Issue number 5

Installed: 01-9-2000

The End of Civilisation as We Know It

or We're all doomed, DOOMED I tells 'ee

Welcome to the end of the world as we know it. Our civilisation is based on the cumulative efforts of our forebears. Over the centuries, we have invented more and better ways of living our lives, adapting methods as our lives change. This is all going to come crashing to a halt.

In order to better ourselves, we need to understand our environment and how the world around us works. We seem, however, to be on an unending path of self destruction. For us to know more, we must invest in our education.

If we look at population growth around the world, we will find that the population is booming in the poorer, under-educated regions, whilst the more educated areas are generally controlling numbers born to relatively static levels, if not actually decreasing in level. This will mean that the average intelligence of the world's population is moving towards ignorance. There will be less ability to cope with change, less chance of the survival of our level of civilisation should anything endanger it.

There are many other lesser ways in which we are destroying ourselves. If we look at the trappings of "western" civilised society, we will see that a good many of the thing we are now taking for granted will lead to our ultimate downfall.

Mobile phones, a wonderful means of keeping in touch wherever we are, are most likely to be used by the more prosperous, more educated section of the population, and it is this section who will be microwaving their brains with them. There is a heavy reliance on motor cars. This not only depletes precious natural resources and pollutes the atmosphere, but they also cause a great number of accidents and mean that less exercise is taken. Combining this with vegetating in front of a television and a diet full of high fat sugary foods and we have a recipe for disaster.

Is there anything that we can do to prevent this decline? Well, yes. We could make a concerted effort to increase the education level throughout the world. Spend time improving the diet of third world countries and correcting our own. Is this going to happen? Of course not. We make too much money from the status quo to change anything. We know that fatty, sugary foods are bad for us, but do we stop eating them? We know exercise is important, but how many of us make short car journeys? Cigarettes have been known to be harmful for years, yet people still smoke. Hangovers are a clear message from our bodies that we are damaging them, but does anyone actually mean it when they say "never again"? We clearly are suicidal as a society.

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