Thread by @SteB777

All my life, I have been accused of seeing things too simplistically. No, I'm actually an expert problem solver.

To solve a problem, you have to refine a problem, to its very basics, and if you fail to do address that, then ultimately, you won't solve the problem.
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https://twitter.com/SteB777/status/1958836084604825661

Our modern culture, is nearly all derived from that of several European colonial powers, who developed a certain rapacious mindset and went onto to colonize the world. I'm looking at you Britain, France, Spain, Portugal, and Holland.
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At the heart of this rapacious mindset, was just seeing everything, people, the natural world and its resources, as just commodities to be exploited for profit.

Other cultures ruled by powerful individuals, did this to an extent, but not on this scale, and focus.
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This is the fundamental thinking error of our modern culture, derived from these colonial powers. Ironically, seeing things in a very simple way, exploitation for profit, to the exclusion of all else. Just solely focused on maximal accumulation of wealth, devoid of conscience.
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It is a cultural outlook, which knows the price of everything, and the value of nothing.

We can best understand this mindset, with the concept of wasteland, fundamental to this colonial mindset.
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With this mindset, unless land was being cultivated, or exploited for profit, then it was waste, useless.

At heart, it is the thinking of a psychopath, of nihilism, where things only matter if they can be exploited for profit, by powerful individuals, for their benefit.
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Remember, this was basically done by a small number of powerful individuals, for their own personal benefit, who had the outlook, of actual psychopaths. Basically, a king/queen, and powerful individuals underneath them, who drove the process seeking power and profit.
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Yes, this was not the only time this was done, think the Mongols under Genghis Khan. The Roman Empire etc. But they were not at this level.

This is not a moral, judgement. I am simply looking at how it operates.
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These European colonial cultures/powers (it was actually the culture of the powerful people in these countries) not the people themselves.

Yes, the dirty work was done by ordinary people, but at the behest of the powerful.
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I mean, European peasants didn't say to themselves, let's go to the supposed New World, exterminate the native populations and destroy their culture for profit. They were directed by the wealthy and powerful individuals. People didn't have much choice at the time.
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What was different with this culture, to the preceding colonial enterprises, is that it was a culture, which viewed the natural world, as having no intrinsic value at all, and they saw it purely as a resource to be exploited for profit.
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Whereas the Roman, Mongol, and other previous colonial enterprises, still had values, even if they were weird ones.

Yes, these European colonial powers, had their Christian faith, but this had mutated into a strange type of thing, detached from this world.
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Whilst there were a few exceptions in the European Christian tradition, like St Francis, it basically saw the natural world as something unpleasant, and only of value, if it was exploited for profit.
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I don't want to get too bogged down in this, but the powerful individuals, saw Christian faith purely in terms of their getting to heaven. They were totally detached from everything else. Destroying peoples, other cultures and the natural world meant nothing to them.
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Take the Romans. Yes they were brutal, but often they incorporated local deities, into their pantheon. European colonial cultures, and again we are really talking about the powerful, had no respect for anything but their wealth and power.
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Remember, this was a culture, which revelled in hunting things to extinction, because they were rare. They wiped out large carnivores and other large troublesome mammals, by design. They were trying to make them extinct. It wasn't an accident.
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The Wolf was a great example of this. These European colonial cultures saw Wolves as evil, because they "stole" their livestock from them, so they waged campaigns of total extermination.
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I am not aware of any other culture, which deliberately drove animals to extinction, in an attempt to modify the natural world, so it behaved in a way, they deemed proper and fit. Which invented terms like vermin, and weed, and sought their total elimination.
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The powerful people in modern cultures, predominantly do not care about destroying the natural world, climate devastation, because all that matters to them, is accumulating great wealth, which to them, is all that matters.
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I say predominantly, because some very powerful people show "some" concern for the natural world. But most of it is partial. Take the fake conservationists in the British Royal family. They worry about some African mammals, whilst exterminating native birds of prey.
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Overall and essentially, the powerful people in our modern culture, put profit and wealth accumulation first, they have zero respect for natural world, and see it as disposable, of no inherent value.
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However, this is delusional and a demonstrable false view. We are entirely reliant on natural systems, and an equitable climate. The idea, that they don't really matter, is a delusion. It is truly and psychopathic mindset, because psychopaths don't think about consequences.
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This psychopathic mindset, doesn't think about consequences, it is very self-destructive. It is just about short term gratification. They have no realistic long term goals. It is very successful at accumulating wealth, but very poor at long term viability.
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Hence, the fixation on idiotic techno-fixes, rather than just stopping doing damaging things.

The solution to climate change, is to first stop the burning of fossil fuels, then to find a way to live, without them.
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This fixation on carry on with a lifestyle destroying the long term viability of our civilization, demonstrates that our societies are led, by dangerously irrational people, with a pathological mindset. This is the problem we really need to solve.
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