Starvation for the body and mind

As a billion people struggle to ameliorate hunger around the world and perhaps twice that number fighting the disease of ignorance, there is something significant every remaining individual could do to make the world better. A prototypical society, facing heavy headwinds, may be nearing the break-point as the intellectuals seek impractical solutions and those less endowed seek power and material wealth. As half the population look to the heavens to solve the problems for those who are close to God and not for anybody else, and the rest try to advance uncertain science and meaningless technology, we are at an impasse.

When democracy nearly died in the greatest country and systematically dismantled in the biggest one, there are only a few paths forward. As the autocrats in the East and North who spit on democracy on a daily basis, appear better than the “leaders,” of democracies, we are at an impasse. A human, after all, is driven by simple objective functions, adding ego to ancient factors that included sustenance and replication, we are fast approaching a societal horizon. Those struggling to quell hunger will die of it and those trying to nourish their ego will die of many other things. As the hungry and stupid fall, the mediocrity in the middle may attempt to restart society. But such a reset is not possible in a complex system that shows hysteresis.

Such is the state of the World, likely an irrelevant speck in the universe, still struggling with the toxins released by the cyanobacteria, Oxygen, that appeared to have accelerated pain and disutility. For those not struggling with hunger or ignorance, the prescription is clear. Do your part — it does not matter if you contribute to lessening either.