Aftermath Studies

America and its allies have to go to war with China because China is getting too powerful despite having a different political system from the hegemon, the United States. NATO has to go to war with Russia because Russia is worried about its border security, invaded Ukraine, and you can't trust Russians. Israel wants the USA to go to war with Iran so it can complete its Greater Israel Project and ensure security for the Middle East because there are too many Muslims there and too much oil. Iran is weak because it's a theocratic State, but it's also perilous and is terrible for the world because its theocracy is Islamic. America is at war with itself because its political system is inherently divisive, as in, us versus them, as opposed to finding ways for a plurality of groups with differing opinions to come together for common causes.

The world, it seems, can't do business without traditional enemies.

It's a nanosecond to midnight on the Doomsday Clock. States with nuclear weapons are frantically updating their warheads and weapons delivery systems to gain offensive advantages because the truth is that the only defense for nuclear strikes is an undetectable first strike.

So, you "win" a nuclear war, what's next? I never hear people talk about the geopolitics of the aftermath of nuclear war. People never talk about living on a much hotter planet where the ecosystems we depend on have radically changed.

Should they occur, billions of people will die due to these calamities. Our world will be unrecognizable.

What's next?

Will we reboot and start all over, making the same mistakes? What makes us think the world will be better off after such destruction? What in our nature will have changed? Will Ukraine be a much better country 20 years after its destruction? Who will run Ukraine when too many Ukrainians are gone? Will climate refugees go to Ukraine to grow wheat? Once NATO defeats Russia and Western corporations control Russia, will Russian IT talent create tech startups for Western corporations in Kyiv? Will the Middle East be peaceful and have more oil after Israel has annexed Jordan, parts of Lebanon and Syria and expelled Palestinians from Greater Israel? Will God then be happy with his chosen people? After "The Administrative State" in America is destroyed, will the United States finally be great again because it’s a White, Christian ethnostate full of dutiful handmaids and manly men, isolated behind walls and oceans? Will Chinese prosperity be tolerated when China is owned by America-led Western corporations? What happened to the concept of sovereign nations? Will Western corporations make more money after a nuclear war?

After WWI, we stumbled into WWII. Over the past 80 years, we've had many undeclared wars and proxy wars. Global warming is accelerating, unleashing catastrophic cascading feedbacks worldwide, affecting our climate and the habitats we depend on.

We are not planning for the consequences of our way of life. Is it because most of us believe we can do nothing about these issues and the ideas, structures, and systems driving them? Is it cognitive dissonance, ignorance, laziness, or are we too spoiled to care?

Doomerism is the apathy one feels with a terminal diagnosis; it's the helplessness, hopelessness, and powerlessness one feels when one believes they have no agency; it's the lack of imagination inherent in willfully ignorant people manipulated by anachronistic ideologies.

Sometimes, it seems like too many people have given up, and yet so many good people are working hard to find solutions and create new ways of life rooted in peacemaking and more equitable and sustainable ways of stewarding ecosystems and managing precious resources. People are starting to understand material constraints and the energy systems we depend on for prosperity.

The status quo ends in disaster. People who love life will work together to invent a new way of life and prevent these disasters from happening. We confront and manage risk all the time.

We don't have to destroy our planet and the good things we have created. Communities working together to invent what's next is purposeful, meaningful, positive, and healthy. Let's empower people to innovate. There are many ways we can do this. Think of some and get busy with your neighbors. Today, tomorrow, and the far-flung future could be beautiful.