How to Save the World (Identifying the World's Problems)

The way I see it, the two main problems in the world right now are

1) our dependence on non-renewable forms of energy that pollute the environment, and

2) the struggle for power in an increasingly global society.

Back in the time when the cold war first began, countries were far more isolated. News didn't travels as fast, people didn't travel as fast, and ideas didn't travel as fast. But now with the advent of the internet, satellite technology, improved travel, and global economy, we are all more connected to the rest of the world than ever before.

This, coupled with the specialized politics in the post-nuclear age has created a world wherein the haves and the have-nots are more widely separated than ever. Corporate lobbying, labor outsourcing, posturing of overwhelming military might, and control over the world's central banks through a strategic fiat petro-dollar arrangement have all converged to create a world superpower that has become increasingly meddlesome in world affairs and increasingly irresponsible in its supposed role as the world's leader and champion of peace and democracy.

This increasing obsession with global control has led the surviving superpower, the United States, to build military bases around the world to protect its various economic interests there and be ready on a moment's notice to protect its allies' interests.

It takes a little understanding of history to appreciate the current world political landscape, (America in particular), in the 21st century and how it differs from, yet adheres to, the M.O. of past empires.

In the past, the fundamental laws of economics and military power were very different. At the height of the Roman empire, the best military weaponry still consisted of men on horseback and in chariots, and in order to gain wealth to fund the lavishness of the people of the empire, military conquest was needed to plunder its gold and other resources, which at the time included slaves.

At the height of the British empire, the best things the military had going for it were muskets, wooden ships, and cannons. The relationship between military might and the homeland economy were still very much the same as in Roman times. Conquest was always needed to expand the empire and plunder its goods to fund the lavish excesses of the people at the expense of others.

At 8:15 in the morning of August 6, 1945 all that changed forever when the Enola Gay released its payload upon the unsuspecting people of Hiroshima, effectively ending the war and starting the footrace with Russia to superpower and world dominance.

Virtually all the major advances in human technological know-how from that point on have centered around this footrace, which came to be known as the 'cold war'. Computers, satellites, intercontinental rockets, space exploration, wireless technology, the internet, advances in medical science, jet propulsion, weather control, genetic engineering, human behavioral research, you name it. If it advanced our knowledge of the world around us, you better believe the government was all over it right away, whether it began as a military operation or not.

Following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1989, the United States became the world's last unchallenged superpower, but how long this state of affairs can last is anyone's guess.

Americans, myself included, have been raised to believe that our overseas meddling is borne out of a benevolent wish to better the world by spreading democracy and hope to disadvantaged and oppressed people, but the reality is, America's interest in foreign affairs always carries some sort of strategic advantage for itself. Whether it's to open up a new foreign market to which it can peddle its services, to expand corporations, to exploit a cheap workforce, to expand military presence, to manipulate its leadership, or to acquire unfettered access to its natural resources, American occupation and meddling in foreign lands has always carried a distinct strategic advantage.

The problem with this is, while the rest of the world recognizes this as obvious, the American people, in large part, fail to see it. Media is controlled by a select few people. A handfull of companies own the entire media nerve center of the country. All the major newspapers, television stations, and radio stations are owned by a select group of men whose allegiance to the economic status quo will not allow them to penetrate the lie of American benevolence. To do so would jeopardize the economic system, not only of this country, but of the entire world.

Since 1971, when the dollar was taken off the gold standard, America has been free to print the dollar without restriction, on paper that is, for all intents and purposes, worthless. It has been able to maintain this ability through strategic alliances with westernized European countries, Canada, Japan, Australia, Israel, Saudi Arabia, and other oil producing nations to buy their oil in dollars - thereby solidifying the status of American currency - in exchange for American military intervention anytime one of them has a little 'problem'. It helps that the United States has the nuclear capability to destroy the earth many times over if it so chose.

As of yet, these countries haven't found an overwhelming reason to question this arrangement, because as long as their economies are growing at the expense of the poorer nations, all is right with the world. That is, until the day finally comes when the United States becomes more of a liability than an asset and the poor countries no longer have sufficient resources (either natural or of the labor variety) to keep up the pace of growth in the developed world. This is what I feel we're seeing happen right now in a range of different ways.

First, the U.S. is becoming a liability to her allies because, instead of an arrangement wherein other countries get free military service courtesy of the red, white, and blue to beat down violence and instability wherever it may erupt, they are now seeing the U.S. smacking at the hornet's nest of potentially violent people in a preemptive fashion, which is actually CAUSING more violence.

Second, the U.S.'s fiat currency system is beginning to be questioned around the world and even by people inside its own government. The United States' economic growth is now in direct inversion from where economist's logic says it should be. Any other country on the face of the planet that ran a trade deficit of $760 BILLION last year would have had their remaining assets seized by world banks and investors at the drop of a hat. Their country would have been invaded under the banner of 'liberating' it from 'oppression', and that would have been that.

The United States, on the other hand, due to its special place at the top of the military food chain, is allowed to produce less and less, and consume more and more. The Goliath is growing, and the Davids of the world are slowly beginning to draw their sling shots.

This is what we see happening in Iran.

Iran is still planning its oil bourse to switch its oil sales from dollars to euros. It has been delayed momentarily - probably to keep it as a strategic bargaining chip while it continues its race toward nuclear development and sanctions are threatened against it - but you can bet that is but one of the rocks Iran will load into its economic slingshot at the U.S. should it come under sanction or attack.

China, so far, has remained content to sit back and play the game by the U.S.'s rules, because its own economy is growing and the United States is providing them with a constant source of revenue with which to build their infrastructure and expand their technological know-how, but if its thirst for oil is not quenched, and Iran is taken off the table by the U.S. as a source of this oil, China is a beast that could awaken quite explosively.

In short, the so-called 'growth' of the U.S. economy is only a gross growth, not a net growth, and it amounts to little more than highway robbery and open theivery of the rest of the world. That is, unless you believe we will at some point pay it all back...all $8.8 TRILLION of it.

If you believe that, I have some property I'd like to sell you. You'll LOVE it! It's right by the ocean!

The third major reason the U.S.'s superpower status is beginning to be more vocally challenged - even among allied nations - is because it is the single greatest polluting nation on the planet. At the very time when it's becoming more and more clear that the world is in need of environmentally-conscious leadership, the United States - more specifically the Bush administration - has refused to even join, let alone lead, the Kyoto accord.

It's clear now to most respectable scientists, and even most reasonable laymen, that greenhouse gasses from the burning of fossil fuels and deforestation by an over-industralized world population (which has now exceeded 7 billion people) is causing a global climate crisis the likes of which mankind has never seen, and its manifestations are everywhere.

From melting ice caps to more intense hurricanes to wholesale destruction of coral reefs to increased cases of cancer to widespread drought...all the signs are there, and the world is beginning to wake up. That is, all but the United States apparently.

At a time when its obvious we should be focusing on these problems, the U.S.-elected (by "electoral college") leadership won't even acknowledge global warming as a possibility. Instead, they stubbornly sit atop the world pyramid scheme and fight for control of the remaining drops of oil.

But, do not be disheartened. This cannot last forever.

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