On this subject, I always come to the same conclusion about our dear species: Why be in de Amazon when you can be in denial?

Gail was known for her drier-than-the-Gobi humor. - Encyclopedia Terra-Termina, 2105 edition Oliver PS - Thanks for your thoughts on Morrison.

PS - I still belly-laugh over your monkeys-grooming description. :-)

Dave - you and Mendelson are like the little boy who point blank refused to believe the emperor was wearing new clothes, because he believed the evidence of his eyes. The only difference is that it doesn't matter who calls their bluff, the corporations and the stock traders and the hedge funds and the media owners and the advertising agencies cannot and will not admit the naked truth - and the deluded mass audience will continue to be conned and relieved of their dollars. Consumerism is pure bullshit and always has been, and this current generation's attempted manipulation via (anti-) social media is merely the latest in a long line of hoodwinking. It's not as if there aren't victims. The massive theft from small investors tricked by all the hype about social media performance into over-paying for Facebook shares is scandalous - and mostly because it hasn't been considered a big enough scandal to put Zuckerplonker and others in jail. Oliver refuses to fucking "like" it.

Thanks for that Dave. This whole topic of evolution/survival/adaptive genes etc reminds me of Alice: curiouser and curiouser. If we are going down with the ship, I still have an interest in understanding what's going on with our strange species. Regards, Oliver

John - Thanks for that insight. It's all rather puzzling... this survival-of-the-fittest thing. I guess I am too simplistic, expecting a 21st century Darwinian "drift" from profligate resource users to prudent resource conservers to avoid species extinction - i.e. as a biological/genetic necessity. Perhaps those who voraciously exploit the earth - just about every corporation, financial institution and government worldwide - are too busy greedily stealing from the next generation to notice that they are denying life to their own descendants. In this sense, Homo sapiens evolution is way off the rails and all bets are off on species survival. Regards, Oliver

Gail and Dave - I sit firmly on your side of the realistic-pessimist v. deluded-optimist divide, but I have a big question to ask regarding Morrison's analysis. If he is right and there is a genetic-survivalist imperative that underpins Homo sapiens' resort to emotional mysticism that "brings rational assessment to a halt", this appears contradictory when this same blinkered mysticism ensures mankind in general does nothing rational to ensure genetic survival in our current era - i.e. conserve resources, share wealth and control population growth. In other words, how can it be a genetic survival tactic to wallow in mysticism while ignoring the evidence that our species is heading for a fast exit? I can understand mass delusion as the cause of our demise, but not genetic factors. Please enlighten me! Thanks, Oliver

Why not spend another trillion dollars and expend a billion barrels of crude oil to land a boat on Titan? The Earth is swimming in surplus wealth and natural resources. Everyone is well-paid and well-housed and well-fed and brimming with health and happiness. Wars have ceased and leaders play backgammon with each other as they work out new ways to share the good times with the entire world population.

What I love the most about this is that, in yonder Land of the Fee (sic), your propaganda machine operates exactly the same as your erstwhile sworn "enemies of the people", namely the Nazi propaganda machine and the Stalinist propaganda machine and the Maoist propaganda machine. All lies and deceptions by the State designed to keep the population in check while pretending to be their protectors. Orwell explains it all in 1984. It is so comical that I choke on my cereal every morning, and I'm still choking as I cry into my cocoa last thing at night.

Schopenhauer said we are nothing but prisoners of our blind and selfish Will, and it's virtually impossible to escape the power of the Will to "be" - except in brief flashes of artistic creativity (painting, musical composition, writing etc). By this reasoning, the Will is driving us towards extinction, aptly represented by the unwillingness to stop what we're doing that is wrecking our biosphere, even though we know it to be detrimental. Homo unsapiens is fundamentally incapable of the meaningful cooperation that would have resulted in equilibrium in the biosphere, because of the individual Will controlling our "social" behaviour. To this extent, we are beating a dead horse expecting the horseshit to stop.

Molly - Nicely stated. You have found proof that Science (the pursuit of reality and truth) has almost completely been supplanted by Technology (the development of systems that make money for the research grant allocators). This is why facts are not required by the blinkered. All they seek is technological superiority and control over their imagined enemies.

Ben - It will be an interesting variant of Lebensraum, with psychopathic vested interests (i.e the super-rich) in every capitalist country vying for the same land resources. Once all of us "normal" people are starved or exterminated, will these vested interests of different tribal nationalities cooperate? You can bet your worthless dollar it will be NO !!! To paraphrase Dave, no amount of resource would suffice to fill the holes in their souls.

The Deluxe model is just out - comes with a bucket of finest oil-blackened Saudi Arabian sand for that more authentic experience. Includes word-free application instructions.

Dave - get well soon. If this is any help, you need to purge your system of the poison floating around. I have a personal technique that always helps me in this situation. I conjure up an image of the most annoying egomaniacal person I can think of and - hey presto - my stomach heaves and out splurges the poison. In my case, the person I first think of every time is Annie Lennox. Thank you Annie, you have a purpose at last.

Dave - You have come up with some memorable phrases these 32 months, but I will remember the following until hell freezes over (watch this space for the exact timing): ...no amount of money would suffice to fill the holes in their souls. Thank you.

Careful what you wish for Ken. For those unacquainted with England's finest Cockney rhyming slang, from time immemorial (i.e. since before the banks fully completed their descent into Hades) to be called a "merchant banker" was not altogether favourable. (Unless one was proud of sex-for-one.)

Thanks Steven - excellent clarification and I can only agree with your well-made points. On this topic, especially regarding our current precarious predicament at the End of Surplus, I have been through all the stages of grief - and have now arrived at calm acceptance. I no longer waste venom on the robber barons and banksters (psychopathic phenotypes) who control the real levers of power, because there is no reason or sport in trying to dissuade the blind from acting blindly. Clearly, there is certainly no need to trouble ourselves over the presidential election, which is a puppeteer's sideshow. I am in acceptance but what still causes heartache is human suffering, hence my pitch on the subject of poverty. Death is a far better option than living in continuous oppressive destitution, to say nothing of the daily brutality visited on the 'weak' by the 'strong' in every country in this peculiar world. For all our so-called progress these few hundred years, little has changed in this formula, apparently a necessary function of the survival-of-the-fittest component of evolution. I do help others when I can, but it always comes back to the King Canute analogy... So what remains for me personally is a watching brief on the downward slope, and having the odd interesting debate on sites such as these, the last bastion of sapience. Thanks again for your thoughtful contributions. Regards, Oliver