This week, scientists moved the Doomsday clock forward to 5 minutes to midnight. It's the closest we've been to midnight in 5 years (If you need any more information on the Doomsday clock, please see my introductory post). Scientists got together and discussed the risks and threats of our current situation. I say situation because they discuss politics, environmental changes and economics.
Now, you know that economically we're in the midst of colossal chaos. Markets, while they continue to fluctuate, have not seen enough positive indicators to suggest that we have left the recession. Unemployment rate is still high (acknowledging, of course, that for some it's even worse) and we are not seeing the level of economic growth we should. This is a global financial crisis. What happens when economic crisis seems unbearable? People begin to turn to atypical and nontraditional methods of having their basic needs met. Think: economic upheaval is one of the necessary conditions that historians point to for allowing Hitler's brand of politics to take over. You do not want droves of people in a variety of countries feeling like they have nothing left to lose.
Politically (perhaps because politics and economics feed off of each other) the world is experiencing a great deal of turmoil as well. While there are a number of countries who arguably are better after having their revolutions, there are those who can quietly slip into the abyss. The popular vote in Egypt, for example, has recently proven this true, with an extreme turnout for Islamist parties. Want another example? Iraq, fresh off of the U.S. troop withdrawal, has already experience corruption at the highest levels and continuing violence. When people experience violence on that level, they have a tendency to divert to old ways of maintaining order. Sometimes, people will even do so if it means they have to trade in some of their rights in order to secure that safety (see NDAA and U.S.A. P.A.T.R.I.O.T. Act).
Environmentally? Well this is practically a complete joke. We continue to ignore the effects of global warming. Hell, a whole part of the American population denies it's existence. We continue to burn fossil fuels. We continue to litter and pollute. We focus on cutting down trees to build highways, so people do not have to sit in traffic, instead of preserving our natural resources. All of these things are spurring along dangerous weather, which is making it harder to protect things like nuclear power plants (see Japan).
In addition to all of these things, we have nuclear technologies falling into the wrong hands all the time. We have nuclear materials not being secured and some that cannot even be accounted for.
Our situation is extremely volatile right now and the only way to change it is to implement sweeping, ambitious social change. Doing so will likely calm all three aspects down simultaneously (again, they are all intertwined). I once discussed the history of the American left and why it has not had a lasting impact in America (referring to Communism and Socialism, in particular). Other nations have Socialist parties, for example, why don't we? Because when the situation arises, Presidents, the Supreme Court, Congresspeople and robber barons all let just enough social change to take place to appease the moderates and discredit the more extreme members of the revolutionary movement. Today, it is necessary that we move past those boundaries, dismiss the labels and do what is right for the people, our country and ultimately, the world.
Want more information on the Doomsday clock and it's recent time change? Visit: http://edition.cnn.com/2012/01/10/us/doomsday-clock/index.html?hpt=hp_t3
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