Our most important liberties are being stolen one by one. By preventing minds from expanding beyond religion, we are losing our capacity to deal constructively with the problems ahead. See Denial below.
The U.S. Population is increasing faster than any other developed country! The suggestion that it is not increasing is a dangerous myth. Most environmental problems would be nearly solved if the world population were reduced to 1 Billion or less by people voluntarily chosing not to have children in a culture which promoted this option. Such a culture could direct people toward shared pleasure rather than work, procreation, and domination. But religions overtly and covertly (through prohibition of abortion, birth control, etc.) direct people to have more children, not fewer, and disseminate dangerous misinformation about population.
Even the best predictable outcome in 100 years doesn't look nice. Things could get worse than we imagine because there are positive feedbacks. How badly could we screw things up? Our current course will likely lead to our own extinction and possibly the extinction of all life. This is what religion and capitalism are leading us toward.
Even if we could live without them (we can't) it is immoral to put a majority of the earth into the service of human work and capitalism. We should respect the right of other species to flourish in their own space.
This is happening already. We have already kicked off one of the greater extinction events in the history of the planet.
This is an extremely dangerous technology. We shouldn't be spreading our genetic experiments across billions of acres. We have enough unforseen ecological problems as it is. Once again, the prime mover is more profits for a few.
Even in the U.S., fundamental liberties have already been taken away. Freedom of speech and press on the internet are being threatened all the time. In many other contries, there is no freedom of speech or press. And there are many other rights denied or becoming denied. The Right to Privacy is becoming more frequently stolen by both Governments and Corporations.
Government at all levels, including courts, the Fed, the World Bank, IMF, and WTO are becoming more and more under the control of money than people. Money doesn't feel pain.
1,500,000 poor people and children have died because of the inhuman impact of U.S. embargoes and sanctions since 1960.
U.S., largely because of the War on Drugs, leads the world in imprisonment. But there are few (if any) not guilty here. A life spent in prison is a life lost.
Millions of livestock animals may live their lives in cages to make more profits for a few. Giving these animals the dignity they deserve only costs about twice as much. I'd pay that to enjoy a guilt-free steak. Don't worry about animal research, which is very limited and operates under strict controls (at least in the U.S.).
Like overpopulation, widespread denial, particularly promulgated by religious authorities and capitalists, is making it impossible to deal with global problems before they deal with us.
I would like to see this be culturally unacceptable. But until we can fully open up to the acceptable of human sensuality, violence is an irresistable surrogate.
A friend of mine has compiled a different list of the most serious problems of our time. As usual, he is sadly mistaken about most of what he says, but I posting it so you can see for yourself. Actually, he really nails his topmost entry for Wage Slavery, and his proposed solutions for it are very interesting.
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