POWER

To really understand power, you must understand human nature. Human nature evolved into civilization and civilization is a power system. So human nature is intricately wrapped up in the tech and knowledge of getting and using power. This power impulse is in the abstract with people and mind power that network and produce economic value chains. Even though this is abstract it is still a power multiplier and the primary reason humans are at a power deficit. Humans have overshot population and the consumption from that population. We have leveraged power through efficiency, performance and the networking to push out our threasholds. The physical aspects of our power have taken humans into places we now know we should have not gone. We had no choice because it is human instinct. Choices come from knowing options, instinct is prewired and nonnegotiable. Humans have consistently felt compelled to advance power instead of check it. This puts humans in competitive cooperative trap of ever-expanding power potential that is until right here right now. That right here and right now is planetary limits and species die-off’s.

Now more than ever our human behavior must be examined and reflected on in regards to power. This is including solutions. It is not enough now we humans know we have created a mess. We are still bargaining with solutions which is just a more advance aspect to denial. Denial of failure is now the problem. We cannot transform our instincts of more to less. We now have those who preach green nirvana of renewables and electric delivery systems as if we yet again conquered our environmental constraints. This denial and bargaining must now change because humans are well into the planetary problem of power overshoot. There is no longer excess power to waste because another variable is running short and that is time. Instead of slowing the engine down humans are doubling down on efficiency and tech performance that got us to this point. This is the vicious circle of behavior that lead us back to the same problems. This trap is a catch 22 also because we have come too far to easily simplify. Overshoot and increasing our complicated systems is now reaching the nonlinear of diminishing returns where negative results explode.

For humans to understand power we will have to understand ourselves. This is more difficult than understanding the physics of our power impulse which science has covered quite well. Yet, science struggles to understand human nature. We have volumes of knowledge on human psychology but little on human wisdom. This is because human wisdom is metaphysical not a place science is meant to go. The reason science can’t crack this problem of human nature is the noise that comes from self-awareness. You can’t model self-awareness. The dualism of self-awareness means a human will also seek out his own interests in addition to the civilization and further the planet. The ego is its own universe. Science is optional to the ego. It is this noise of dualism that leads to competitive cooperation at the level of civilization. This means the noise of human nature to peruse multiple competitive behaviors is codified into morals, ethics, and laws to avoid destroying ourselves. We allow bad behavior if it conforms to this rule-based system. Warfare is a part of this because bad behavior is periodically uncontrollable. Warfare is the most destructive and power hungry of all our power impulses and possibly the one that destroys us.

Humans are now path dependent in a carbon trap of a civilization in denial. The green nirvana of a Green New deal is the latest subterfuge we have created. I am a dedicated green and believe in renewables but not to the point of the Green New Deal and this is mainly because this is yet another act of human denial in this power trap. This is a trap of consequences both advancing and retreating. It is now planetary and beyond human management. Properly scaled human wisdom is the only salvation. Human wisdom can manage this problem but this involves tough choices that are trade-offs. Human wisdom is the Holly Grail of power now. This is the wisdom of what power to use and what to not use.

Wisdom is trapped at the level of civilization because civilization is in succession too. Civilization is just another part of this planetary ecosystem in succession. Civilization can’t expect to grow when the planet is degrowthing complexity including human civilization. Our growth-based civilization will be forced into the chaotic decline the planet is forcing on all ecosystems. Where human wisdom can make a profound difference is at the local level where microclimes of constructive growth can result. Seeds of change can be husband here. Civilization will run its course in decline and eventual collpase. Local niches will be the seeds of new growth that will come post Anthropocene where a new human will hopefully pass through the existential gauntlet that is the bottleneck of our power impulse predicament. This is the nature of life in the current macro planetary epoch of succession.

Finally, it is vital that those who have been transformed by reality and are now awakened to action understand real power. This power is low level but pervades all. It is within the planet’s animation. This power is the power of truth that manifests in activity. Humans can tap into this if they have been awakened and are humble. Most humans can not access this power because they are looking in the wrong places. They are looking at human power and the power of the many energy systems humans have created. They are also looking in places of fantasy that is that endless ego trap of a void. It is here all those deceptions of the ego plunge humans into darkness and false gods. This power is the power that drives the planet and it is manifested to self-aware humans as the truth. This is the sacred and it can only be approached not known. This sacred truth unfolds to humans through an intelligent reflection that then self-reflects but not only in the dualistic naked ego impulse of separateness but also in the isness and oneness of the planet’s way. This does not mean the ego is something bad and wrong. Life is a wave of frequency that requires modulation. Without this there is no activity. Dualism is a modulation. Nature is self-reflecting with human intelligence that is the light along with its plunge into darkness of the self-realizing ego. It is when humans can reflect on the world in this connectivity then they go forth on its behalf. This is as an isolated ego but also in the connectivity of all, it is here this low level dominant power is realized. This power is not for the ego but for the planet’s own expression. Here an authentic human’s actions then are parts of the planets.

This power is the power of truth. The ultimate quest of most humans who are not mentally handicapped by all that various neurosis and physical mental illnesses is honest meaning. Meaning is a spiritual asset. Here is where this power that underlies the planets action manifests to humans. It is a wisdom enhancer that allows humans to properly orientate to what knowledge to use and what to dispense as improper and destructive. This is a relative and realistic exchange because humans are trapped in ecosystems and currently it is the carbon trap and path dependencies of human a destructive late stage that is anthropogenic. To better orientate means going local to better scale which is antitheses to globalism and the social narrative of human growth that delocalizes to maximize human power.

Locally in proper scale humans can tap into this planetary power that guides human wisdom that manifests the proper action that is based and guided by a truth that underlies all. The vital part of this is acceptance of this human nature. It is acceptance of human’s place in nature as a destructor as well as a builder. Humans serve nature purpose of evolution and succession which now involves extinction and destruction. Here is where humans fail most often because they cannot make this jump to the planet is in charge, instead the human impulse is we are in charge and the planet is just a cog and wheel. This is a trap of the dualism of intelligence. Acceptance and humility of the transformed and then awakened human becomes the constructive side of this planetary expression. The destructive side is then accepted because it is realized this is also the planetary way. It is then this deep and profound realization that then allows this awakened human to go forth on the planet’s behalf unconditionally. This human then becomes a power multiplier just as a rich ecosystem converts more light and energy from the sun than one that is compromised. This is not good or bad but instead an expression of beauty.

This power cannot be held or used for personal gain even though it will be. It is the discipline of this transformed and awakened individual that utilizes this power constructively for the planet accepting its limitations. This becomes beauty and the truth that is so special to humans at the most basic level. The other side of this power impulse is where raw and intense satisfactions of all those deadly sins are realized. Both are within our hearts in varying degrees even with the most awakened. Yet, where this power is closer to the constructive side here is where the planet smiles upon the individual and his small little local of people and place. Here niches of growth and beauty flourishes. Get out of the trap of the binary ego reflection of good and evil and just go forth on the planets behalf as it dictates you do once you have been awakened. Be ordinary and honest because that is all you can do. This means failing too because this is part of it. You are mortal so accept this. Live to die another day. Your immortality is elsewhere. This immortality comes to you once you let go.