From top: Dublin city centre yesterday; Anthony Sheridan
At first, the humans blamed the rat for bringing the Black Death plague that killed about 100 million over the centuries.
Then the humans decided it wasn’t the rat but the fleas hitching a ride on the rats that were to blame. Then, much later, they learned it wasn’t the fleas but a bacterium hiding out in the fleas that was responsible.
But humans weren’t the only ones observing such things.
The clever bacterium, through the process of evolution, realised that killing too many of its human hosts would mean self-extinction so it evolved into a less deadly virus.
Then, in 1918, the virus lost the run of itself again, killing between 20 and 50 million humans. So, once again in order to survive, it evolved into a milder pathogen that’s still killing humans today but not so many that its survival is threatened.
In 2009, for example, it killed a mere 284,000 humans, just enough to keep it going while keeping its human stock available for future consumption.
The current model, Covid 19, has killed over 400,000 so an easing off should kick in some time soon. So we can see – the virus learns lessons as it progresses, it has learned how to control its greed in order to guarantee its long-term survival.
Sadly, humans are not as clever. About 12,000 years ago they created a deadly virus called Capitalism. For thousands of years this virus was benign, it did little or no harm and humans came to love the benefits it brought.
But then the virus became malignant around the time humans call the Industrial Revolution. It turned in on itself and began to voraciously consume nature, its creator and only means of survival.
But, unlike the clever plague virus, humans have failed miserably to evolve a strategy that would allow them to continue enjoying the benefits of the capitalist virus while at the same time ensuring their long-term survival.
Instead, they have become hopelessly addicted to the all powerful, all consuming virus that’s leading them ever closer to the abyss.
Of course, there are plenty of humans only too aware of the impending disaster but, tragically, not enough to derail the juggernaut virus that is capitalism. The human created virus is out of control, rapidly consuming its own existence.
Here are some really scary quotes from experts who are trying to sound the alarm.
‘Vested interests and corrupt politicians combined with a population happy to deny problems overwhelm those that are trying to promulgate truth and facts.’
‘No amount of economic cost–benefit analysis is going to help us.’
‘We’re currently consuming resources as if there were four Earths.’
‘We are in a state of planetary emergency.’
‘On the current trajectory we’re possibly gone already.’
And these experts are not the only ones worried. The Black Death virus that has so successfully evolved survival strategies over the centuries is now facing extinction when [not if] the capitalist virus extinguishes humanity.
Who’s going to take the blame then?
Anthony Sheridan is a freelance journalist and blogs at Public Enquiry.
Humans: Not AS Clever As The Virus (BackGardenPhilosophy)
He makes it sound like evolution is something planned by a species to survive.”Clever Bacteria” (whatever that is!) didn’t sit down and have a meeting and decide “we’d better stop killing so many people”.
Evolution is about every possible mutation happening (over a very long time) and whatever survives long enough to pass on its genes does exactly that until we end up with species which look perfectly adapted to their environment. It’s not like plants said “We better get some energy from the sun so that we can survive”. It’s just the plants that did that, survived, and the ones that didn’t, didn’t.
Its an analogy – the current outlook for the Irish economy is laid out very well in a few places recently, the NTMA mid year investor presentation (linked before) and the latest Fiscal Assessment Report-its well worth a listen/read.
“The Government is implementing some €7 billion of additional spending on healthcare, income supports, wage subsidies, and cash supports to business. A further €7 billion of additional supports includes guarantees, loans, and investments. SPU 2020 projects a government deficit of €23 billion in 2020 (13.3. per cent of GNI*). This reflects €9.6 billion of additional spending and a €14.9 billion fall in general government revenue. For 2021, the deficit should improve if economic activity recovers and policy measures are scaled back as assumed, but the deficit is nevertheless projected to remain large at 7.3 per cent of GNI*. The Council assesses that the actions taken in 2020 thus far are conducive to prudent economic and budgetary management.”
https://www.fiscalcouncil.ie/fiscal-assessment-report-may-2020-2/
Only Marxism can save us now. This time lets do it properly, its its purest theoretical form and not let human failings mess it up.
Anyone who thinks we have pure capitalism in Ireland needs to move to the USA or Australia and get a feel for the real thing.