The master comedian George Carlin wrote a wonderful skit about the paradox of our time in history, which if you haven’t read it, I recommend, because it is a summation of everything wrong with what we describe as ‘normal’. Carlin died in 2008 so he didn’t get to add to the list of paradoxical things which have multiplied exponentially since then.
In my last blog, I put my finger on 2008 as the point where much of the chaos we see today started. Carlin when describing the genesis of much of his material talked about the big and small world and by observing the bigger events and illustrating them with those small absurd human interactions, he made his humor relatable and powerful. He would have had a rich palette of material to work with today if he had not left us so soon.
The humour at best would be very dark. Large scale crises such as the subprime mortgage event, the pandemic and most recently, the Ukraine war offer reliable blackholes of despair to mine for dark comedy content. The tragedy is though that they also spread panic and absorb our attention like the most skillful sleight of hand performed by a magician. Even if you are not directly impacted by the misery these crises cause, you are suitably distracted and off balance for the next act.
Meanwhile the media, that other blackhole of our attention rejoices in real time as the ven diagram of stupidity and growing gloom intersect with you suitably in the middle clutching your smartphone.
I wouldn’t say that this is the work of one evil genius — to describe Putin as a genius would give him far too much credit but it’s assured that what he stands for is evil, which has its own twisted logic and requires a suitable response. The situation in Ukraine does, however, underline the fragility and interconnectedness of our world and the need for all nations to work towards stability, not chaos.
A quick look at the big picture suggests that our next major crisis is the food shortage brought about by the Ukraine conflict which is already impacting consumer prices in the West and leading to starvation in Africa and the Middle East. If it gets out of hand, Ukraine will simply be one regional conflict among a host of others as hungry populations on the move destabilize whole regions and create conditions for further wars and the re-opening of old grievances across tribal and territorial lines.
Even if the war is concluded (without nuclear conflict ensuing) in 2022, expect 2023 to be closer to a global catastrophe with multiple shitstorms inching closer to the extraction fan. The present sleight of hand has already drowned out the solemn net zero pledges made at this year’s COP26 but climate doesn’t do politics and continues to change for the worse in accordance with the conditions set by a global fossil fuel economy bent on self-destruction.
I think back nostalgically to the time of George Carlin, a keen observer of the human condition, a man who made us simultaneously laugh and think about the paradox of our times. Looking outside of my window, I see nature bursting back into life after a long winter but all I can think of is an insufferable summer of freak heatwaves and wonder what comes after.
Doomerism as it has been termed is a natural reaction to problems seemingly beyond our control but it’s dangerous to fall into despair because, we do have agency still. Scratch a cynic and underneath you will find a disappointed optimist who has lost hope and the ability to act. Despair breeds apathy.
There is another way out of this though. George Carlin also famously said that ‘the planet is fine, the people are fucked.’ Maybe the best place to start is to unfuck ourselves and see how much better the planet will do after that.
