Bonobos Revisited

Some years ago, I wrote a post about Bonobo chimps. It was the most popular post I've ever written. It described how this species of primate is unique on the planet. Bonobo chimps are matriarchal (dominated by females). Females use sex (and lots of it) to keep males in line. Most primates (or other mammals, for that matter) will turn violent if too many are confined to a small space.

The accepted reasoning is that forming strong social bonds between too many individuals takes time. The result of the confinement of many individuals exceeding the acceptable limits for the species is a fight for resources (including personal space).

Is it possible that as our digital lives become more important to us, we are becoming "virtually" crowded? This sense of confinement has caused many humans to behave in a manner expected of primates other than Bonobos. We live in algorithmic bubbles that are surrounded by THEM! THEY are pushing us to abandon our truth.

Long before the situation becomes violent, confined primates exhibit heightened awareness and decreased tolerance, which results in an increase in emotional decision-making. Does this sound like any country you know? It sounds like every country I know except Canada, which is notoriously underpopulated.

I like to be the guy with the answers, but I have nothing. I don't see human females deciding to emulate Bonobo females anytime soon, so that solution is off the table. 

The Worst Genocide Ever!

 I am tired of hearing people talk about the Israeli genocide in Gaza. It is an embarrassment. Israel has one of the most competent militaries in the world. Their military strategies are studied at West Point. Their technological dominance over Hamas is unprecedented. 

Why, then, can't they finish a simple genocide of 2.5 million contained Palestinians in two years? They should have been able to get the job done in two weeks. It's pathetic!

How did they manage to level whole towns into rubble and not kill all of the people? The incompetence is overwhelming.

UNLESS...

They weren't actually trying to kill all the people. What? You say. What type of genocide isn't trying to kill all the people? Even if you weren't actually planning a genocide, Hamas makes it easy to justify by hiding in schools and hospitals or by building their tunnel infrastructure under residential areas. If you are serious about eliminating Hamas, and each operative is embedded with civilians, well, aren't they just collateral damage?

You could argue that you killed everyone because you had no choice. Again, the Israeli military misses the opportunity. Almost two years in, and they've only killed a measly 54k people. A good 20-30 thousand of those were actually legitimate military targets, leaving a paltry 25k civilian deaths. We're talking about 1% of the population here. It's pathetic.

I guess those who think that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza should be happy that they're so incompetent.

America: In Decline

 

There can be little doubt that the United States is in decline. We are losing ground to other countries by all measures, and it is happening faster than anyone might have imagined. In my last post, I spoke about the three pillars of power: military, economic, and infrastructure. Let's examine our status in each of these areas.

Military

We still have major dominance in this area. China is working hard to catch up, and they are deploying considerable resources to develop technological advances, but the time it takes to build the type of military power we have is making it hard for them to catch up quickly. Nonetheless, they are getting to the point where they will likely be able to hold their own in their region.

Trump is a peacenik. There has already been some talk of streamlining the military. His friends in the military-industrial complex may slow him down or even stop him, but unlike Reagan, who saw military power as a way to retain global dominance, Trump thinks he can do it through trade (we'll get to that).

This will be the last pillar of power to go due to our huge existing advantage.

Economic

Our economy is still the largest globally, but the gap is closing with China and India. They have many more people than we do, and they are leveraging their labor advantages to bring production to their countries. Furthermore, production requires natural resources. Other countries have several advantages in this area. First, China doesn't care about the governing style of leaders they negotiate with for resources. 

China is happy to offer loans to build infrastructure in exchange for extraction rights. When autocratic leaders pocket the money rather than create a functional economy that can repay the loans, China is happy to take the resources from them in exchange for loan repayment. This locks China into long-term extraction arrangements that allow it to pay with old money. The U.S. is less inclined to use such tactics, giving China a strategic advantage that is almost impossible to beat.

The U.S. under Trump encourages mining in our backyard. Even if he can overcome all of the environmental regulations that have been put in place, local resistance to destroying the landscape will likely prevail. Without resources, the plan to disadvantage countries from selling their goods here in order to force us to produce domestically is doomed to fail.

Instead, two things have already started to happen. First, producing countries are strengthening their trade relations with other trading partners and building new ones. These relationships will make them less reliant on U.S. markets, making them less likely to absorb tariffs, instead passing them on to American consumers. In so doing, they will inflate the dollar, making it less suitable as the global currency. It's just a matter of time before the dollar loses its supremacy. When that happens, we will no longer be able to print money with reckless abandon (as Trump's Big Beautiful Bill, in its current form, would do to the tune of $2.6B over the next 10 years).

Finally, immigration plays a big part in our economic decline. Much of our innovation comes from Chinese and Indian nationals who prefer to live in the U.S. As Trump makes it increasingly uncomfortable for immigrants and as their home countries get better infrastructure (more on this, too), these incredible minds will innovate elsewhere. Also, our birthrate continues to plummet, and no social engineering efforts seem likely to change that (short of forced birthing, which is underway in some states). With fewer people and less innovation, our economy will naturally shrink.

Infrastructure

While we're on the topic of immigration, who do you think builds our houses, roads, and other critical infrastructure? Many of them are immigrants. Without immigrant labor, the pace of infrastructure development will slow. Automation is and will continue to help with this. Still, Americans show a general disdain for dirty jobs, and Gen Z is looking to be the worst of the bunch for their lack of motivation to go outside in the elements and do physical labor. Just ask anyone in the building trades. They will tell you that they can't find young people to take on the apprenticeships required to learn the necessary skills. Furthermore, these may be some of the hardest jobs to automate.

The United States was the first country to have modern infrastructure--indoor plumbing and sewer systems, electrification, and interstate road systems. Because of this, our infrastructure is now the oldest. Countries playing catch-up are installing more modern systems, and because they're newer, they have yet to need maintenance. We are in the midst of replacing much of the infrastructure, and because it must connect with the old infrastructure, it is impractical to make wholesale innovations. This means countries like China and India will increasingly have cleaner, more efficient infrastructure.

As this shift happens, more people will prefer to live in those countries and the United States will become increasingly irrelevant.

Is There Hope?

It is possible that our government could magically become populated with great leaders with the vision to move us off our current trajectory. However, it would require extraordinary effort and sacrifice, something modern Americans have shown little stomach for. It is far more likely that we will get more rhetoric and blame as we circle the drain.

American Greatness

As a political independent, I take all political parties’ rhetoric with a grain of salt. The fight to recruit voters seems to have moved from a policy-only strategy to rhetorical psyops techniques. I refuse to be bullied or manipulated into my viewpoints. So, I read historical accounts and as much factual information as possible. One of my favorite sources is usafacts.org. It is an apolitical platform that publishes data collected by governmental programs.

The truth is under assault in this country. Finding reliable sources of data is increasingly difficult. Not only have organizations once trusted to be unbiased become politicized, but science funding has put pressure on scientists to compromise their integrity. Living in a college town, I know good scientists who care too much about their work to compromise the sanctity of the scientific method. I also hear persistent stories of more unscrupulous behavior.

Sources we once trusted for reliable data are less trustworthy. Against this backdrop of increasingly untrustworthy data sources, politicians of different parties are grooming their messaging around convenient “facts,” whether they are accurate or not. Leveraging the bad fact choices of the other side, each party can now claim that it is good and right while the other side is bad and wrong.

Many have dissected what has made America the greatest hegemony in modern history. Some historical facts stand out. First is our military power. After WWII, the US was undoubtedly the preeminent global military power. When our military-industrial complex seems out of control, we should remind ourselves of the critical nature of this leg of power.

Next comes the economy. The epicenter of the industrial revolution was in the United States. No sane person would argue against this. The economic power that ensued from this was unassailable. The US was so dominant that the dollar was the obvious choice when it came time to select an international currency for energy trading. That advantage is still with us (although there are questions about how long this situation will last).

Finally, there was infrastructure. The US was the first country with an interstate road system, rural electrification, and a national communication network. Superior infrastructure aids competitive economic and military benefits, and as an added benefit, the best and brightest minds worldwide regularly choose the US to share their talents.

Any thinking person would agree that these are the significant reasons why the United States is such a great country. The rhetoric about wokism, family values, and the right to bear arms is intended to distract from the things that matter to American greatness. It’s not that people shouldn’t have opinions about these things. It’s not a good criterion for selecting leaders. It would be as if you decided not to buy your dream home because you didn’t like the color of the realtor’s tie.

If we want to make America great again, we must return to the things that matter. Having the first great modern infrastructure means we have the oldest, and some are no longer so modern. China and India, two countries on the rise, are aggressively moving away from fossil fuels. Disregarding their effects on the environment, from a pure infrastructure standpoint, there are indisputable advantages to sustainable energy sources over the next 100-200 years. These are the timeframes in which history plays out. If we want history to show that the US remained a superpower, we need to upgrade our infrastructure to align with the future. Nobody seems to understand this better than Elon Musk, who dragged the US car market, kicking and screaming, toward a sustainable transportation future. This is something that the Left scores better on.

Next, let's look at our standing economically. We are still a superpower in this regard, but China and India are not sitting still. China does not care about what some African autocrat does with the money they offer in exchange for critical natural resources. As these countries increase their manufacturing power and access to necessary resources, it is only a matter of time before the US dollar loses its international currency standing. When this happens, we will no longer be able to print money that the global community will accept at the same value. We will need to balance our budget without the ability to print money with reckless abandon. Based on the last 50 years, it should be easy to see that will leave us a shriveled hull of the economy we once were. We need to pull our manufacturing capabilities back. The Right wins here.

This brings us to our military power—the one strength where we retain our dominance. China is the only country hoping to challenge this dominance. Nowhere is this more obvious than in the South China Sea. China’s naval power there has left us with few options to defend Taiwan effectively. Our technological advantages rest on our control of Taiwan’s chip manufacturing capabilities. Some military analysts believe we may be only a few years away from this event. Time is running out to do something to stop it (if it’s even possible at this point). This takes us back to the critical need to boost our infrastructure (in this case, the ability to build our technology here). Here, the Right wins again.

If we get these three things right, we can argue about gun laws and abortion from the luxury of our well-lit, nicely appointed homes over a tasty meal. Nobody will care about these issues if we fail because they will be worried about not freezing, boiling to death, or starving. We can’t continue to rely on the wind in our sails forever. During WWII, citizens across this great country made personal sacrifices to ensure the outcome we wanted. It is time to do so again.