not of production but clearly of access and distribution.”      ( Mittal p. 304)[i][1]

 Yet 24,000 people die every day of hunger, malnutrition or symptoms relating. If that’s not enough to make an impact, 18,000 of them are children.  It’s the whole business side of things that’s leading things to where they are. When you realize that most of the agriculture and produce are imported to the 1st countries by the 3rd world, it seems shocking that these countries are starving when they have so much to offer us. It’s the distributors and the companies that are producing the supply and selling it to us, leaving their own people to suffer for the benefit of money.

 Another problem in the over-consumption aspect is the consumption of natural resources. How many people do you know drive a car? A truck? An SUV? How many people do you know have heat in the winter and cool air in the summer? How many people use much more then they need? When you think of things in that manner, then its not all that hard to see what is meant by the over-consumption of natural resources. We use and we use, not thinking that these products are not ever lasting, they will, someday disappear. Its hard to care when you know the fact of the matter is, we will all be long gone before that day comes, but what about our descendents. We are stripping our planet of the natural resources it needs; we need for greater uses. We are not only taking away the resources though; we are polluting the air and water we need to survive with it. All for the benefit of comfort. We are slowly killing this world with our greed, all for the sake of being lazy. We use it then reject it, but by then it has become a toxin to the earth, killing our wildlife, our trees and water, our ozone. It is a wave a destruction slowly killing us all. Even with these facts our greed persists and we continue to consume, we know what we are doing, we know the harm it causes but the results are so convenient. We stay warm when it’s cold, cold when it’s warm, transportation is no longer a factor. We know there are solutions like public transportation and natural use of resources but we dismiss those for the sheer quality of life that we are accustomed. Greed is something we have no choice but to get rid of. It has no place in this world if we hope to make this world something to be proud of, it has so much affect and with it this world will not survive. If you choose to disbelieve look at it this way, so far, we have already started killing the animals, the air, the water and ourselves.

   Another factors for our deteriorating society is the corruption that is within it. Everyone is out for themselves and they care nothing for the world or the people in it. The lies, the secrets and exploits have taken over our world, we have people stealing from others, governments with their own agendas, and the people of power declaring false truths so to inflict fear and dependence.

   When we look at the world in the eyes of a child, what do we see? The most basic answer is trust and safety. As a child we know nothing about consequence, we see the world as it looks. When someone says something we believe it, because we have no reason not to. We are naïve to what the real world is. As we grow we realize the things that we didn’t before, that people are not always what they seem and maybe the world isn’t as safe a place as we thought when we were young.  At some point in life we realize just how much our view on life has changed, we realize that what people say aren’t always the truth, we understand these things and through knowledge and guidance we start doing exactly what everyone else is. Lying.  We’ve all seen it by now, the lies and the deceit brought forth by people. Everyone at one time or another has been subjected to it, and in most probability, done it themselves. It has gone far beyond what most people realize though. Maybe they’re naïve, maybe they’re too trusting, but the fact of the matter is that this problem has crept into all crevices of our world. It has become one f the great problems with our world today. The money aspect of this has grown far out of control.  Some even say that this problem is too far-gone for it to even be plausibly recovered. Just to many in the world with their own agendas, stealing, laundering and frauding the systems, and what’s worse is that most of the money taken is money directly responsible for recovering poor countries:

    “World corruption accounts for about $700 billion. This figure is twofold the entire African GDP (316 billions). It is a massive phenomena and a real cancer destroying the benefits of globalization in many poor countries.” (world academy, www.globalreader.com)[2] 

 Though this may seems like the worst problem corruption is causing but it goes even further beyond that.  Corruption has many faces and the one that plagues mankind the most is face of fear and intimidation.  Fear inflicted by the powerful, it’s such a commonplace thing that most people do not even realize its happening. It’s the controlling aspect that they use to keep us subdued. There’s a few levels of how it is maintained, starting at the most obvious, media. How many times have you seen pictures and videos of war, poverty, disease, all these threats are repeated over and over again, with new ones appearing almost daily. It’s through these that people become afraid of what “could” happen and unwillingly, unknowingly, hand over their control. How many terrorist attacks were reportedly supposed to happen in the last few years? And how many actually happened? The answer is none. All those alleged threats never happened, but the fear remains within the people that it may still happen. Media is the easiest way to infiltrate the lives of the everyday person, because no matter how hard you try not to see it, it’s inevitable that the news will somehow reach you. The United States has now used 9/11 to control their people, by intimidating them into a state of dependence. Through the media, they have put one alert on top of another, keeping the people controlled.  Governments abuse their power to their advantage, its them that are responsible for the most devastating, disgusting acts, and then they can use the media to cover it up. They are the ones keeping us controlled with fear. Every government on the planet has their own method, be it subtle or straightforward, they all use it to control the masses, and at the center of them all, is the leader. Its them, who are at the center of the whole thing, they have everything to gain and nothing to lose. Once in control, they have complete control, no matter what they try to convince people, they control everything within the government and therefore the nation. The entire system surrounding them benefits from this, just look at the oil situation, who gains? The government. They use their power to pursue their own agendas, and use whatever technique of fear or intimidation to control the masses into believing what they do is right. Any leader can be used as an example but the one that comes to most minds and is the most recognizable for this is George W. Bush. Look at what he has done with the war on terrorism/ Iraq invasion. He went after his own agenda and used the people as a front. Played on their fears that he inflicted to convince them it was “what needed to be done”, and just look at what happened with that.  Corruption is just one other reason that this world is the way it is. It shows how influenced we are by the negatives of what others tell us. We live by what they say, we do what they want us to do, and we live like they want us to.  It’s a senseless circle of power, which we have no control over.

   When everything is put together it comes down to one thing, the need for more power. There’s this constant need for more power in a world where everyone should be equal. The continuous battles between the rich and the powerful have taken the biggest toll on us, more than anything else.

   This is the ultimate form of the combination greed and corruption can make. It creates the lust forever more power; we are biologically attracted to it, and therefore become consumed by it. This has resulted in the poor quality of life that more the half the people in the world suffer through. When the powerful clash, it affects those already suffering, never does it actually have any effects on the actual people fighting these battles? Why is it that the little peoples in these situations always lose and the giants have everything to gain? When did the sacrifice of others for money become such a common thing? The answer Is that there is no answer, these types of inner wars have been going on throughout the ages. Every civilization in history and every ruler have only seeked[ii] more in his possession. Conquests and invasions have been going on since long before recorded history, but it’s everyone else around it that has to sacrifice when things go wrong. This has more then one type of infliction. It’s fought between companies and industries but is also a major factor in the reason why the government is failing. They seek ever more power and what that results to is just more authority over the people. This is one of the worst problems we face cause along with corruption in the government, we also face bad governing, and mixed together, leads to chaos.  We can’t dream of becoming a better people when we are constantly at war with each other. Always the government against the people and this leads nowhere. We cannot seem to get beyond that point. Everyone is working against each other, holding each other back. We are in this never ending struggle for the power to change things but that power is always misused and neglected. The problem with power is that the greed wins out in the end and corruption begins. When that interacts with it, the lust for power comes forth. It happens to the best of people, it’s a way of life, but the loss of life and the quality of life people must survive in caused by this is far to great to be ignored. It cannot happen if we are to make it as a people. Its is for these reason that we are killing ourselves. As with the old saying, “Absolute power corrupts absolutely.” So goes the meaning of the importance of what is being said. There shouldn’t be absolute power in a world where no one can be trusted, and while everyone is out for themselves and no one else. There should not be allowed absolute power yet we hand it over to them so that we don’t have to deal with the real realities of things. The bureaucracy beyond closed doors blinds us and this is the sum of our greatest weakness.

In a world with such problems, is it conceivable that we can recuperate from the devastation already inflicted? It is possible for coming back from this, but the chances of it happening seem to lessen everyday. The reality of it is that this is not something that can change over-night, and it’s definitely not something that will be regarded highly within in infrastructure like this one. We are the puppets of the masters and are job is to look the other way in the affairs of the leaders. Greed will never be gone for good and same goes with corruption, and obviously with those still intact, the need of power will still plague the world we live in. Resulting in what we are already experiencing. The truth is that we cannot maintain this current state of affairs. Something must be done to help those who cant help themselves, which know no better. There must be a voice for the voiceless, and the answer to our problem is we. We have the power as a people to rise up against the problems of today. We can make the world we live in the place it was meant to be. We must stop killing each other, be it through war or disease, to polluting and over-consummation. There is a way to reach these goals, there is a solution to every problem that we face in life, and there are those that are trying and standing up to those higher then ourselves and making their voices heard. But too few have the courage or the resources to pose a significant threat. If we just united though we would be unstoppable, we as a species have the potential for so many wonderful things, yet we waste our intellect on hurting each other and the planet.

  When looking at the present state of the way we live, we have no choice but to see where we are going wrong. These problems won’t just go away, because we pass them down to our children and they continue to make the same mistakes as we did. There has to be a way to stop the greed, the corruption and what seems to be a never ending struggle for power. Are we witnessing the slow progression of our end, can we change the course of our fate….or is this really the beginning of the end for us. Only time will tell.