The Paradox

The dictionary defines the word "paradox" as: a statement that seems self-contradictory or absurd but, in reality, expresses a possible truth. There are many types of paradoxes, such as “less is more” and “the slower you go, the faster you get there.” However, I would like to discuss the ultimate paradox. This is something that I have been thinking about for years, but I’ve never written about it. There are times when I go into contemplation about things like unanswerable questions, such as, “Why does existence exist?” Sometimes, questions pop into my head, and I have to ask Seri for an answer. Sometimes, the questions can’t be answered, and sometimes the questions present a paradox. To me, the ultimate paradox is that life cannot exist without consuming itself. Think about it. Literally every living thing feeds off something that is living or has been living. There is nothing that lives on sunlight and water alone. Plants utilize sunlight to convert it into energy, but they also derive nutrients from materials in the soil or dissolved in the water. Additionally, some plants are predatory, such as the Venus flytrap. Others are parasites, which are still a form of predation. Parasitic plants like the dodder vine seek out other plants and feed on the nutrients that the plant produces. They don’t even produce their own leaves because there is no need for photosynthesis when they live entirely on other plants that do the photosynthesis for them. Apparently, they do produce flowers and make seeds. They don’t kill the host, but feed like vampires on the host plant. Yet, every living thing relies on other living things or those that have died and decayed for survival. Even during the decay process, bacteria and worms feed on and help break down the deceased into compost.

Predation in some form is how life exists. The first evidence of microbial predation, as estimated by scientists, is believed to have occurred approximately 2.7 billion years ago, with the development of phagocytosis, the ability of one cell to engulf another. The idea behind predation is that you don’t need to produce your own energy when you can steal it from another. In some cases, the other party voluntarily submits, and a symbiotic (you scratch my back and I scratch yours) relationship is established. If you think about it, a baby suckling milk from its mother is a form of predation. The baby exists by consuming portions of its mother. Predators exist in everything from predatory bacteria to lions, tigers, and bears—oh my! Predation has occurred among dinosaurs and has existed throughout all known history. Human beings are the ultimate predators in that we have discovered how to domesticate cattle, sheep, chickens, and pigs, among other animals, to have them readily available for consumption. Now, entire industries are built on herd predation. While we developed herd predation, we also developed methods to deter other predators from stealing our supplies. This is why grandpa had a shotgun by the back door to “shoot them varmints getting in the chicken house.” Even though we are the ultimate predators, we are also prey. There are mites, for instance, that live in our eyebrows, and dust mites in our homes consume skin cells that have fallen off. You can consider that bacterial and viral infections are also a form of predation. They enter our bodies uninvited and begin to feed off us and reproduce. Humans preying on animals is one thing, but it can also be said that there is such a thing as the human predation of plants. We learned that, too, by developing cultivation, where we could grow and develop our favorite plants for food. Whether plants or animals, we helped other species survive by propagating and caring for them before we slaughtered or harvested them. We helped species of plants survive through cultivation and learning to foster their growth so they didn’t have to compete in the wild for survival. Then, they were readily available for our consumption while we took steps to keep the bugs off them and compete with squirrels and rabbits that might invade our gardens. Ultimately, everything is a predator and everything is prey.

I’ve heard it said before, regarding business practices, “You eat what you kill, and whether you are the predator or the prey, you'd better wake up running.” Many businesses conduct themselves this way. They are not about helping other businesses but are about consuming those businesses, assimilating them into their own system, or destroying them for profit. This amounts to business predation, and over the past hundred years or so, the slogan, “The customer is always right,” has become “Take the customer hostage.” Human beings have always preyed on each other, from one tribe stealing food from another during ancient times to the development of empires where one country invaded and took over other countries, assimilating them under its own rule while exploiting their resources. This continues today. Some ruling governments under the rule of an authoritarian madman even prey upon their own people. Examples would be Adolph Hitler, Stalin, and Pol Pot. Gangs and the Mafia do the same thing on a smaller scale. They make it their job to exploit and take from others rather than devoting themselves to finding ways to care for themselves without exploiting others. Of course, if you think about it, such predation is not really about sustaining themselves. It is about conquering and feeding their ego’s lust for wealth.

Empire has never been about caring for one’s own tribe but about exploiting others for the selfish gain of the few. Britain became ultra-wealthy by invading and taking over other countries. The slogan, “The sun never sets on the British Empire,” meant that Britain had colonies all over the world. This was never about feeding the British people. It was about creating overflowing wealth for the British aristocracy. Empire doesn’t necessarily have to be something that is done by one country taking over another. It can also be observed in the business world, where the development of monopolies pushes out smaller businesses while they consume the customers of those businesses. Monopolies are never about caring for people, but about creating the most significant amount of wealth for those at the top of those companies who are driven by the ego’s lust for more. Wealth becomes an addiction because those who are engulfed by their greedy ego become a bottomless pit that can never be filled. With addiction, there is no such thing as enough. Animal predators seldom kill the entire population of their prey unless there is some natural disaster that forces them into survival predation. However, human overconsumption isn’t about survival. It’s about feeding the needs of insecure egos.

In the past, there have been societies that destroyed themselves through greed. No empire lasts forever, and eventually the greed backfires. The wise farmer doesn’t consume every seed in the garden, but saves seeds for planting the following year and preserves food for the winter. The wise hunter does not kill every animal hunted, but allows the animals to breed for future food resources. However, when human beings learned that they could accumulate wealth through exploitation, they began to disregard the basic rules of survival and started exploiting their neighbors. This was true with European empires invading the Americas. It was true when native people in the United States were pushed off their land and relocated to reservations. It was true when European, South American, and North American countries participated in slavery, pulling people out of their native lands to work for minimal subsistence, with the United States being one of the worst perpetrators. This was never about basic comfort for those who did the exploitation. It was always about greed. Those who are addicted to fulfilling the accumulation lust of their egos don’t care what happens to others. All they want is the next thrill, and let’s face it, there is a thrill in conquering and consuming. When the Bible says the love of money is the root of all evil, it means the lust for money, the overconsumption, and the willingness to exploit and kill others for greed is the root of all evil.

It is said that the two basic needs of human beings are to seek reward and avoid pain. For instance, gambling becomes an addiction because it is a thrill to win at the slots or the craps tables. In those cases, the casinos are the predators luring people into seeking thrills of small wins, coming back for more, and in some cases, ultimately losing everything. If the casinos didn’t win in the long run, they would go broke. They prey like spiders, luring others into their web. Advertisers exploit our insecure egos by attempting to make us believe that we will be richer, more intelligent, or more attractive if we use their product. Companies, especially with a single ego-driven individual at the top, become mega predators. This phenomenon occurred at the turn of the twentieth century with the rise of robber barons, and it is happening again with tech billionaires and the arms race to perfect AI. I don’t know about you, but it is hard for me to imagine how one individual and their family could ever spend a billion dollars in a lifetime, much less something like $500 billion, which is Elon Musk’s current net worth. Now, take into account that this is net worth. In other words, this represents the extent to which his assets exceed his liabilities. Accumulation of such incredible wealth, especially when the person isn’t really philanthropic and donates for a tax write-off, to funnel money back to his own businesses, or for publicity, isn’t a legitimate donation. Those motivations continue to be driven by greed and selfishness, rather than a genuine concern for humanity.

What happens is that the game of accumulation becomes the incentive, which is not motivated by the actual benefits to humankind, nor even by self-preservation. More accumulation becomes the reward and becomes the euphoria of wealth addiction. As with any addiction, others are hurt while the addict seeks whatever substance or thrill that fuels their addiction. Addiction creates a kind of sociopathy in which the addict stops caring about what happens to others while seeking the next thrill. The game of accumulation becomes like the thrill of winning a race. Who is the wealthiest? In this race for accumulation, the needs of the poor and middle class are basically ignored, or the poor and the soon-to-be-poor middle class are thrown crumbs from the tables of the oligarchs, expecting that these crumbs will appease them. With the race for advancements in fields like AI, an increasing number of people are being displaced from their livelihoods. It is estimated that AI has already eliminated 13% of jobs that would have been available for college graduates. Throughout the twentieth century, human beings have been increasingly displaced by technology. It used to be that a transcriptionist was required to type up a doctor’s notes from dictation; however, voice recognition has eliminated those jobs. It used to be that stores employed more people to check out customers, but the rise of self-checkout and digital orders has displaced a considerable portion of those employees. With the increasing advancement of robotics combined with AI, even jobs in medicine may be replaced. Robots have already replaced many auto workers. What I want to know is who will feed all these people who are being displaced by technology, and what will they do with their time?

Poverty has always been a setup for crime. An example is Stone County, Missouri, which is almost cut in half by the Mark Twain National Forest, has a very low population, and is limited in accessibility to towns where jobs are available. When you have to drive twenty or thirty miles to get a minimum wage job that barely pays for your gas to get there and back, if you can afford a car, you are much more likely to turn to crime to make a living. This is one of the reasons why the use and sale of methamphetamine began primarily in southern Missouri and was rampant in Stone County. In all areas where poverty exists, crime is elevated, not because poor people want to be criminals but because there is little else left to them when their chances for a better future are cut off. Poor people have less access to education, less access to work, and are often in food deserts, so that people have to turn to illegal means for survival. With the increasing advances of AI and the growing world population, poverty is likely to rise exponentially. When that occurs, the chances for famine and disease will increase, but why should billionaires care about that? Because when you are wealthy, and those who are poor can’t access their basic needs, the wealthy become a target, not only of resentment, but of crime and rebellion. This has occurred throughout history. The greater the wealth inequality between the wealthiest and the poorest, the greater the chance of rebellion. Wealth inequality in the United States today is already comparable to the wealth inequality in France before the French Revolution, with the bottom 50% of the population holding only 6% of the total wealth, and this disparity is increasing. The greater the wealth inequality, the more likely it is that the predators become the prey. Those who prey on society in their addiction to accumulation eventually become the prey themselves. Remember that the two basic human needs are to seek reward (pleasure) and avoid pain? When the pain of those who have been oppressed reaches a certain level, then those who have been oppressed (preyed upon by the wealthy) turn into predators. This is human nature and a social fact, as documented by history. It has happened before, and it will happen again, unless those addicts to wealth at the top 1% to 10% of the population wake up and curb their addiction. Crime rates in the United States, especially violent crimes, are already significantly higher than those in countries with socialized governments, such as Denmark and Sweden. The primary reason is wealth inequality in the United States. In countries where people don’t have to worry about their basic livelihood, crime is lower. The answer in the United States, therefore, is to learn from those who are getting it right. The answer is not more guns, deporting immigrants, or cracking down on people who want to preserve their fundamental freedom. The answer is not in scapegoating minorities. What the current United States government and the billionaires at the top don’t seem to understand is that if the ship goes down, they go down with it.

There is a line in the 12-Step program that says the addict has to hit bottom before they decide to get in recovery. However, “Bottom for some is six feet under.” Let this not be so for the United States.