[LONG] We Tried ... We Failed ... We're Sorry ...

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NOTE: This post is the first of the final ten posts that I intend to submit to this website. The text started out as a few paragraphs on USENET back in the 1990s, and it has since grown by leaps and bounds over the last two decades as global events have unfolded. I am sure that it will continue to morph and change as time goes on, and I hope that its tone and basic precepts will continue. Enjoy!

Dear Future,

We tried. We really did - some of us, anyway. Look what we had to work with; a balkanized world, governed by those whose only interest was in serving and enriching themselves; an energy grid powered by non-renewable fossil fuels (do you still have these?); a global information network full of invalid claims or semi-redacted misinformation; an uneven distribution of natural resources; and faith-based institutions competing for the minds of the children through philosophical rhetoric, political campaigns, religious propaganda, outright lies, suppression of truth, and seemingly random acts of terrorism.

Yet some of us were able to see the world for what it was: A single, closed environment with potential for greatness, infected with a viral life-form which was Humanity itself. Our civilization was its own worst enemy; and, as one of our writers once wrote:

"We trained hard, but it seemed that every time we were beginning to form up into teams we would be reorganized. Presumably the plans for our employment were being changed. I was to learn later in life that, perhaps because we are so good at organizing, we tend as a nation to meet any new situation by reorganizing; and a wonderful method it can be for creating the illusion of progress while producing confusion, inefficiency and demoralization."

Some have attributed the aforementioned quote to Gaius Petronius Arbiter, when if fact it comes from an article Charlton Ogburn, Jr. wrote for Harper's Magazine (do you still have these?) in 1957 about his time with Merrill's Marauders during the Second World War - but you know that already. Still, this simple quote describes our current situation precisely. Those of us who knew what was going on tried to organize resistance, but we were constantly bombarded with distractions and calls to factionalism until each of us became socially isolated by every little interest that defined us, and then we were taught that it was our differences that were more important than any commonality, whether real or conceptualized.

Self-esteem was promoted over achievement. Our most potentially brilliant minds were held back with the slow learners so that their successes would not bring shame to the failures of others.

Emotion was promoted over intellect. It mattered not whether an individual could solve the world's problems; it mattered only that each and every person's emotions were given ample theatre to vent and be applauded. It mattered more to express rage and indignation than it did to actually solve problems.

Belief was promoted over knowledge. People held on to their precious belief systems, even though they were unequivocally based on either a total lack of evidence, or on alleged 'evidence' that was impossible to collect. These people were capable of constructing all manner of individual beliefs by which they told stories about how the world works. Conflicting opinions were never resolved except by consensus. If enough individuals agreed, then a particular tenet of belief may have been solidified, but it was never truly subject to challenge because there is never any expectation of evidence to consider. Thus, beliefs were considered 'immune' from the rigors of empirical proof, and our greatest scientific minds were hampered by other people whose beliefs that scientists were up to no good held back research into cures for Alzheimer's, asthma, cancer, Creutzfeldt-Jakob, diabetes, Ebola, HIV/AIDS, influenza, lupus, polio, and the common cold.

Entitlement was valued more than effort, and 'fairness' was valued more than justice. This meant that it did not matter whether or not a person had striven to earn his or her accolades, credentials, possessions, and wealth; it mattered only that those who did nothing were believed to have been treated "unfairly" simply because they had none of the things that that person who had earned what he or she had.

Certain people told us that we were picking on the poor. Many of those who accused us were wealthy scholars and intellectuals, who were upset that we were not blaming everything on The System as they did, which served only to keep those particular intellectuals in the limelight, and to wrap the poor in the cloth of victimhood that their ancestors lived, slaved, and died under.

We were told over and over again that "race doesn't matter", when it's all that mattered in Affirmative Action jobs, lower college admission and graduation standards, government contract set-asides, and tolerance for cultures of violence and fatherless children that hurt minorities more than anyone.

We were told that we had to "spread the wealth around" to people who didn't have any work ethic to speak of, and by a government that would take working people's hard-earned money - by force if necessary - and give it to people too lazy or too stupid to earn it for themselves.

We were told that we had to pay more taxes to "keep people in their homes". Sure, if they lost their jobs or got sick, we were willing to help without even being asked. But when they bought houses costing three-quarters of their salaries in monthly mortgage payments, and then they quit their jobs because their bosses expected them to put in a full eight-hour day, that's when the housing market started going sour, and the people turned to the government to pay off their debts.

We were told that Islam was a "Religion of Peace", when every day there were reports describing dozens of incidents all around the world of Muslim men killing their sisters, wives and daughters for their families' precious "honor"; of Muslims rioting over some slight offense against their religion; of Muslims murdering Christians, Hindus, and Jews because they simply weren't Muslims; of Muslims wrapping their children in explosives and sending them off to blow themselves up in the middle of crowded wedding celebrations; of Muslims burning schools for teaching girls to read, write, and do maths; of Muslims stoning rape victims to death for 'adultery'; and of Muslims mutilating the genitals of little girls; all in the name of their god and their prophet.

We tried to hold each other accountable. We tried to teach a common morality that everyone could agree upon. But unless the ethics and morality we taught also allowed exceptions for our leaders to abuse, institutionalize, and exploit their constituents, and for our celebrities to openly engage in perversion, violence and complete disrespect for common decency, no one was interested.

We tried to elect responsible leaders. But the only candidates we were presented with served only to perpetuate the corruption, deception, graft, favoritism, racism, sexism, and other unethical and immoral practices that had plagued our nations since pre-historic times, when the first lying scoundrel became chief of the first gullible hunter-gatherer community.

We have no orbital or lunar colonies and no space travel beyond low Earth orbit; we have rampant war, disease, and starvation; we have clashes over unprovable and irrelevant beliefs; and after 12,000 years of cultural evolution (since the most recent glaciation period), this is all that humanity has accomplished.

In short, Dear Future, we who had insight into the affairs of our present time - your past - were too few, too powerless, and too widely scattered geographically to make a difference. We were mere dust-motes caught up in the avalanche of events leading us all downhill to the situation you find yourself in now. We were told lies and fed propaganda when the truth was right in front of us. We were shouted-down by howling mobs that were interested only in maintaining a status-quo of political handouts and idealistic conflict. We were labelled as 'reactionaries' and 'dissidents' for illuminating the truth, and many of us were publically ridiculed and discredited, when we were not being threatened with prison, violence, or death if we did not simply shut up and keep the truth to ourselves. So, please understand that some of us tried to make a difference - we really, really did - but we failed, we know it, and we're sorry.

We wish you well,

Your Past

Apology accepted.

I feel that something will offset this prophecy of doom.

But I heartily wish you luck for the rest of your life, which will be long.

civilization is a pyramid scheme. i think that's what it always was, and i don't think it can be reversed. and if you try to subvert it, the best case scenario is you end up climbing to a higher level of it yourself. in short, subversion is actually an integral part of how it's perpetuated

i think the best you can do is squeeze something out of the system for you to stay afloat in the middle of it (since staying completely out of it is simply not an option), and then live for yourself and your neighbors and loved ones. "the world" is doomed, but it doesn't really matter. do no harm, but accept that harm will be done anyway. it was never up to you. you didn't fail. that fate was sealed already, long before you were born

who knows, maybe yellowstone will blow up before any this will make any difference anyway... lol

Fnord, I rather enjoyed this read.
Unfortunately, it seems the wheels are already in motion in some developed nations.

Are you familiar with the platform 'Gab'?
I'm aware with how you tire of this place, perhaps even at times feel you are wasted here.
So maybe get an invite and give it a try.

I will remember you. I've been part of the problem for a very long time and I'm not sure I can help anymore in any way other than by suffering what I have coming and dying like a flea eventually caught and killed by its host. Until such time, I will do my best to end my parasitic, lazy and cowardly ways and make a net positive contribution to the world before I die, however unlikely this may be. I probably lack the ability to have an intuitive feeling of the sheer magnitude of the shame I should be experiencing right now, but I do feel ashamed for finding this goal so daunting.

I'm ashamed for wanting a better chance of survival than just running away, losing my pseudo-job, artificially supported with money stolen from hardworking taxpayers, and trying to find a real job before I starve or get killed on the streets. I constantly feel my guilt and wonder what to do. Hesitation has been my worst enemy since I can remember, as I've always had reasons to feel guilty no matter what choice I made. It's probably better if I just go ahead and do whatever little turns out to be still possible of what I've always wanted to do, and, for once in a really, really long time, apply myself in earnest, this time till my dying breath. Only time will tell if the world ever forgives me.

smells of fountainhead.

What do you mean you "feel"? Personally I'm certainly worried by the rise of fascism.

can you feel the ground shaking? can you hear the horses?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yu1dYm9rI9g

the barbarians are coming

i'm leaving my belongings behind and running to the hills. i'll read about it in history books when i'm old

@Fnord

Naturally, I respect your right to self-determination and to NOT have to justify your decisions, but I would sure like to understand what you are thinking/feeling and why you are leaving.

Did you make your ~30 000 posts to help us all see something we refused to see, causing you to feel a sense of failure?

I, for one, have always considered your remarks to be erudite, articulate, and fearlessly rational.

You have my respect, and I know I am not alone in that view.

Selfishly, I wish that you'd reconsider and stay.

This f*****g site has lost and/or driven away SOOOO many first rate people over the years, and in losing you it will have lost, by far, one of its finest.

Thank you for being part of this community.

May you and your family have many years of peace at Stendec.

Respectfully ,
slave

(of course, you could PM a response should you wish to render one)

What he said^^^^!

I guess without "old irascible" life around here definitely won't be as much fun or as interesting.

In "the old days" Fnord's posts were the ones I'd read first.

He was a hell of a guy. Not afraid to say anything or broach any subject.

We'll really miss you.

Goodbye old friend.

Take care.

Fin.