The DNA of Collapse
The Element of Interference and the Genesis of a Meltdown
The Inescapable Laws of Consequence and Causality
(Author’s note: The following essay was written as a companion piece to an earlier essay titled, ‘Collapse and Regeneration’. Both essays share one or two common features including (1) the opening quote and (2) the introduction of human interference into three-and-a-half billion years of biological order on Planet Earth. But both essays differ fundamentally in their approaches to making sense of the world we live in. The ‘Collapse and Regeneration’ essay leans more towards the next chapter in Earth’s tumultuous history while the following ‘DNA’ document focuses more on the preceding chapter, which includes the tenuous and rather brutish Anthropocene era).
Introduction:
“An optimist looks for a light at the end of the tunnel. A pessimist looks for a tunnel at the end of the light. A realist takes a deep breath… slowly exhales… and accepts that the universe is unfolding as it should”.
If someone, anyone, were to blurt out that the meltdown occurring around us today, including the collapse of the human system and everything that system hath wrought, is actually supposed to be happening, they would probably be scoffed at, derided or written off as a lunatic. The following short essay provides a science-based and historically accurate explanation which supports the rather outrageous statement highlighted above. The document will borrow various elements from other recent related essays in order to bolster its case.
What exactly does that mean… is supposed to be happening? To answer this timely question the following treatise will draw a number of comparisons between the birth and evolution of a society (or civilization) and the birth and evolution of an ordinary plant. Both are organic processes and bear striking similarities to each other including (1) the dynamics of a ‘seed’ and the far-reaching properties of the DNA contained within it, and (2) that all living organisms must abide by and respect the laws of nature, (3) the foremost of those laws being consequence and causality, Answering the above question requires that we approach this subject from a different angle… a wide angle. We must step back, way way back in order to examine the laws, intricacies, overlaps and interconnections which govern the relationship between human history and natural history. (Of course, human history is only a tiny ‘blip’ on the big screen compared to the universality of natural history).
The main objectives of this whole exercise is to first, determine how advanced modern humans managed to transform a planet that was in a relative state of balance and harmony (pre-agriculture) into a catastrophic global train-wreck… in only eight or nine thousand years. The second objective is to connect the dots between these two historical markers in order to show conclusively that the collapse of the human system was written right into the DNA of western civilization, written right into the DNA of the original seed that spawned it. That seed, being two-fold in nature, was (1) the introduction of human interference into the natural order of biological life on the planet, and (2) the poisonous idea which led to the inventions of agriculture and animal husbandry (raising livestock).
Clarifications
There are a number of clarifications that should accompany any attempt at making sense of the current social, environmental and geopolitical meltdown which include tracing the meltdown’s history back to its original source.
Clarification #1. There is no blame or fault assigned to the advanced modern humans, regardless of the awful mess we created. Homo sapiens were in fact unwitting and unsuspecting participants in a major evolutionary quirk (the result of a sequence of naturally occurring events) which quickly spun out of control and led to our current predicament. Neither is there any blame or fault assigned to the phenomenal and aberrant growth (300%) of the homo sapien brain in the extremely short time span of two to three million years (post H. habilis). Though faultless and blameless, the aberrant growth of genus Homo’s brain endowed it with the questionable ability to arbitrarily synthesize ideas – within the vacuity of its newly-minted super-mind – which were not necessarily in accordance or abidance with the fundamental laws of nature. That’s why arbitrary ideations were/are so dangerous.
Clarification #2. This and other related essays were written from a ‘nature-centric’ perspective… from a ‘big picture’ and wide-angle point of view which (1) sees us advanced humans as a small and relatively insignificant part of a much, much larger whole and (2) relies heavily on the physical sciences and higher laws which govern the unfolding of a universe. They (the essays) go out of their way to avoid the human’s trivial, day-to-day doings, their little comings and goings, their petty victories and defeats, their rites and rituals, their judgments and biases, their parochial dalliances and their elitist-driven (and religious) ideologies. They especially go out of their way to avoid the capricious, tenuous and self-serving laws (man-made laws) which are utterly inconsequential when measured against the universality of nature’s laws. And therein lies the crux of this whole investigation…to establish the indomitable, incontestable and over-riding veracity of nature’s laws compared to man-made laws. Once that over-riding veracity is established, all the pieces of the puzzle (i.e., making sense of the meltdown) fall easily into place… according to the infallible laws of consequence and causality.
Clarification #3. The end game is to establish an inextricable link between the meltdown unfolding around us here in the 21st century and the biological aberration (the human super-mind), the same mind that synthesized the destructive ideas of agriculture and livestock. The sordid details which occurred between those two historical markers (the aberration and the subsequent meltdown) can be easier understood if one has at least a working knowledge of human and natural history. Each and every step along mankind’s tumultuous journey, from the first marker to the last is historically verifiable. The explosive 300% growth of genus Homo’s brain is verifiable. The subsequent ability to arbitrarily synthesize ideas is verifiable. The inventions of agriculture and livestock are verifiable. That agriculture and raising livestock spawned the stratification of human societies – which unleashed the exponential train-wreck known as ‘western civilization’ – is verifiable.
Clarification #4. I am not referring to the human being as a biological aberration…only the advanced human’s super brain. The human ‘being’, like all other living, sentient organisms on the planet, is an absolute wonder to behold… for no other reason than it exists at all. It is the temporal embodiment of the unifying energy which permeates and interconnects the universe… that same phenomenon Einstein identified as the ‘unified field’, and that indigenous cultures refer to as the ‘Great Spirit’. Yes, the human brain exploded in size, went berserk and made an awful mess of things but that doesn’t detract from the intrinsic ‘goodness’ humans – and all living beings – carry within themselves.
The Seed as Metaphor
The basic unit and the starting point of all organic life on Planet Earth is the seed. The seed consists of an outer shell (or membrane) which acts as a temporary vessel that carries within it the essence of life…the DNA. If the DNA is healthy and uncontaminated, the spawn (whether flora or fauna) will be likewise. Conversely, if the DNA is infected or diseased, the off-spring will also be like and kind. It can’t get much simpler than that. A good example, suited to our needs, would be that of a crawling vine…if the DNA of the vine’s seed was diseased, every subsequent leaf along its wandering branches will be diseased as well. Every leaf. Even the most recent leaves will be infected and that infection can be traced directly back (via the plants DNA) to the seed.
The global meltdown we super-humans created can likewise be traced back to a precise moment, a specific event which occurred many thousands of years back in mankind’s early history. That specific event – or seed – was the introduction of interference, human interference, into nature’s ancient system of balance and order on the planet. Unprecedented… in three and a half billion years of biological evolution… the element of interference.
War-mongering, the European conquest and colonization of the planet, the tyranny of the Catholic Church, greed and hoarding, the buying, selling and exclusive ownership of land, the global livestock, fishing, forest products and petroleum industries, the disparity between the rich and the poor, environmental degradation, the Indian Residential schools, the holocaust, the Panama papers, artificial intelligence, the New World Order, the surveillance state, Facebook and ‘Trumpism’…. are all symptoms of a deeper rot infecting the DNA of western civilization and can be traced directly back (via civilization’s DNA) to the poisons inherent within the original seed of human interference.
“The five previous extinction events were caused by either geological cataclysms or extraterrestrial incursions. This is the first time a planet has been brought down by an idea”
– (excerpt from the ‘meltdown’ essay).
Human interference was, at its base, another ideological construct…an idea. And the idea first reared its ugly head as the invention of agriculture and the practice of animal husbandry. Recent and related essays drone on (ad nauseum) about this fact but it is essential (in order to make a case) that the subject of agriculture be dragged into this document as well. Why was the invention of agriculture such a monumental blunder, so much so that in only seven or eight thousand years (since agriculture became the dominant practice in the eastern hemisphere) the planet went from a state of relative balance and harmony to a lethally over-populated, social and environmental meltdown. And as if the meltdown itself weren’t bad enough, the planet is also now fully engaged in (as opposed to ‘on the verge of’ or approaching) the early stages of another major extinction event. All of this occurred in only a few thousand years (a mere blink of an eye in universal terms).
Note: The answer to the above question is elementary, in purely scientific terms. The long version of the explanation can be found in the larger essay titled ‘The Ideological Epoch and the Genesis of a Meltdown’, a link to which is provided at the end of this document. But here’s the short version… and I’ll try to condense it down into three or four paragraphs.
For three and a half billion years of biological evolution, nature (and its infallible laws) had been in control… at the helm, so to speak. The two central tenets of natural law are biodiversity and balance (biodiversity being the antithesis of a mono-culture, and balance referring to species population management). In order to survive, all living organisms on the planet were required to adhere to and abide by an ancient set of stringent rules. If a subspecies or colony of organisms became unbalanced (over or under populated) nature would correct that imbalance via a number of tools at its disposal. These tools – which fall under the general category of ‘culling’ – included disease, starvation, forest fires, floods, drought, attrition or relocation. With nature at the controls the whole system hummed along like a fine Swiss watch.
Enter the Homo sapien, a strange looking apparition who walked on two feet, had opposable thumbs and whose primate brain had just undergone a three-hundred percent explosion in growth (350cc to 1350cc). The same explosive growth referred to numerous times in the ‘meltdown’ essay as a biological aberration… a ‘freak’ of nature. The creature’s aberrantly over-sized brain endowed it with the ability (perhaps disability) to arbitrarily manufacture ideas. Being arbitrary, and synthesized within the closed synaptic vacuum of the creature’s super-mind, the ideas were independent of and disassociated from the laws of nature, which further meant the ideas did not necessarily have to adhere to or abide by anything. This most unfortunate development (quirk) summarily sealed the fate of the hapless humans…not to mention the fate of the rest of the biosphere.
“Nature’s primary objective – besides conducting and orchestrating the unfolding of a universe – is to manage and balance species populations. A qualitative judgment, as to any particular species’ existential value, does not fall within the parameters of natural law. What does fall squarely within those parameters is balance… is a species or subspecies in balance or out of balance. If out of balance the subspecies is subject to – without prejudice – a natural correction.”
The Equation, the Inversion and the ‘Small to Large’ Differential
The novel innovation of capturing, domesticating, mass-breeding and exploiting wild animals, plants and grains (all of which should have remained in the wilds where they belonged) may have seemed like a good idea at the time but in fact it threw a major monkey wrench into nature’s finely tuned balancing act. Prior to the invention of agriculture, nature had established an unwritten law, an equation, which dictated that only a small number of land based predators (humans and wolves for example) could survive on a relatively large tract of land. This equation and its ‘small to large’ differential is key. Hunting was difficult, especially for humans with their primitive weapons. But the difficulty with the hunt, combined with the oftentimes scarcity of prey ensured that an overall balance in species population was maintained for that particular tract of land or eco-system.
“Simply put, agriculture and animal husbandry caused the above equation to became inverted… instead of a small number of humans surviving on a large tract of land as nature intended, a large number of humans were now able to exist on a small tract of land. That inversion abruptly upset the apple cart and marked the beginning of the end for the super human subspecies”.
(– Excerpt from the Meltdown essay)
Note: The global anthropology community has pegged the world-wide human hunter-gatherer population to have been in the range of 5-6 million just prior to the invention of agriculture. That 5-6 million figure remained fairly consistent for the 25,000 years leading up to agriculture. The same anthropology community has also estimated that – had agriculture not been invented – today’s global population of humans (as hunter-gatherers) would have increased by no more than one million in the past 10,000 years. That is why the terms ‘berserk’, ‘aberration’ and ‘freak of nature’ are frequently used when referring to the process which led to the invention of agriculture.
The Game Changer
The invention of agriculture and the practice of animal husbandry was a game-changer to say the least. The capture and mass-breeding of wild sheep and other ruminants in pens and corrals, plus the gathering and replanting of wild grains and vegetable seeds provided hunter gatherers (turned agrarians) with a steady, year-round source of meat, dairy products, fur, vegetables and grains, all of which were raised and stored in the immediate vicinity of their encampments. Having a year-round source of meat, milk products and stored vegetable grains right outside their ‘back door’ meant our ancestors spent less and less time struggling to subsist by hunting and gathering.
Early modern humans slowly became more sedentary, cohabiting in larger and more centralized encampments and villages and – what is most significant – the birth rates began to slowly increase (the increase attributed mainly to food security). It is doubtful these factors, combined with the slow and gradual transition from hunting and gathering to sedentary agrarianism even registered with the early humans of that period. But, from a wide angle view point, these factors caused a ratcheting effect on human and livestock populations, i.e., more food security, more births, increased population, more food security, more births, increased population, etc. The ratcheting effect, plus all the other factors combined quietly, almost imperceptibly, triggered an exponential process that would eventually ‘hockey stick’ a few thousand years later and see the human population explode from 5 to 6 million (pre-agriculture) to 11 billion (21st century). Ouch!
One Single Subspecies
Think about it. In the three-and-a-half billion year history of biological evolution on Planet Earth there has only been one single subspecies (the advanced modern humans) who came up with the idea that they could begin interfering and meddling with nature’s ancient system of balance and order. Only one single subspecies (the advanced modern humans) who attempted to take control of the planet away from nature. Only one single subspecies (the advanced modern humans) who manufactured their own set of self-serving and arbitrary laws which were blatant and outright contraventions of nature’s laws. Only one single subspecies (the advanced modern humans) who began capturing other sentient organisms (and plant seeds), taming them, domesticating them, mass breeding them and mass producing them as convenient sources of food, clothing, labour, etc.
The fact that one single subspecies of advanced primates with dangerously over-sized brains did engage themselves in the above litany of unnatural and self-destructive behaviours easily qualifies said subspecies (the super-humans) as an aberration, an anomaly.
The stated objective of this and other related essays is to draw a clear connection between those two historical markers – the current meltdown and the biological aberration, the current meltdown and the introduction of human interference, the current meltdown and the idea which led to the invention of agriculture – in an attempt to explain the unfolding train-wreck we call western civilization.
Factoids
Item 1: For 25,000 years prior to the invention of agriculture the human population (hunter gatherers) held steady at around 5-6 million. Our current population (2023) is 8 billion and projected to reach 11 billion (UN estimate) towards the end of the twenty-first century….an increase factor of 2000 times the pre-agriculture numbers. That means 2000 times the number of humans in the brief time-span of a mere 9-10,000 years.
Item 2: If anyone has doubts as to the exponential repercussions of agriculture and livestock, consider this. There is a city – one city – in Japan that has a population of 37 million people… six or seven times the entire global human population for the 25,000 years leading up to the invention of agriculture.
Item 3: Around the beginning of the twenty-first century, the human population hit the 7 billion mark, and assuming the above UN estimate (around 11 billion by this century’s end) is accurate, that represents an increase of roughly 4 billion. Around that same time-frame China and India’s populations were, individually, a tad over 1 billion each. In rounding these numbers down a bit, a 4 billion increase in human population by the end of the twenty-first century is equivalent to adding two more China’s and two more India’s to an already lethally over-populated world.
Item 4: In 2021, the Japanese government began offering $50,000 cash awards to citizens of Tokyo who would leave the city and promise not return for at least five years.
Unfolding As it Should
So there you have it…in a nut shell. Human interference (agriculture and raising livestock) into nature’s finely tuned balancing act constituted the virulent poison within the original seed, within the ideological DNA itself that has subsequently infected the entire growth and evolution of modern, advanced civilizations. From a nature and science-based point of view and according to the unflinching laws of consequence and causality, the universe is (for better or for worse) unfolding as it should. It is critical, at this point in time, that we understand and begin to accept these new realities, that (1) the human system is in an irreversible state of collapse and, (2) that the planet is now fully engaged in the early stages of yet another extinction event.
And last but not least – this is key – it is incumbent upon us older fossils from the twentieth century (who caused much of the mess) to begin preparing our distracted children and grandchildren – many of whom have their heads deeply buried in their electronic devices – for the deadly ambush they will be (most assuredly) stumbling into towards the end of the twenty-first century. Failure to warn our kids and grand-kids (a.k.a. millennials) of the dangers they will face – on their own – would constitute an egregious dereliction of duty on our part. In terms of preparation, there is no better place to begin than through the education system… perhaps at the grade three to grade four level.
Conclusion
“When you have a group of people sitting around a circle and they all agree with one another… you only have half a circle.” ––(Ancient Cree wisdom)
The intention of the above essay is not to impose upon or to ram this rather unconventional approach (to making sense of the world) down anyone’s throat. Instead, the hope is that the ‘DNA of Collapse’ can add a fresh new voice, a new perspective to the already existing circle… for its consideration.
Thank you.
Dennis Lakusta
September, 2021
For the full version of the ‘Meltdown’ essay and other related scribblings, please follow this link