The Alarm Bells of Civilizational Collapse Are Ringing — But Are We Listening?

The Alarm Bells of Civilizational Collapse Are Ringing — But Are We Listening?

Right about now, you’re probably feeling overwhelmed. With all the chaos out there. This is the Age of Too Much Chaos. Every day brings a new catastrophe, it seems, and with it, an ever-mounting sense of dread, urgency, anger, and helplessness — the weird, upsetting feelings of now. End Times Vibes.

How to make sense of all this? I bet you’re struggling, and that’s OK, because me and a friend are here to help.

My friend? He just gave the most important speech of the 21st century, containing the most crucial idea of the 21st century — only nobody was listening.

I know, I know. You doubt me. Don’t worry, by the end of this, I guarantee — you won’t. Instead, your mind will be blown.

Here’s what he has to say.

We have a duty to act. And yet we are gridlocked in colossal global dysfunction.

The international community is not ready or willing to tackle the big dramatic challenges of our age. These crises threaten the very future of humanity and the fate of our planet.

Got that? Let’s keep going.

Let’s have no illusions. We are in rough seas. A winter of global discontent is on the horizon. A cost-of-living crisis is raging. Trust is crumbling. Inequalities are exploding. Our planet is burning. People are hurting — with the most vulnerable suffering the most.

Hey, he sounds like a lot like…you, Umair, I bet you’re thinking. So who is my friend? Well, he’s not really my friend. He’s the Secretary General of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres. Those are his opening remarks to the General Assembly, this year. Lol, and you think you have bad mornings.

Guterres opening remarks are the most important speech of the 21st century — because by the end, he delivered the most important idea of the 21st century. We’re going to get there, but first, I want you to note that you don’t know it, because our media didn’t cover it, which is, well, a crime of stupidity, practiced by idiots, a kind of theft of the mind…from you.

There are speeches and there are speeches. Ones that are tedious exercises in box-ticking — and ones history will remember. This one? It’s in the latter category. Because here we have the Secretary General of the UN sounding the alarm bells of civilizational collapse. “The future of humanity” is under threat. It’s not just you, and it’s not just me — it’s the leader of the largest global political organization in the world, too, now.

This speech isn’t important, though, because of the dire warning. It’s because of what happens at the end: Guterres, it turns out, has an idea so big, so necessary, so awesome, that it might just save our civilization, too.

Guterres is emerging as one of the very, very few leaders left in the world who tell it like it is, don’t mince words, and call for serious, meaningful transformation — instead of pretending as if appeasing the hard right and scapegoating minorities in society after society is somehow going to fix the problems of a dying planet, inequality, stagnant economies, skyrocketing prices, and all the rest. Guterres is not kidding around. And everyone should listen to him intently, because his words are wise, to the point, and meaningful. So let’s keep doing just that, listening.

Our world is in peril — and paralyzed. Geopolitical divides are undermining the work of the Security Council. Undermining international law. Undermining trust and people’s faith in democratic institutions. Undermining all forms of international cooperation. We cannot go on like this. Even the various groupings set up outside the multilateral system by some members of the international community have fallen into the trap of geopolitical divides, like in the G-20.

At one stage, international relations seemed to be moving toward a G-2 world; now we risk ending up with G-nothing. No cooperation. No dialogue. No collective problem solving.

But the reality is that we live in a world where the logic of cooperation and dialogue is the only path forward. No power or group alone can call the shots. No major global challenge can be solved by a coalition of the willing. We need a coalition of the world.

What’s he talking about? Not just Russia’s brutal, bloody war in Ukraine — but the rise of the far right. He’s talking about Brexit, Britain leaving the EU — a major blow to international cooperation. He’s talking about the far right spreading so fast and high it’s now ascendant in places like Sweden and Italy. About the return of fascism to Europe.

Continue reading at the source (Eudaimonia and Co)