11:58: Civilization may be on the brink of collapse, but it can still be saved

By Jeb Taylor

Somewhere in the Middle East around 10,000 years ago, an unknown group of intrepid individuals—in an attempt to improve their survival prospects—abandoned their traditional nomadic foraging subsistence strategy and adopted a sedentary one based on agriculture.

In so doing, they inadvertently crossed a threshold between primitive and civilized existences—and committed all future generations to an increasing reliance on progressive technologies—a commitment that we have wholeheartedly embraced.

When they crossed that threshold, they also committed all future generations to adopting progressive social behavior commensurate with those emerging technologies—unfortunately, we have failed, almost completely, to meet that commitment.

In other words, over the last 10,000 years, we have become materially progressive—but remain socially conservative.

This is an untenable situation because nearly every problem that threatens civilization today, from suicide bombings and wars—to pollution and overpopulation, can be traced directly or indirectly back to the disparity that exists between progressive technological development and conservative social behavior.

In order to resolve this problem, we must either regress technologically—or progress socially. Regressing technologically is not a realistic option, so we really have no choice but to progress socially.

If we fail to do this, our irresponsible use of technology will inevitably lead to chronic overpopulation, the overconsumption of Earth's resources, a population crash, and the collapse of civilization.

The requisite conditions for a crash already exist. Developing technologies are enabling us to forestall it by establishing increasingly clever methods of harvesting Earth's dwindling resources. However, even the most-clever methods will not enable us to harvest completely depleted resources.

This is not alarmist speculation—collapse is the inevitable consequence of employing progressive technologies without adopting progressive social behavior commensurate with those technologies.

11:58 is an objective guide for averting collapse and saving civilization

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Apr 21, 2020
• ISBN: 9781098312367

Book preview

11:58 Last Chance to Save Civilization

© 2020 by Jeb Taylor

All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

Print ISBN: 978-1-09831-235-0

eBook ISBN: 978-1-09831-236-7

Table of Contents

Part 1: Acknowledging our Inherent Responsibilities

1: Becoming Civilized

2: Establishing Appropriate Terminology

Part 2: Altering Perspectives

3: Social Perspectives

4: Problems Associated with Social Conservatism

Part 3: Raising Awareness

5: Awareness

6: Resistance to Raising Social Awareness

7: Transcending Faith in Religious Ideologies

8: Transcending Faith in Political Ideologies

9: Transcending Faith in Economic Ideologies

10: Locating Sources of Reliable Information

Part 4: Adopting Progressive Social Behavior

11: Accepting Responsibility

12: Establishing Progressive Religions

13: Establishing Progressive Governments

14: Establishing Progressive Economies

15: Establishing Progressive Energy Sources

16: Adopting Progressive Diets

17: Establishing Sustainable Population Levels

18: Establishing Progressive Behavior

Bibliography

Part I

Acknowledging our Inherent Responsibilities

It is easy to dodge our responsibilities, but we cannot dodge the consequences of dodging our responsibilities.

—Josiah Charles Stamp

1: Becoming Civilized

Somewhere in the Middle East around 10,000 years ago, an unknown group of intrepid individuals—in an attempt to improve their survival prospects—abandoned their traditional nomadic foraging subsistence strategy and adopted a sedentary one based on agriculture.

In so doing, they inadvertently crossed a threshold between primitive and civilized existences—and committed all future generations to an increasing reliance on progressive technologies—a commitment that we have wholeheartedly embraced.

When they crossed that threshold, they also committed all future generations to adopting progressive social behavior commensurate with those emerging technologies—unfortunately, we have failed, almost completely, to meet that commitment.

In other words, over the last 10,000 years, we have become materially progressive—but remain socially conservative.

This is an untenable situation because nearly every problem that threatens civilization today, from suicide bombings and wars—to pollution and overpopulation, can be traced directly or indirectly back to the disparity that exists between progressive technological development and conservative social behavior.

In order to resolve this problem, we must either regress technologically—or progress socially. Regressing technologically is not a realistic option, so we really have no choice but to progress socially.

If we fail to do this, our irresponsible use of technology will inevitably lead to chronic overpopulation, the overconsumption of Earth’s resources, a population crash, and the collapse of civilization.

The requisite conditions for a crash already exist. Developing technologies are enabling us to forestall it by establishing increasingly clever methods of harvesting Earth’s dwindling resources. However, even the most-clever methods will not enable us to harvest completely depleted resources.

This is not alarmist speculation—collapse is the inevitable consequence of employing progressive technologies without adopting progressive social behavior commensurate with those technologies.

2: Establishing Appropriate Terminology

Requisite to adopting progressive social behavior is raising social awareness. Unfortunately, it will be extremely difficult to raise social awareness because, for many thousands of years, our ancestors established and promoted immutable beliefs and traditions that inhibit the raising of awareness.

This condition is so pervasive in our cultures that no appropriate vocabulary even exists to discuss the subject objectively. It is essential that we do so now, so the definitions of the following terms have been refined slightly to make this possible.

Terms Associated with Social Progressiveness:

Rational: based on reason—reasonable

Rational information: information derived from evidence—knowledge

Rational perspectives: perspectives based on rational information

Rational behavior: behavior stemming from rational perspectives

Education: the conveyance of rational information with the intention of informing

Social awareness: an elevated state of consciousness resulting from the accumulation of rational information

Social progressiveness: the reliance on social awareness to encourage social progress—dynamic

Terms Associated with Social Conservatism:

irrational: not based on reason—unreasonable

irrational information: information derived without evidence—beliefs, dogmas

irrational perspectives: perspectives based on irrational information

irrational behavior: behavior stemming from irrational perspectives

indoctrination: the conveyance of irrational information with the intention of influencing

social delusion: an obstructed state of consciousness resulting from the accumulation of irrational information

social conservatism: the reliance on social delusions to resist change and maintain the status quo—static

It is important to realize that conclusions derived from evidence are not always accurate. For example, before the invention of the telescope, evidence suggested that Earth was at the center of the solar system. That conclusion was wrong. However, information derived from evidence is ALWAYS amendable, so when additional evidence became available, socially progressive individuals were able to correctly determine that the sun is at the center of our solar system.

It is also important to realize that conclusions derived from irrational information do not rely on evidence and are therefore not subject to revision—even when contradictory evidence becomes available. An example of this is the biblical creation story. It was conceived without evidence and conveyed through indoctrination as a belief to be accepted on faith. There is now overwhelming evidence that the biblical creation story is fictitious—but it is still believed and conveyed as factual by many social conservatives.

It is essential that we learn to distinguish between rational and irrational information, perspectives, and behavior—both in our minds and in what we convey. Currently, we are chronically inclined to confuse them. Consider the following statements:

There is only one god.

There is more than one god.

There are no gods.

Each of these statements implies knowledge—and although one of them, by default, has to be accurate, there is no evidence that any of them are, so all of them should be regarded—and conveyed as, beliefs:

I believe there is only one god.

I believe there is more than one god.

I believe there are no gods.

Conversely, we should discontinue regarding and conveying knowledge as beliefs. For example:

I believe in evolution.

I believe that Earth’s climate is changing.

I believe that water freezes at 32 degrees Fahrenheit.

There is ample evidence to support these conclusions, so they should be regarded—and conveyed, as knowledge.

Life is evolving.

Earth’s climate is changing.

Water freezes at