2020 Climate Solutions: 163 Ways to Kill a Man

Aleksandar Malečić
803 days ago

I don't know exactly how many ways to kill a man exist today, but I know they are very sophisticated. A lot of effort and thinking has been put in their development. We will bring with us knowledge about them from now to eternity. You don't have to be smart to be influential in the world. All you need is enough powerful weaponry. What is the most effective way for other people to defend from you? Obviously, they can keep with them the ability to kill you.

Aleksandar Malečić

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Aleksandar Malečić
791 days ago

Whenever you negotiate, your ability to arrest people or to become a mass murderer will always be considered very seriously. You can add and remove borders between territories if you are dangerous enough. Also, when people discuss about sustainability, your word will be the last.

Aleksandar Malečić

Aleksandar Malečić
781 days ago

Even if we somehow turn this wreck of global society on a sustainable track, all knowledge about potentially dangerous technologies and ways to destroy nature will still be with us. Science and technology develop and with them our ability to move rivers, mountains and genes.

Aleksandar Malečić

Aleksandar Malečić
735 days ago

Suppose there is the universal set of values, the definition of freedom. Your nation is militarily strong enough to fight for it and to protect weak and powerless people. There is a paradox - you must be lethal and dangerous from now to eternity if you want to protect these values. They are so good and universal that only the newest weaponry and bombs can protect them.

Aleksandar Malečić

Aleksandar Malečić
719 days ago

Any global initiative to make this world more sustainable will sooner or later have problems with wars that last for decades. When they last so long, their only purpose is to kill more people. A new politician might ask: "Why are we in this war?" and the only reasonable answer would be: "I don't know. Those who have started it died long time ago, before we were even born." You know what I'm talking about. I don't have to mention region by region.

Aleksandar Malečić

Aleksandar Malečić
667 days ago

A nation's ability to kill many people or buy many things/properties/institutions are the only things that really matter. How long will selfish and aggressive behaviour be encouraged (if you are dangerous enough, of course) before something really terrible happens?

Aleksandar Malečić

Aleksandar Malečić
642 days ago

Politics is a male activity. Rare female politicians must be "made of iron" if they want to succeed. Strength and muscles are often more important than long-term activities and results. Nations never have enough weaponry. Maybe in a better world the money used for creating fear in our world could be used for green technologies and renewable energy. Maybe.

Aleksandar Malečić

Aleksandar Malečić
590 days ago

As technology develops, extremely deadly weapons are increasingly easy to produce and use. On the other hand, all kinds of networks between people are created. Maybe, as these networks transform and reach a critical mass of all kinds of weird connections and interactions, people will become a bad material for manipulation and starting a war.

Aleksandar Malečić

Aleksandar Malečić
569 days ago

Some of the most intelligent people have created nuclear weapons. Are we sustainable with this kind of elite?

Aleksandar Malečić

Aleksandar Malečić
538 days ago

Who is behind national security and top secret documents? Who is allowed to know their content? Do you vote for national security, top secret documents and hidden activities or for transparency? Do you know what is going on without the scene? Should you be "protected" and know nothing about activities behind the scene?

Aleksandar Malečić

Aleksandar Malečić
489 days ago

Since we've had many wars in and around Serbia, I've spent a lot of time thinking about their origin. People are not monsters per se, but they just can't properly react on changes. Historical changes are "good" for causing irrational behaviour within people and dwarfs on high political positions alike. Wars just "happen". Winners will try to explain them, but their explanation will never be total.

Aleksandar Malečić

Aleksandar Malečić
385 days ago

Osama Bin Laden is dead. Should his death be celebrated? Should anyone's death be celebrated?

I'll try to keep this comment is neutral as possible. It probably won't be difficult to figure out my opinion about past and future conflicts, no matter how hard I try to hide it.

Are there nations saturated with stereotypes and frequently playing negative roles in action films? I am a Serb. Out of all European nations, they were and still are the best material for terrorist in action film. But, have you ever heard of any Serbian terrorist? What makes Serbs so special? Are they insane monsters or is there something wrong with their genome? It's nothing of that as far as I know. The reason why Serbs became "mad" during 1990s was fear. You ask: "Fear of what?" It was fear of genocide. I'm not talking here about some imaginary fear of something nonexistent. I'm talking about being frightened of the continuation of World War 2. Serbs were victims in Jasenovac in Croatia, just like Jews in Auschwitz. Any kind of support to Croats, Bosniaks and Albanians against Serbs looked for a good reason like global conspiracy. Actually, in reality it was buying one's version of truth. Croats were very surprised these days when they generals were pled guilty in Hague. It wasn't a part of the deal.

It seems I can hardly hide my political orientation. Well, ignoring war crimes against Serbs (my family and our house included) would be pure stupidity and masochism. Still, I shall not mention here my interpretation of that historical burden and mess in Balkan before and after some events (such as killing the prime minister). It's irrelevant in this context. What matters here is the difference between good and bad guys. Do you feel like a nice person? You do, just like your enemy feels about him/herself. No child wants to be a terrorist or killer. When your nation has soldiers all around the world in “sovereign” countries, you and your people are a less surprising target for terrorists than some other nations. Wars are conflicts between people who haven’t figured out how to solve their misunderstandings more politely. Sometimes wars (or hatred causing and fear causing new wars) can drag for decades and enter a phase when no one remembers when and how it all started. With all crusades and historical empires, it’s almost natural to kill other people now and then. I remember when I was a child. I lived in Croatia. Since religion is the only certain difference between Serbs and Croats, other pupils didn’t immediately know that I was a Serb. They should slaughter a Serb with a knife when they see one and suddenly there was a Serb among them. I wasn’t an ugly, dirty, savage and evil creature. Even worse – I was the best pupil.

So, what is the way in politics as usual to differentiate good and bad guys? Empires were rising and falling, but the rule to buy yourself the ticket of a good guy in history books has always been the same – you must be rich and dangerous. Osama Bin Laden was rich and dangerous, but obviously he wasn’t the richest and most dangerous. He had attacked the single nation with troops all around the world and this brought to his death. Monster or not, his motivation was clear. Civil war in America wasn’t about Afro-Americans and their human rights. American natives were being exterminated at exactly the same time. It was about who is more rich and dangerous.

Where is any discussion about sustainability in this comment? Exactly – the entire history (prehistory included) has been about being rich (or having any other type of power and influence) and dangerous. The beginning of this century will be remembered as a race in order to see who will be the richest and most dangerous after the financial complications settle down.

Aleksandar Malečić

Aleksandar Malečić
352 days ago

Any real global transition with real global results requires resolved or at least silenced conflicts across the world. Living in former Yugoslavia, I know first-hand how stupid people (both domestic and foreign) can be. There was a war during 1990s that no one quite understands how and why started. When Yugoslavia was falling apart, some politicians saw it as a unique opportunity to become fathers of their nations. A Serb Gavrilo Princip started World War 1 and Serbs suffered a lot during World War 1 and 2. Also, they in both war felt the need to be involved in global conflicts and politics. Add to that assassinations during the 19^th and 20^th century and you have a really heavy historical burden. Slobodan Milosevic was encouraging fascistic offspring among Croats, Bosniaks and Albanians (the rest joined the herd) in order to have a real instability. First he had caused the damage needed to recommend him as a “saviour”. I used to live in Croatia and now I live in Serbia. I was a refugee in 1995 because some Croats focused some disgusting hatred towards my family. They didn’t really want to slaughter us (at least they didn’t express this kind of feelings openly), but there was something ugly in the air. Add to all that mess foreign politicians who, after “deep” thinking for about five seconds decided that Serbs were bad guys (and the same time ignoring fascism on the other side – you know, Adolf Hitler and friends) and you have a total mess. Serbian nationalists and war criminals weren’t some kind of monsters waiting for violence. They were people behaving irrationally under fear (real and experienced during World War 2) of genocide and ethnical cleansing. They were like Jews taking an unselective revenge toward Germans. Milosevic wholeheartedly encouraged instability. He needed it as much as he didn’t need democracy.

There you have it. That is what actually happened in former Yugoslavia during 1990s, at least it is my interpretation of the events. It’s nice to think about yourself as a civilized and nice person, but I would “like” to see your behaviour when your world is turning upside down. A few bad words and people with a weak ability to perceive the situation and there you have it – thousands of dead people. Many things will in our lifetime turn upside down. Above all, we shall have many unresolved conflicts from the past that no one even remembers how and why they started (with killing all enemies being the only visible solution). Mind you, many conflicts started when people weren’t able to communicate the way we can today. In order to fix the mess and find the way to sustainability, we shall be forced to think differently than we used to and communicate more and be capabable to understand other points of view. It’s much for one generation to do all this, but it’s necessary. Limited natural resources and climate change won’t wait for us to make our decisions. Nature has its own rules and (physical) laws. You might not like them, but they will still be there. Everyhing that is necessary to fix in order to prevent the disaster (including global competition followed by “eternal growth” of economy and population). As long as we keep our eyes closed in front of emerging problems, they will continue growing. It’s absurd that atheists tend more to believe to believe that everything will be alright even if we don’t change a thing in business, politics and management as usual. It won’t be alright, at least not for the majority of human population.

Sometimes we can be painfully stupid and irrational. From now on this we must be brilliant. It probably won’t happen, but we still must.

Aleksandar Malečić

Aleksandar Malečić
269 days ago

In order to achieve the penetration of renewable energy big enough to prevent the global society from a crisis and even collapse, the human component seems to be even more important than the technological one. For example, wind always blows somewhere and interconnected wind farms across a wider area are more stable and less unpredictable. We need a huge amount of wisdom and awareness and unfortunately we haven’t had much of it. Rich people don’t care much about financially weaker “mortals”. It’s not anything in their nature or their individual decisions that makes them think and behave this way. It’s their herd that has been shaping their mindset for years/centuries/millennia. Slaves were producing food and taking care about water. Everything that we presume as the way the organized world works should be re-examined. The reasons for social and economic stratification as well as old conflicts belong to the past. Perhaps (actually, I am certain) they won’t work so “fine” under drastically changed and ever-changing circumstances. For the first time ever human beings are supposed to make a different deal with the environment and to consciously withdraw to the background and let nature self-heal. As long as our species homo sapiens exists, we’ve never used our brains that way – to be capable to destroy and exploit and to voluntarily decide not to do so.

We are in the middle of a huge experiment. Considering historical examples, we will probably fail. Paradoxically, we mustn’t fail. Also, if we don’t even try (don’t even start thinking about trying), we shall definitely fail.

Recommended reading: Joseph Tainter, The Collapse of Complex Societies

Aleksandar Malečić

Aleksandar Malečić
195 days ago

How to overcome the crisis or at least make it less painful:

1. Create strong adaptive networks and use them

2. Avoid herd mentality (unless you are already too deep in debts)

3. Avoid redundancy (multiple efforts around the same thing) as much as possible

All three "tricks" and especially the third one require totally different mindsets and collaboration instead of merciless competition. Even in post-communistic Serbia journalists prefer to say uncompetitive instead of insolvent. The main purpose of companies should be work and results instead of destruction of competitors.

Aleksandar Malečić

Aleksandar Malečić
152 days ago

I suppose terrorism is a real threat in the modern world. But, it would be nice to invest a comparable amount of money and work in making the world greener. If the situation with mismanaged natural resources and energy remains as it is and I don't see any particular reason why it shouldn't (unless economic complications somehow trigger people's awareness of the big picture), we are in trouble. Rich countries and emerging national economies mustn't behave the way they used to. As long as we are brainwashed to believe that profit (primarily concentrated around services instead of research and development) is the only purpose of someone's life, we shall go deeper.