The 'Great Filter' in front of us

A strong explanation of the ‘Fermi paradox’ is provided by the theory of the 'Great Filter'. The filter can also be described as a barrier or hurdle. The assumption arises from the many possible catastrophes that can put an abrupt end to the further development of a species during its long evolutionary history. Just think of the dinosaurs here on earth. According to a controversial theory, the eruption of a supervolcano on the island of Sumatra 75,000 years ago reduced humanity to a few thousand people. In this way, the development of intelligent life on other planets in the universe can also be impeded and the progress of civilisations made impossible. We know from human history just how much natural disasters can influence the world. If the Tunguska event in 1908 had not taken place over Siberia, but over the Ruhr area in Germany, the First World War would almost certainly not have happened. The world would probably look a little different today.

Apocalypse - Painting by Albert Goodwin, 1903

Even if humanity could end all wars and realise world peace, the biggest hurdle for the survival of our species would still have to be overcome. It is climate change caused by global warming. This threatening situation is a result of our civilisation and began at a time when people were not yet aware of it. In principle, it started when our ancestors made fires in their caves to keep warm. The climate crisis is expected to worsen significantly in the coming years. The current storms, floods, droughts and wildfires are just a foretaste of what is to come.

If the United Nations system collapses in the course of increasing catastrophes, authoritarian powers will attempt to take over the world order. The Chinese Communist Party and Putin's Russia are already fantasising about it. India, Brazil and South Africa are not averse. There are many smaller dictatorships that will be happy to join in. ‘America first’ will then become the arse of the world. It's hard to imagine the chaos that will ensue. Only the iron fist of a ‘dictatorship of reason’ will be able to control it. However, this will not be able to solve the world's problems either, but will lead to even more death and destruction. I have already addressed this scenario in my article ‘Global empire or federal world union?' A tolerable passage through the ‘Great Filter’ is only conceivable for humanity in the form of a democratic world federation. Whether it will succeed depends on us humans.

Please read my detailed article at Substack:

Can mankind survive? - by Richard Maxheim

Why I'm not at X

It's a general weakness of social media that political muddleheads, conspiracy ideologues and fanatics of all kinds can spread their rubbish unhindered under the guise of freedom of opinion. The damage caused by disinformation is considerable. But unfortunately the problem cannot be completely avoided without strict censorship. Nobody wants that, of course. On Twitter, however, it reached a level that prompted me to delete my account there in 2022.

After X-man Elon bought Twitter, things got a lot worse. Decent people, reputable organisations and companies are leaving the platform, which has since been renamed X, in droves. As a result, the proportion of negative elements is growing. This is why the German football club FC St. Pauli has also withdrawn from X. The sports fans explain their decision as follows:

‘Owner Elon Musk has turned a debate space into a hate amplifier that can also influence the federal election campaign’, ... ‘Racism and conspiracy theories spread unhindered or are even curated. Insults and threats are barely sanctioned and sold as supposed freedom of expression’, ... Musk had ‘turned X into a hate machine’ and had already ‘actively supported’ Donald Trump in the US election campaign, it said. ‘It can be assumed that X is also promoting authoritarian, misanthropic and right-wing extremist content in the German parliamentary election campaign and thus manipulating public discourse.’ Source: t-online

Unfortunately, I have to note that various civil society organisations - especially world federations - are still publishing their memes on X. Have they not yet realised what a disgusting swamp this is? How can they credibly campaign for a better world if they destroy their own reputation by doing so?

Here's an alternative:

The exodus from X to Bluesky has happened – the era of mass social media platforms is over | Gaby Hinsliff | The Guardian

United Nations reform is cancelled

As I noted in my article ‘World Parliament not now’ from 18 October, the desire for the rapid realisation of a Parliamentary Assembly at the United Nations seems to have been frozen among its supporters. As none of the demands of the ‘We The Peoples’ coalition were mentioned in the ‘Pact for the Future’ adopted by the UN General Assembly, it can be assumed that all of this will now be on ice for the unforeseeable future

The ‘Civil society letter to UN Member States on inclusive and accountable global governance’ did not bring the desired result either. Perhaps there are some states that agree with this. But that is a small minority. The well-intentioned attempt to support the open letter with a petition failed miserably. Even AVAAZ, ‘The world's largest and most effective online campaigning community for change’ with over 69 million members worldwide, had just 1157 signatures after two months. Perhaps one more signature is added every day. This result documents all too clearly how little interest there is in the democratisation of the United Nations among the general public. The campaign simply lacks people. The photo of the empty meeting room fits like a lid on a bucket.

Even if existing or newly forming coalitions try to squeeze something in their favour out of the meagre UN Pact for the Future, their efforts will be no more than another race on the hamster wheel of the pretended co-determination of civil society in the UN system. But a possible alternative path is already emerging. More on this in my latest Substack article

Democracy ist not a law of nature - by Richard Maxheim