The numbers game. (Stupid dogs, dying gorillas, we hate the right-wing politics. Also Jennifer Lawrence naked)

Yet another dark and rainy night, the man and the cat remains the same.

Cat: Get down on your knees and worship me. Also, it would make it easier for me to lick your ears.
Me: Not now, I'm not in the mood. My time these days is strictly for killing digital people online and brooding.
Cat: Your cooperation is appreciated but not necessary, I have these claws here...
Me: Oy, stop it, you little devil spawn! No means no! Are you aware it has been suggested that I add a dog to this blog? An idea that seems better by the minute, by the way.
Cat: What?
Me: Yes, introducing a stupid but lovable pup to counterbalance all your... devilry.
Cat: What?
Me: I admit, it sounds a bit like the "Get Fuzzy" comic, but I doubt it wo-
Cat: WHAT?!
Me:  A dog.
Cat: Here?
Me: I suppose so.
Cat: But you don't have a dog. You don't need a dog, it would be like clamp on your foot, making demands on you.
Me: Yes, not like you at all.
Cat: Exactly. And everyone knows dogs are stupid and they can't talk. It would be a burden in your life and useless to the blog. And introducing imaginary, talking animals is out of the question, right?
Me: Point taken, no dogs in Casa del Hate. Now, go away and leave me and my brooding alone.
Cat. Why the mood?
Me: The numbers. The dreadful algebra of necessity.



An article was recently pointed out to me as particularly good news. It was about various reports on how good life on this earth has become. Studies saying that life expectancy has increased. There are fewer wars. Less poverty. So as Potatobeak Cat would say*, I want to play a game. A game about numbers and logic and research.

There are more than 7000 000 000 souls on this planet, despite the 800 000 people taking their own lives every year. There is 326 million trillion gallons of water on Earth. 2-3% of this is fresh water. Most of it is frozen or too deep beneath ground to be utilized. Nestle is currently buying water rights left and right while claiming that fresh water is not a human right. The company themselves claim  "However, our global operations amount to only 0.0009% of worldwide estimated freshwater withdrawals." I can't be bothered to crunch those numbers or check what their own estimates of freshwater withdrawals actually are. It is, however, a lot of water. When the war for oil is over, I predict the war for water, if it doesn't begin before the oil runs out, that is.

Perspective is a funny thing. It's funny because it seems to be playing a game of hide and seek, often showing up long after the game is over. The United States of America is the protector of the free world, the champion of freedom and liberty. Our own government is looking to USA for direction and it seems that the parties currently in charge would like Norway to become a small-time version of our American friends. They seem to lack perspective, and so does USA.

In the land of the free and home of the incarcerated, one in every 31 adults was in jail, on probation or parole in 2008. Almost one in ten of African Americans were in jail or being monitored. In 2011 about 2,9% of all adults in the US were under correctional supervision. That's almost 7000 000 people, more than the entire population of Norway. Private jails, private security, private army contractors, what a great idea.
In the book The Divide: American Injustice in the Age of the Wealth Gap, the author, journalist Matt Taibbi claims that "Poverty goes up. Crime goes down. The prison population doubles.
Fraud by the rich wipes out 40 percent of the world’s wealth. The rich get massively richer. No one goes to jail." , and that you don't have to read sci-fi to find a dystopian future, we're indeed living in one right now. Perspective and numbers, what a joy. Yes, the wealth of the world's population is growing, but the divide between the many just around the poverty line and the very few filthy rich on the top is bigger than ever. The richest 1% of the world’s population are getting wealthier, owning more than 48% of global wealth, according to an article in The Guardian. 

There is the great Ebola scare, and Ebola is really scary, yes indeed. So is HIV/AIDS.  The current Ebola epidemic might have killed as many as 18 000, but less than 5000 deaths are actually confirmed. There are currently 35 000 000 world vide living with HIV/AIDS. More than 3.4 million people die each year from water, sanitation, and hygiene-related causes. Death by lack of clean water, that is.***

We are not totally sure how many nuclear weapons are around****, but probably somewhere around  16 300. We can only hope the owners remember where they put them all.

There are 143 800 000 Russians, and 1 Putin to rule them all. He seems to want more. This is the guy who said that the greatest tragedy in newer history, was the fall of the soviet union. Think about that.

880 - the population of mountain gorillas left in the world.


Yes, there might be fewer wars between nations, but the world is actually less peaceful, due to internal unrest within national borders. I'll even throw in a link, something I rarely do, mostly to prove my point and don't have the patience to type it all up.
http://www.psmag.com/navigation/business-economics/world-getting-less-peaceful-every-year-85360/

I like to get a feel for the broad perspective and let my guts come up with ideas, then let the brain do the mop-up work. As I've said before, hate with your brain and let your heart do other important things.**** So what is my gut and broad strokes-thinking  telling me?
Well.
I hate that saying "Things were better before." It seldom was. But how blogging terrible is it going to be when that saying is true? Because things are not peachy today. How far forward will we have to go for this to be true? Because things superficially might look good, but there are so many factors racing to a climax that we might not bare. There is a reason why physicists who kill themselves quote the laws of thermodynamics, the systems will deteriorate. If you are one of the privileged, maybe on the blue side politically, maybe fairly comfortable economically speaking, maybe even religious (and what a great safety net that is), yes, you'll probably be optimistic. I sense another trend. A very real fear that the world we know might collapse. The dreadful algebra. What will happen when the dollar implodes on itself? Because it will. What will you do when Nestle tell you to buy water from them because it is the only option? Because they might. Will we as a species feel lonely when we are the last big mammal on the planet? I suspect we will get additional existential angst. If our race doesn't crack first, that is. Then things will indeed have been better before. 


*And probably put on a mask and record the message.**
**It's a Saw reference, in case you didn't get it.
***Nestle is the world's largest food (and water) company in the world measured by revenues, btw.
****Strangely, the atomic powers are reluctant to give out exact numbers.
*****Like pumping blood.