Let’s Cut All the Delusional BS and ‘Get Real’

What is the rarest type of human being? I’d say it’s the realist. Optimists, pessimists, hedonists, narcissists, and “believers” of every persuasion abound, but there are very few realists.

What makes a person a “realist”? Forget the dictionary definitions. Being a realist entails embracing everything about humanity and life on earth — the good, the bad, the beautiful, the banal, and the ugly. This doesn’t imply liking everything, just acknowledging and, most importantly, not denying anything about life.

Yet, what do we see all around us today? Major denial is rampant and running wild throughout humanity, especially in the West. Our business-as- usual world keeps humming merrily along, as our societies increasingly implode and ecological collapse accelerates.

What are dedicated realists to do? At this point, the most realistic option is probably to keep our heads above water, keep on keepin’ on, and perhaps work to “touch” and educate a few people along the way. (Remember the old, cliched AT&T advertising motto “Reach out and touch someone”?)

But why bother reaching out and educating people in such a crazy, upside-down world? For me, it’s because human beings (some, anyway) are capable of amazing, wonderful things — IF we get proper, timely support for learning and growing.

Humanity as a whole may be “going to hell in a handbasket,” as the old, rather bizarre saying puts it — but is that a reason to give up on all human beings? I’d say, NO, it is not.

A realist’s take on our current, decaying “reality”

Here is a list of my major, realistic findings/learnings about life on planet Earth, including — but not limited to — human life.

Humans truly are capable of wondrous and beautiful things, as noted above — when they receive excellent nurturing and support. The fact that such excellent support and nurturing are quite rare is not an indictment of humanity as a whole or our human potential. Rather, it’s an indictment of the stupid, inhumane family and social systems we tend to create — and how we often hang on to them for dear life, no matter how destructive they are.
Modern humans birthed the weird idea that humanity is somehow separate from and superior to the natural world. This accounts for our savage plunder of the planet and our ongoing attempts to “conquer/escape” nature and replace many natural processes with our own short-sighted, ego-driven creations.
A major aspect of this replacement process has been the creation and rapid spread of worldwide consumerism. Over the past 50 years, more and more countries around the world have jumped on the consumerism bandwagon, to the point that today most “modern” nations have economies devoted to ever-increasing “consumer comforts.” Of course, such devotion requires massive exploitation, abuse, and even destruction of natural processes and resources (for example, overfishing and the depletion of fish populations).
This vast increase in exploitative “consumerism” might have been tolerable, ecologically speaking, if the human population had remained at the 1975 level of about 4.1 billion. However, that number has grown exponentially, so the global population now exceeds 8.3 billion. Put starkly, that means the human population has more than doubled in just 50 years. And it keeps growing by about 70 million every… single… year.
When we combine #2–4, we are faced with the inescapable conclusion that humanity and our relations with planet Earth have spun wildly out of control. Our tremendous population increase, combined with the simultaneous vast increase in consumerism and mass exploitation of nature, has created a burgeoning collapse scenario that shows no sign of slowing down — and is, in fact, accelerating every year as global consumerism and population keep expanding. Yet many humans and some major religions (mainly Catholicism) assert that birth control is “evil” and also condemn all abortion — adding greatly to our population overload.
Faced with these challenges, how are we responding? Humanity as a whole is doubling down on consumerism, extraction, and exploitation — and using widespread denial to bolster our current economic systems. In other words, we’re busy pretending that ecological collapse and rapid, proven global warming/climate disruption aren’t real or are ‘manageable.’ But the truth is, they are real — as real as it gets — and are not manageable. For example, even if we stopped all burning of carbon-based fuels TODAY, the dire effects of the accumulated CO2 in the atmosphere would continue to mount for decades. Yet, many so-called conservatives deny that any of this matters… or is even happening at all.
Over the past 30 years, the nations of the world gathered in annual COP (Conference of Parties) meetings to curb global warming and climate disruptions. We set positive-sounding goals each time, yet not once have we met any of our stated goals regarding carbon emissions. Not once! Instead, due to # 3–6 above, global carbon emissions keep rising every year, like clockwork. And the nations of the world are doing little to nothing about this disastrous situation.

It’s impossible to avoid reality forever

I know that the preceding information sounds, and IS, pretty grim. But the crucial thing about realism is this: you can’t simply deny, avoid, or ‘explain away’ something just because it is scary or uncomfortable. Any rational, realistic person should be able to arrive at the above information and societal descriptions simply by observing and studying current events and a bit of recent history.

Taken together, these seven points show that humanity has totally blown it. As a species, we are out of control, are wrecking the planet, and are in major denial about all of this (especially in our actions).

This leads me to a frightening conclusion: Humanity as a whole has already made its ultimate choice, and that choice is now irrevocable. We have chosen to continue our ignorant, destructive ways and also deny we are doing any such thing — which guarantees that ecological and social collapses will keep accelerating and spreading.

It’s impossible to ignore and deny reality forever.

Our only real, healthy alternative

Where does this leave us? On one level, we and our societies are totally screwed. But on another, equally significant level, we are being thrown back on our own inner resources and our local, tangible realities. The large-scale systems we’ve all come to depend on, nationally and globally — and got totally addicted to — are starting to fail and fall apart. Thus, it appears that in the very near future, local relationships, economics, and social movements will again be of paramount importance — and become (of necessity) our main focus and lifeline.

Absent a realistic, denial-free international plan to turn our societies around and curb our rapacious ways, our personal, family, and local realities will soon be all we have left to rely on.

And I must insist that this attitude is not doomerism or dark pessimism; it is balanced realism. Despite its grimness, this take on our situation also offers a glimmer of hope — for in the end, all that truly matters anyway is our personal lives, our relationships, our connection to nature, and our contributions to our local communities.

Globalism, in its current exploitative and dysfunctional form, is a massive disaster and persistent collapse machine. And until and unless humans choose to become more conscious and more responsible, our focus should shift away from pathetic, destructive, and deeply ‘stuck’ global and international systems and toward improved personal and local relating and endeavors.

That’s where the healing is. That’s where the “good stuff” is. That’s our most basic and necessary reality. That’s where healthy thinking and relating can be reborn. That’s the only area of life where we have any real choices or personal control.

That’s the place where real life, growth, and happiness can flower. Forget all the failing “globalism” nonsense (including most aspects of the Internet and AI). Local, personal relating, healing, and growth are where it’s at — and have always been where it’s at — in reality.

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This post was previously published on MEDIUM.COM.

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