When the World is Running Down...

In an era defined by relentless geopolitical tensions, economic predation, environmental collapse, and cultural noise, the echoes of historical conflicts, erosion of democratic institutions, and accelerating crises of capitalism and climate change converge to create a dystopian reality that feels both inevitable and overwhelming.

The Unending Cold War: A Legacy of Perpetual Conflict

The collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 was heralded as the end of the Cold War, but as commentators Ted Rall and John Kiriakou argue, “The Soviet Union may have thought that the Cold War ended in 1991, but it never ended, as far as the US is concerned. It's been just an endless series of attacks since the Bolshevik Revolution.” This perspective frames US foreign policy as a continuous struggle against ideological adversaries, from communism to modern rivals like Russia and China. The Cold War’s shadow looms large, shaping America’s interventions and alliances, often with mixed motives and outcomes.

A recent example is the peace deal between Armenia and Azerbaijan, signed on August 9, 2025, at the White House. The agreement, resolving decades of conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh, includes a transit corridor named the “Trump Route for International Peace and Prosperity,” reflecting Trump’s penchant for self-branding. Both Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev endorsed Trump for a Nobel Peace Prize, joining leaders from Cambodia, Israel, and Pakistan in praising his diplomatic efforts. The deal weakens Russia’s influence in the South Caucasus, a region it historically controlled, signaling a continuation of Cold War-era power plays under the guise of peacemaking.

Trump’s pursuit of peace, however, is a paradox. Rall jokingly describes him as "both an ignorant fascist blowhard and a brilliant peace-keeping genius, simultaneously.” His interventions—mediating Cambodia-Thailand tensions, hinting at a Somaliland-Somalia treaty, and trying to broker a Russia-Ukraine peace treaty—may yield positive results, though they're tainted by personal ambition. Somaliland seeks US alliance to escape Somalia’s piracy and instability. Trump’s interest in such marginal regions underscores his strategic opportunism, leveraging small wins to bolster his global image.

This contrasts sharply with Barack Obama’s 2009 Nobel Peace Prize, awarded not for tangible achievements but because, as Rall says, “his name wasn’t George W. Bush,” who initiated the decades-long wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. However, Obama’s escalation of those conflicts, increasing the numbers of troops and drones, echoed Henry Kissinger’s playbook: “We’ll make peace after we accelerate the war.” The Nobel Prize, in both cases, becomes less a marker of peace than a political tool, revealing the hypocrisy embedded in global diplomacy.

The Final Phase of Capitalism: Privatizing the Public Good

While geopolitical maneuvers dominate headlines, domestic economic policies reveal a deeper crisis. Private equity magnate Steve Schwarzman, a Trump ally, advocates tapping the $8 trillion in Americans’ 401(k) retirement accounts, with Trump signing an executive order to enable this. Proposals to privatize Social Security further signal what critics call the “final phase of capitalism,” where private interests dismantle public institutions. Wall Street and private equity, having “bought the government,” now seek to extract wealth from the savings of ordinary Americans, exacerbating a cost-of-living crisis where 90% of Americans report stress over grocery prices.

This economic predation is rooted in decades of policy shifts. Robert Reich, born in 1946 alongside Trump, Bill Clinton, and George W. Bush, reflects on the post-World War II “golden era” when capitalism, facing socialist competition, forged social contracts with Western working classes. These contracts promised that hard work would yield better lives for employees, and better still for their children; that if the company did well, the workers would, too. However, by the 1970s, the median US wage stagnated and the social contract began to unravel. The 1971 Powell Memo galvanized corporate influence, leading to Reagan’s deregulation (and ending of the Fairness Doctrine for media) and Clinton’s policies—NAFTA, welfare reform, and the repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act—which unleashed “disaster capitalism.”

Clinton’s deregulation of media ownership, removing limits on radio, television, and newspaper consolidation, gave rise to 1,500 right-wing radio stations and three conservative television networks. This media landscape, coupled with the rise of a “Religious Industrial Complex,” amplified ideological narratives. Megachurches and figures like Charlie Kirk target youth with indoctrination strategies akin to those of Big Oil or tobacco, aiming to “indoctrinate them for life.” This cultural shift, fueled by corporate and religious interests, has paved the way for an ethno-fascist theocracy.

The Democratic Party, beholden to corporate and Israeli money, failed to counter this tide. Clinton’s policies accelerated transnational capitalism, while the party’s alignment with US-Israel strategic interests limited its ability to address domestic inequality or cultural extremism. The result is a society where bullying—economic, social, and political—has escalated, culminating in Trump, the “Bully-in-Chief,” whose leadership style reflects a culture of domination and division.

Climate Crisis and Scientific Regress

Parallel to economic and cultural decay is the accelerating climate crisis. Scientists warn that CO₂ emissions, understated by polluters, combined with methane and other GHGs from mines, landfills, and melting permafrost, have pushed the planet past critical tipping points faster than predicted. Meanwhile, the US, under Trump, is entering a phase of “scientific regress,” dismantling its capacity to measure CO₂ or predict weather. Budget cuts to FEMA, alongside the appointment of agency heads who undermine their own institutions (e.g., Reagan’s James Watt at the EPA represents the start of this Republican practice), leave states ill-equipped to handle increasingly severe natural disasters.

In 1996, when I lived in Japan, a young, academically-challenged relative of mine became a born-again, evangelical Christian while at university, which struck me as ironic. We had many discussions via email. At first, I was glad that he had found peace. Then he wrote to me about his new research papers, one of which blamed the Holocaust on Charles Darwin, and the other arguing that the Founding Fathers were all Jesus-loving Christians. Both of these propositions are, of course, seemingly ignorant of the history preceding the periods in question, but I gently pointed out that, in the first case, Jews had been persecuted for about two thousand years before Hitler came along and used Social Darwinism to justify his regime. Charles Darwin explicitly rejected Social Darwinism, condemning its misapplication of his theory to justify social inequalities.

The Founding Fathers, meanwhile, were all men of the 18th century Enlightenment that followed Scientific Revolution of 1500-1700. Jefferson and Franklin, as Deists, believed in a rational Creator governing through natural laws, rejecting Jesus as a personal savior and literal Bible interpretation. They emphasized reason and morality over dogma, with Jefferson critiquing Christianity via the Jefferson Bible and Franklin promoting practical virtues. Their philosophies shaped America’s secular foundation, prioritizing liberty and rational inquiry and, uh, separating church and state.

At one point, as our discussion progressed, I tried to explain the context of the Roman Empire's conversion to Christianity, how Emperor Constantine had made a political calculation to keep the empire together, and how one big result was a thousand-year period known as the Dark Ages. I further suggested to my brother that, if literalist Christians were to take control of thhae US government, they would usher in a neo-Dark Age. My relative dismissed whatever I said to him regarding religion and politics, usually with ridicule, despite my age, experience, and considerable study in both fields, relative to him. He became a pastor, and has been a stalwart tool of the GOP ever since, unsubtly hinting to his flock to vote Republican, which keeps Big Oil and the theocrats happy.

Meanwhile, scientists, social scientists, and pundits are now seeing their worst-case scenarios unfolding faster than they thought possible. The combination of environmental denialism and institutional decay threatens not just the US but global stability, as nations grapple with the consequences of unchecked emissions and ecological collapse.

For over 50 years, fossil fuel executives have known their products drive a climate crisis killing 7,500 Americans annually and over a million worldwide, with potential for catastrophic losses in decades. Instead of mitigating damage, they funded a 50-year campaign of lies, clouding science and bribing politicians, particularly Republicans, to maintain profits.

In 2023, President Biden proposed cutting fossil fuel subsidies by 5% to reduce the deficit by $31 billion, but House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, influenced by Big Oil, rejected it. Climate scientist James Hansen warns of a collapsing Gulf Stream and a 60-meter sea level rise within our descendants’ lifetimes, potentially causing trillions of deaths and accelerating the Sixth Mass Extinction. The World Meteorological Organization reports 11,778 climate-related disasters from 1970–2021, causing 2,087,229 deaths and $4.3 trillion in losses. A 2022 One Earth study estimates 21 major fossil fuel companies inflicted $5.4 trillion in damages, borne by governments, insurers, and victims, while executives profited.

Fossil fuel companies externalize costs, leaving taxpayers and the poor to bear the burden. Earth One advocates reparations, citing Article 16 of the 1992 Rio Declaration, which calls for polluters to pay for damages. For instance, Saudi Aramco, with $604 billion in 2022 revenue, could pay $43 billion annually for 25 years without impoverishing executives. New York State considered a superfund bill in 2023 to charge domestic producers, and other states may follow. Internationally, a 2023 study links 37% of Western Canada and US wildfire damage (1986–2021) to 88 fossil fuel and cement companies.

Since the 1950s, fossil fuel interests, embedded in the military-industrial-congressional complex, have wielded immense influence by funding politicians, shaping policy to evade accountability. President Eisenhower, in his 1960 Farewell Address, warned that this complex, if unchecked, might supersede the people’s will and subvert democracy. Big Oil’s ties to military operations shielded it from liability for environmental devastation, as defense priorities justified extraction and made money. Campaign contributions and lobbying ensured favorable legislation, stifling climate action. This momentum, driven by religious/ideological zealotry, superpower rivalry, and the profit motive has accelerated global warming, likely dooming humanity and all life on Earth by prioritizing corporate and military interests over humanity’s survival.

Competitive Authoritarianism: The Death of Democratic Norms

The US Justice Department, once a bastion of accountability, has become “Trump’s Revenge Machine,” weaponized to settle scores and protect allies. This shift toward authoritarianism reduces elections to ceremonial relics, with White House events resembling “Orwellian kabuki drama” of open bribery and corruption. On the nose was Tim Cook's presenting Trump with a 24-karat gold-base glass plaque. Trump’s making millions from cryptocurrency Ponzi schemes have completely blurred the line between governance and personal enrichment.

Somehow the Baby Boomer generation failed to safeguard democracy but, when one considers primate/human psychology in the context of a system that incentivizes greed, what can one expect? The New Deal social contract, designed to counter socialism and safeguard capitalism, gave way to corporate dominance in the 1980s. The assumption that democracy would endure allowed Big Money to take over, dismantling the mechanisms that ensured fairness and accountability. The result is a system where power is concentrated among a few, and the public’s voice is drowned out by evefr more noise, literal and metaphorical.

Screaming into the Void: The Necessity of Silence

Amid this chaos, Jessica Wildfire’s reflection on silence as a “nutrient” for mental health offers a profound counterpoint. In a world overwhelmed by “the daily avalanche of bad news,” hypocritical narratives, and relentless demands, silence becomes a vital refuge. Scientific studies underscore its benefits: a 2013 study found that two hours of daily silence stimulates brain cell growth in mice, improving memory and focus. Other research shows silence reduces cortisol, lowers heart rate, and enhances sleep, with benefits observed in ICU patients and pandemic-era individuals who embraced quiet reflection.

Wildfire draws on the history of sensory deprivation, pioneered in the 1950s by researchers like Jay Shirley and John Lilly, who recognized the brain’s need for respite from external stimuli. Lilly’s insight that “we need certain socially accepted places where we don’t answer the telephone, we don’t have to answer questions or agree with anyone on anything” feels prescient in the age of social media and 24/7 connectivity. Flotation therapy, part of Restricted Environmental Stimulation Therapy (REST), induces a theta state akin to REM sleep, promoting healing and stress reduction. Studies, including a 2018 PLoS One article, confirm reductions in stress, pain, and depression, while a 2023 review validates the calming effects of binaural beats.

For many, the noise of modern life, from political junkies, saccharine anecdotes, and dystopian headlines, has become unbearable. Wildfire’s call to “rest in the void” resonates with those who, after “screaming into the void,” seek solace in silence. Simple practices, like using a padded sleep mask or listening to binaural beats, offer accessible ways to disconnect, reflecting a universal need to escape the clamor of a world in crisis.

From Cold War to Collapse, a Call for Reflection

The persistence of Cold War mentalities, exemplified by US geopolitical strategies, reveals a world still grappling with ideological battles, even as new conflicts emerge. Trump’s peace deals, while notable, are overshadowed by his authoritarian tendencies and economic policies that prioritize private gain over public good. The final phase of capitalism, marked by the privatization of retirement savings and the dismantling of social contracts, mirrors the cultural rise of a Religious Industrial Complex and the environmental catastrophe of scientific regress. These crises—economic, cultural, and ecological—converge to create a state of competitive authoritarianism, where democracy is reduced to a hollow ritual.

In this chaos, when I start to feel overwhelmed by the seemingly endless torrent of bad news, a digital fast and period of silence becomes an act of resistance. By stepping away from the noise, I can reclaim mental clarity and resilience. The lessons of history warn that societies falter when they ignore systemic stresses. Better than screaming about it, though, is regularly spending time calm and balanced, despite everything.

Inner silence minimizes external stimuli and allows one to turn attention inward, focusing on breath and bodily sensations. Eliminating external chatter makes it easier to attune to thoughts and emotions, and then return to the breath. The absence of external communication can improve concentration and focus, making it easier to develop a meditation practice. Silence can also allow one to confront and process past experiences and emotions that may be suppressed or avoided in daily life.

Vipassana meditation is about observing without reacting to the ever-changing nature of reality, and silence helps create a space for this observation. Consider silence as a tool to support an informal meditation that happens every time you take a moment or longer to stop thinking and feel the breath, rising and falling, and the bliss of simply being in that moment (see sat-chit-ananda). When that can be sustained, it leads to liberation and enlightenment. Better than screaming into the Void is keeping oneself balanced, the better to surf the coming waves that the forces of destiny will bring. Besides the Vipassana courses offered at many Buddhist temples in Thailand, there are Vipassana meditation centers worldwide, established by S.N. Goenka. The ‘style’ of meditation taught at the Thai and Goenka centers differs slightly, but both trace their lineage, through Burmese teachers, back to the historical Buddha. Word to the wise. https://www.dhamma.org/en/locations/directory