"Be careful what you
wish for - you might get it," is a well-known saying that seems particularly
preminiscent if we look at many of the problems the world faces today. We
have become addicted to many good things - oil, technological advancement, and
government largess - just to name a few. These are things that have
allowed for enormous improvements in the human condition, yet also have lead to
problems that may destroy all that we have gained.
Oil provides the
perfect example of the dangers of addiction. Oil is a remarkable fluid
with several praiseworthy properties. It exists in large quantity. It has
a high energy content, and thus provides a cheap, portable fuel. It is an
excellent lubricant. It can be used to make plastic. It has played a
pivotal role in virtually every important advance our species has made during
the past century. One could almost view it as God's gift to Man - the
substance that allowed us to go from sailing wooden ships and driving horse
drawn carts to landing a man on the moon and instantly sharing information with
someone half a world away over the Internet. As an added bonus, large
amounts of oil are located in many under-developed regions of the world - thus
giving those regions a source of income with which to develop.
Oil is so useful, however, that we've developed a very
harmful dependency on it. It is so valuable that the under-developed
regions of the world where it is located have had their growth stunted by the
good fortune it's brought them. The money made from oil has kept
dictatorships in power, funded wars, and caused civil strife. The effects
of the money made from oil in these countries have frequently been so negative
that many of the countries might have been better off without oil.
The negative effects of oil
dependency have not been limited to under-developed regions, however. The
Western world spends billions of dollars buying oil, and then spends billions
more propping up the governments of the countries that sell it. Some of
the dollars spent on oil end up in the hands of terrorists, and then the West
spends even more money combating terrorism. Of course, each extra dollar
spent on these activities means one less dollar that is available to be spent
developing the technologies necessary to end the world's oil addiction.
Beyond these negative effects,
there are also a couple of negatives that are inherent to oil itself. Burning it releases CO2, and, because of the amount of
oil (and coal) we've burned, we've released enough CO2 to make important changes
in the atmosphere of our planet - changes that are affecting global
weather systems, mostly to our detriment. Furthermore, the global supply of oil
is limited - and running out while we're still dependent on it would have
disastrous effects.
Oil is not the only good thing that we've become dangerously
dependent on, however. It's become increasingly popular in the West
for citizens to vote themselves money from the public treasuries. Voters
support candidates who offer new tax cuts or new government programs to distribute
money to deserving folks. Many of the tax cuts are intended to stimulate
economic growth, and many of the government programs are created for good
reasons (to take care of the poor or elderly, to provide health care, etc.),
but the net effect has been to create a burden of increasingly high debt for
future generations. In the U.S., this practice has grown particularly obscene
through the growth of "earmarking" (a way for just one politician to allocate
government money to just one constituency in just one district).
Political parties who support new government programs or tax cuts
buy votes for the whole party. With earmarks, a politician can spend government
money to buy votes for just himself.
Of course, there are
a few voices of reason who oppose the fiscal insanity of spending trillions
of tomorrow's money to buy votes today, but Western voters are now used to
getting money from the government, so they're rarely willing to support a candidate
who doesn't promise to pay them for their votes. As a consequence, the
West has entered a vicious cycle where government largess mounts to
increasingly dangerous levels, yet any candidate who says as much is defeated by a less
pessimistic candidate who promises another tax cut or government
program.
The world is also beginning to show signs of being dangerously
addicted to scientific and technological advancement. This is a bold
statement because during the past couple of centuries scientific advancements
have allowed for incredible improvements in life expectancy, wealth, education,
opportunities, and almost every other measure of human welfare. That said,
society has become used to relying on scientific advancement to the point that
we have willingly created problems that we require new advancements to solve
(think climate change or sustainably feeding 6 billion plus people). In
fact, scientific advancement has proven to be so clearly a good thing, that we
support continued advancement (and consider it inevitable) almost without
thought.
This situation is leading
us toward some potential problems. Our improved knowledge of biology is
opening the door to genetically engineered viruses that may be far more
contagious and lethal than anything in nature. Advances in computer
technology may make humans obsolete - even for thinking. In Europe,
physicists at the CERN accelerator are planning an experiment that may have a very
very small chance of destroying the Earth, or, just possibly the entire
universe. And these are just a handful of the dangers we
face from advancing technology. Unfortunately, however, we've become so reliant on
scientific progress, that the public normally isn't even aware of the possible
pitfalls.
None of this means that we should support a backlash
against oil, government programs or science. All of these things have done a
lot of good in the past, and will continue to do good in the future.
That said, we should probably begin looking gift horses in the mouth, and being a
little more cautious before we become dependent on something. Sometimes
having a good thing can be worse than not having it.
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