Humans Are Demonstrably Stupid...sometimes.
A rant about reason and the Energy Crises plaguing Europe.
I meant to write two snarky paragraphs (at most) on this topic, but it turned into a short essay, which could have gone on forever, but I thought it best to cut it short. I’m annoyed, and have been for a while, so I’m sure I’ll write more on this topic in the future.
Crises
Today, I want to talk about an irony-free zone where everything is beautiful and nothing hurts, a land literally overflowing with wine and cheese, where sophisticated civility is held in the highest regard. A place of comfort and leisure (unless you need AC in the summer or heat in the winter.) I’m speaking of course, about the magical and ancient land we call Europe.
I have seen and experienced almost every country in Europe at this point on a deep level, admittedly, it’s gorgeous and the food is undeniably sublime. I love the slow pace, the way they haven’t built anything meaningful in centuries, and their carefree attitude towards tech and the future, I envy them. The place is so dang beautiful it actually pisses me off. I ask myself, why should that thing, that place, that baguette encapsulate such beauty? It doesn’t seem fair, and it’s infuriating.
I think we can all agree the culture, history, and architecture in Europe have a certain je ne sais quoi the U.S. lacks. Here in the States, we basically live in the Hunger Games, if the Hunger Games was written by Hunter S. Thompson. For example, Subway —both the underground form of transportation and the sandwich shop— is a place you go if you are actively looking to get stabbed or catch Hepatitis B.
Yes, America is unequivocally broken, it would take an entire series of books to justly cover the mess we have on this side of the Atlantic, and its painfully obvious incompetence abounds in Washington. Actually, incompetence seems to be the only prerequisite for a lifelong career in politics. This makes it all the more painful to watch as the last bastion of civility collapses in on itself like a dying star.
Now, was the EU doomed from the start, probably, and is the Euro a failed experiment, yes, but for a while, there was still hope. Unfortunately, over the last few years, that faint glimmer of hope was all but slayed, the final plunge of Brutus’ dagger was the “progressive” green policies led by a petulant child. Smort.
Luckily for all of us pro-human humans, the light deep within the reckless abyss of incompetence refuses to be snuffed out so easily, its nuclear glow -albeit faint - continues to survive the onslaught of propaganda and ignorance. You see Nuclear was, and is, the answer. So why haven’t we been perusing this avenue as a species, and how did the EU end up so dependent on Russian energy?
The specifics of the current energy debacle have been written about ad nauseum by people much more qualified to speak on the topic than me. My favorite is Doomberg. As experts in the energy markets, they have written many articles outlining why things are headed down their current path and I suggest you read them all.
Personally, I try to make order of the chaos by looking at the sad state of affairs we find ourselves in through a philosophic lens. We are at war -quite literally at the moment - but when I say we are at war in this context, I mean, we are at War with Reason. Just look around, things don’t make sense, and as many have described in-depth, the energy policies being pushed are counterproductive and could very well lead to the starvation of millions. But all this doesn’t seem to matter to those in charge who have adopted a Machiavellian approach to securing votes, nor to those who look to them as saviors.
Here’s our problem as humans on a fundamental level. The very ability to think brings with it the peril of free thought destroying itself, and that’s exactly whats happening. Let me give you a semi-relevant example to illustrate my point. The Jacobins could tell you the exact institution they were fighting, but more importantly, they would tell you exactly what they refuse to rebel against.
However, the modern activist, being a skeptic of everything, with no reason, cannot trust anything. Without loyalty or a foundation in anything, its impossible to truly rebel. The fact that the modern denounces everything gets in the way when they want to denounce anything. Because to deny anything implies a moral doctrine, and the current-day activist doubts not only the institutions he protests but the doctrine by which he denounces them.
“My truth is my truth.”
You see we were built to doubt ourselves, but never reason, this age has turned that on its head and now the thing we are most confident of is ourselves, and the thing we doubt most, is everything else.
So even if the modern activist was presented with undeniably scientific proof renewable energy wasn’t the only path forward they would never believe it, they couldn’t believe it if they tried. This unreasonable, and unhinged belief in unbelief has an effect on policy. The virus that doubts logic has spread to the furthest corners of society and we are all paying the price. (Side note: Just google 2+2=5.)
This line of thinking leads to other questions, like how did society lose its cognitive abilities, and who persuaded us into believing sustainable energy was the only way in the first place? And not to get too Nietzchean (sp?), but it also brings up the problem of a dead god and identity crisis. All that is beyond this article for now.
Anyway, to avoid the risk of writing an Arthur-length article I’ll sum it up here. We don’t use nuclear at scale (currently,) even though it makes the most sense, even though the tech has evolved and the physics are clear. Why? Because “SUsTaInaBilLiTyY,” which turns out to not be that sustainable, nor even currently possible. This is not science, this is the antithesis of reason. This is policy pushed by logical fallacy based on feelings and public opinion (and probably a lot of backroom deals involving cash.) But when things are run on emotion people starve, people die, Jacobins are born and Revolutions are had.
Energy is life.
Thank you for coming to my Ted Talk slash rant. I wrote it, refused to edit it, and am about to hit send. So if it makes no sense or there are a ton of spelling errors I apologize. It’s an unedited stream of thought. Also to be clear, I believe there is a balance between energy sources, it’s not one or the other. Again, Doomberg has outlined that quite clearly. Finally, this isn’t an ad for Doomberg nor was I paid for this lol. I just like their stuff.