Being Forced To Reengage With Our Environment

We all have in the back of our minds the idea that an asteroid can hit Earth and instantly change our lives forever. After the strike, we would all have to scramble to survive for an extended period of time before we could start building again. The problem we have is that no one believes this could happen in any other way… Only an asteroid could cause such carnage.

Were the Israelites lost in the desert for forty years,.. or hiding? There is no need to take God out of the equation, but were the Israelites no different from other communities around the Mediterranean who had to hide for forty years to survive the Aegean Apocalypse? The Aegean Apocalypse was the rise of an independent army called the Sea People, who brought a swift end to all of the Bronze Age empires.

It is a significant shift in perspective that brings to awareness the fact that humans are more often the “asteroid” that hits Earth than asteroids are. And it is not even technology, like nuclear weapons, toxic chemicals, or questionable medicines; it is simply human behavior. People simply get an idea in their heads that causes them to collectively attack old institutions and behavioral structures. Effectively slamming into the planet with destructive force.

These events are always happening on a smaller scale. For the past few decades, the Palestinians have been scrambling to survive their own apocalypse; building new and reinforcing old routines and beliefs that keep them going through the carnage forced onto them. But, it will go global eventually. (If it has not already begun.) Every single person’s lifestyle and routines will be ripped away and they will be forced to rebuild routines that enable them to survive in their hostile environment.

Like with the Palestinians, I do not believe there will be any way to physically hide from the coming “asteroid.” People and communities will need to adapt to survive psychotic behavior that is both institutionally planned and highly coordinated, and independently irrational and unpredictable. Nothing will be uniform; we will not be able to discount or embrace all technology or medicine. We will have to work to develop strategies that include both new and old routines to build healthy communities that protect its members.

After the dust settles, as with past “asteroids,” there will be a new religion built on what was learned, but this time it will be global. And, also as it has worked in the past, this new global religion will plant the seeds for a new form of government;.. One that can work on a global scale.