nanojath's Journal: Screw It - We're Fucked

I know I've got a penchant for the time to just lay it down, for once and for all - we're fucked. People are usually idiots in the individual case and reliably idiots in the collective. Our brains evolved but not fast enough. We're not capable of reliable, collective cognition on the social and historical scale.

Case in point: the Middle East. Anyone with a brain can look at this situation and say, obviously Israel is not going to go away. They are entrenched, wealthy, and well-armed. Anyone can look at this situation and say, Israel has a problem. They are surrounded by nations that feel some degree of historical, racial, and ideological kinship. They are in a violent, extended conflict with a group of people that share that kinship. Clearly, a hard-line, isolationist, expansionist stance is essentially a guarantee of continued conflict. It's fairly obvious that the Jews is not going to forget that their Arab enemies sought to push them into the sea by military force. They will forever view their victory against this attack as entirely sufficient justification of their state and their expansion. Neither are they going to forget the tactics of their opponents now. The use of bombing civilian targets as a lynchpin of resistance insures that Palestine will be viewed as an untrustworthy, barbaric and terrorist enemy, and it is not worthwhile to bargain with untrustworthy, barbaric terrorists. Meanwhile, Israel justifies every egregious offense against human liberty and dignity it commits against the Palestinians on the basis of these actions, and the Palestinians justify their actions on the basis of these offenses.

A side note? Nobody ever responds to my journals anyway but in the event you do, please don't bother whipping up an argument against one or the other of these sides. My point is that it is the basic concept of the sides themselves, and the belief that the supposed existence of either side can possibly justify the unjustifiable actions of BOTH sides, that is wrong. But the proponents of the sides will never, ever see it this way. So, you've got racism, religious conflict, a dozen different shades of nationalism, an extremely valuable commodity, a history of hateful and violent acts, nuclear weapons, all rolled up in one context. What is the possibility of resolving this context to a peaceful equilibrium? It is ZERO, okay? Zero. Zero. Zero.

Do you know why we keep getting these terror alerts over and over and over again here in the good old US of A? Because a whole buncha ambitious guys jumped at the brass ring of political power and then suddenly realized that when another (yeah, that's a when, not an if, just like the crashing of the WTC was another, not a first - on the same property by the same people, so let's stop acting so damn surprised) horrible action goes off, they were going to get blamed. Of course, they're screwed either way. Now when it happens, the inevitable lapses of security that allow it (which are all caused, at core, by the inevitable reality that human beings are lazy and completely hypnotized by the habitual repetition of anything) will be blamed on the "boy who cried wolf" syndrome. Believe me, this phrase will be invoked when the time comes.

So they have a warning because the basic reality is that, the reason terrorism works is because it is very, very difficult to stop. It is based on the unexpected capitalization on the mundane context. Everybody knew out of control planes were dangerous. Everybody knew planes got hijacked. Everybody knew hijacked planes were out of the control of the people we trust to keep planes safe.

What are the chances of avoiding another terrorist attack? ZERO. What are the chances of avoiding a nuclear detonation in the first post nuclear century? ZERO. What are the chances that we will slow rather than accelerate the world-wide trends that are leading into ecological disaster? ZERO.

It isn't about the sides. It's about power, and manipulation, and human nature, and the basic perversity of matter: it is SO much easier to create chaos than to create order. Think about what it took to turn those twin towers into a pile of smoking rubble. Then think about what it takes to build a building, an airplane, think about what it takes to bring three thousand people into this world, to feed and clothe and educate them. That's reality. I've given up on a happy ending, it's fairly clear that God is not THAT kind of director. Not in this world, anyway. And that's all, my friends. That is all.

Possibilities

[Safety Cap]

What is the possibility of resolving this context to a peaceful equilibrium? It is ZERO, okay? Zero. Zero. Zero.

Here's one thing that they (we) can try:

1. Tell the settlers in the West Bank that they have 90 days to either clear out back to Israel or start the paperwork to become Palestinian citizens. If they come back, get 'em some cheap housing to stay in until they can figure out where they want to live.
2. Erect a (Berlin-like) wall/DMZ between Israel and Palestine. Stock with dogs, tank traps, mines, machine guns nests, etc. Declare that anyone attempting to cross will be shot without warning or mercy. For effect, release convicted murderers into the DMZ to give the troops target practice (Running man, anyone?).
3. Pour $$$ into Palestine to help them build a self-sustaining economy (e.g., McDonalds, KFC, Target and all other manner of western commerce). Also give everyone a TV and give Fox exclusive broadcast rights. Televise running man events. If that (and the new reality show 'Habib Millionaire') doesn't turn them all into Brain-Dead Sloths, then nothing will!
4. In 50 years, remove wall.

Rinse, repeat.