The clock is ticking

Would it not be wonderful to be able to return to the early stages of our evolution… when we were covered in fleas and dirt, when killing (and sometimes eating) our fellow humans was not such a big deal, and when refined education was not on the menu! What? No? Oh! And yet, our savage past soon becomes a beacon of virtue whenever our most shameful primitive dispositions are challenged, such as torturing and butchering animals, war and exploitation.

The evil mantra: “We have always done it this way!”, which for centuries has bolstered slavery, abuse of women and every sort of bigoty and violence, continues to hold sway in many domains despite its obvious absurdity.

One would have thought that the blatant cruelty and harm stemming from these practices would have weaned us away from them in our infancy; and yet here we are in the 21st century still acting like savages.

The standard is clear enough and well within the reach of the dullest of minds, namely the sacredness of life, which in turn invites kindness. We all know this, for we have all seen it, but from the dawn of civilization, we have also been trained to ignore it. Hence the mental health crises, the political chaos, the environmental catastrophes…

In some ways we have escaped the worst consequences of our ongoing savagery, but as the Italians say: “Tardare sì, scappare no!” In other words, one can only escape the inevitable for so long.

Seeing as we have not been collectively able to wean ourselves off our savagery, mother nature will do it for us and all the signs indicate that the reckoning is nigh.

On January 28, 2025, the Doomsday Clock was moved one second closer to midnight — a symbolic forecast that now places humanity just 89 seconds from potential global devastation.

This is not the scaremongering of petty tabloid newspapers. The assessment is carried out by the Science and Security Board (SASB) of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, which determines each year where the hands of the infamous Doomsday Clock will stand. This involves a panel of leading experts—drawn from diverse scientific disciplines.

They scrutinise the gravest threats facing humanity, from the menace of nuclear arms, to the accelerating climate crisis, and the rise of dangerous, world-altering technologies. Anyone vaguely aware of the direction the human race has been taking, cannot be surprised by the gravity of these threats.

Many people, however, prefer to live in a fairyland and only confront what hits them in the face. Others, especially those most responsible for the looming collapse, believe they are on some sort of modern-day Noah’s Arc and that they will easily weather the cataclysmic tsunami that approaches from the horizon.

Well, let them have their rude awakening! The evidence is all around them and I have no desire to reiterate the obvious here.

My intention in this article is to highlight the main cause of this looming disaster, the understanding of which will of itself offer the way out. Hannah Arendt summarised it in one sentence:

“The death of human empathy is one of the earliest and most telling signs of a culture about to fall into barbarism.”

This barbarism is not just leading to a societal demise; it is a cancer that is affecting every aspect of life on earth and precipitating the world to its ruin. So, if lack of empathy is the problem, empathy is clearly the solution to it.

Still, rather than just taking Arendt’s statement at face value, we should apply it to our current situation in order to see if it is relevant.

Out of the many plagues that stand out as testaments to our appalling lack of humanity, four tower over us like the horsemen of our very own apocalypse: animal exploitation, capitalism, colonialism and nationalism.

Our lack of empathy in these areas have triggered a self-destructive force that is so potent that it seems as though this time Karma has finally abandoned all self-restraint.

Animal exploitation

We have always exploited and abused the exploitable. I guess you could call it the law of the jungle.

As long as we abide by that law, we stay right there, in the metaphorical jungle, even if we live in palaces or high-rise buildings.

This jungle has followed us throughout our history, sometimes as a vast expanse, sometimes as anachronistic patches here and there, sometimes as small pockets within our very homes.

Slavery, for instance, was only abolished in the USA in 1865 and although it was abolished in Mauritania in 1981, it was only criminalised in 2007.

A similar scenario applies to women and the vote. New Zealand became the first self-governing country to grant women the right to vote in national elections, in 1893, while in Portugal, women could not vote in general elections until 1976.

In Switzerland, women only gained federal voting rights in 1971, although the last local ban only fell by court order in 1991.

Of course, In practice, abuses still abound in these areas. Slavery still exists today in various forms such as forced labour, debt bondage and human trafficking; while women are still legally abused despite their voting rights.

Still, at least some progress has been made. Animals have not been so lucky; quite the contrary: many have been reduced to mere objects, cogs in a production line to satisfy human greed.

Animals are killed by their millions, billions and trillions every year. They are abused for food, sport, clothing, “science” and labour. For many, life is one long moment of torture before termination.

Despite this, we have been programmed to believe it is all natural and beyond the realm of good and evil.

Our milkshake no longer comes from Daisy grazing in the meadow.

For instance, we have been brought up to believe that there is nothing more innocent than a glass of milk. Think again! The standard procedure of the dairy industry is this: a cow is repeatedly subjected to a process called artificial insemination: a worker inserts an arm into her rectum to position her reproductive organs, while a metal instrument is pushed into her vagina to inject semen.

This harrowing violation of her dignity is purely to make her pregnant so she will produce milk. When she gives birth, her calf—the natural recipient of her milk—is taken away, usually within hours.

Male calves are often slaughtered within days, while females are raised to endure the same fate as their mothers. The mother cow is then hooked up to milking machines for much of each day of her life. Pushed to extreme productivity, she becomes distressed, exhausted and prone to illness, so after only four to five years—far short of her natural lifespan—her milk yield declines, and she is sent to slaughter.

Every part of her body is then used for profit. Our milkshake no longer comes from Daisy grazing in the meadow. Every cheese sandwich or bar of milk chocolate we eat is an indictment to our lack of empathy. Similar methods of torture and exploitation apply to other areas of animal abuse.

And here is the reckoning… Our forests are being depleted, our oceans emptied, our air polluted, our water supplies endangered and our land contaminated; with climate change, pandemics and health issues thrown into the mix.

Capitalism and colonialism

After the revolutions of the 19th and 20th centuries, capitalism adopted a kinder face, while colonialism backed off as much as it was forced to do so.

However, this was nothing more than a mask which, a few decades into the 21st century, has been ripped off by the capitalist exploiters themselves.

The super-capitalists have grown brazen. They flaunt their obscene wealth, they buy politicians, they create lobbies to control policy, they fuel climate change, they orchestrate the proliferation of weapons and subsidise colonialism and genocide.

The amount of global wealth controlled by a very small group of individuals is staggering. Although the well-known “eight richest people own the same as the poorest half” figure stems from the 2017 Oxfam report An Economy for the 99%, inequality remains extreme almost ten years on, with no significant moves against the trend.

Today, the bottom 50% of people still own only around 2% of the world’s wealth, while the top 10% holds roughly three-quarters of it. Avaricious tycoons will stop at nothing to get richer at the expense of the vast majority.

Francesca Albanese’s recent report From Economy of Occupation to Economy of Genocide highlights the links between big business and genocide, and that is why the Trump administration slammed sanctions on her.

Israel has become a sort of champion for capitalism and colonialism to the point where it has become dangerous to challenge it, its apartheid or its genocide.

Indeed, the situation in Gaza highlights how governments, in cahoots with the mighty corporations, have no qualms in suppressing those rights we took for granted, like freedom of speech and the right to protest.

Is it any wonder that the situation of our animal co-earthlings is so dire, when in the name of profit, even humans are dispensable? Still, the blood of the thousands of children of Gaza will not go unpunished. This, not despite the fact that even international law is being flouted, but precisely because it is being flouted.

I am no mathematician, but: arms proliferation + depleted resources + lawlessness = X. What could X stand for if not a conflagration?

Here too, our lack of empathy, which in this case should lead to revolution, implicates us.

We may not be as callous as the ruthless capitalists or politicians, but we are still letting them get away with their crimes.

Still, the looming upheaval may eventually create a better world, but only if we wake up and accept the fact that evolution without responsibility breads monsters.

Nationalism

Nationalism stands for everything that is wrong with the world.

Here is another beast, Nationalism, neatly dressed in spikes and medals: the fourth horseman of our apocalypse and one of the most dangerous.

Nationalism stands for everything that is wrong with the world and that is why our organisation, UN-aligned, is so bent against it.

Nationalism brainwashes people to believe that selfishness at a national level is sweet and decorous, leading to the obvious assumption that it must therefore be desirable at every level.

It is one of the prime destroyers of true dignity and kindness. Immigrants and refugees are demonised, foreign states distanced and belittled - sometimes to the point of being dehumanised, and minorities are persecuted for not corresponding to the mainstream national image.

Nationalism breeds hostility and wars, and added to our equation above, will simply hasten the inevitable.

Three of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council are prime examples of how this is coming to a head, with Russia attacking Ukraine, China threatening Taiwan and Trump’s trade wars and threats to Panama, Greenland, Canada and Palestine.

The Sword of Damocles hangs over our heads and it cannot be long before all this sabre-rattling will sever that delicate thread. A new world order will no doubt arise from the ashes, but whether for better or for worse, remains to be seen.

A fool’s hope

We are still in time to stop this madness, and as mentioned above, the way to do it is through empathy. We need to reclaim our dignity and put the greedy parasites that are draining and infecting the world behind bars. All of them!

We are standing at the crossroads. Either Karma will knock us down, or we will revolt and take the reins from these psychopaths and readjust on a better footing.

The former scenario offers no guarantees that we will learn our lessons, and even if we did, it would be at an unimaginably heavy price.

The second option, then, is our best chance. Karma is warning us. Kindness is contagious, so let us start with ourselves. For this to work, however, we must shun compromise or opting for the lesser evil.

We need to reassess every aspect of our lives and question everything, from our diets to everything else that is being shoved down our throats.

We need to get off the merry-go-round that is being operated by the four horsemen and have the courage to espouse revolutionary movements like UN-aligned.

We owe it to ourselves, we owe it to the planet, we owe it to future generations.