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Thursday, March 25, 2010

Future World Metropolis of Hell

Here's a disturbing trend:

World's largest cities are morphing into overcrowded 'mega regions' defined by poverty and pollution, UN report warns

The report also says that by 2050 over 70 percent of the human population will be living in densely populated urban environments, and that this "urbanization is unstoppable", but will "not necessarily be a bad thing".

Oh really? Well you know what image comes to mind when I think of this future world scenario? I think of Soylent Green the movie.

Over-population poses a serious problem for our world, not just ecologically, but also psychologically. Despite the fact that human beings are social beings, I think that there is a point where a high population density actually negatively affects social relations. That instead of improving quality of life and bringing people closer together, it actually may drive people further apart, contributing to more feelings of social isolation, alienation, and depression.

It's difficult to find community in a sea of millions of indiscernible anonymous faces, all perpetually on the go, in a hurry to be someplace else, anywhere else but here. And this feeling of isolation will only be compounded by living further and further away from green natural open spaces, locked away in this endless gray concrete prison of a global metropolis, from which there is no escape.

Have you noticed how people tend to be friendlier to strangers in small rural towns, as opposed to big cities?

Personally I would much rather live in a rural setting, that is quiet, with clean air, and few people, than in an overpopulated concrete prison. I know of many people who rave about New York City. My cousin lives there. She loves it. Yes, it's culturally rich, with many very interesting, intelligent, and often very wealthy people, but at what greater cost to sanity and health, does such a life so removed from nature incur?

Life is probably much sweeter for the wealthy city dwellers, who can afford to get away to the rural countryside, having multiple home's and vacation getaways all around the world. But what about the cities poor, who do not have such an option? I don't know how many poor people actually live in New York City, being that it's one of the most expensive cities in the country and in the entire world, but how about Mexico City, or Bangkok, or Manila, or Beijing, or Delhi?

As these world metropolis's get bigger and bigger, they must accommodate the growing poor, and as more and more people are squeezed closer and tighter together, the quality of life diminishes, along with sanitation, clean water, and clean air.

What do people do when their world is ugly and their life is hell? They often look for an escape. If there is no physical escape, or no place else to go, they may look for a mental escape in artificial environments, artificial worlds. This is where drugs, television and the internet comes in. If the physical world loses all sense of beauty, people will look for beauty some place else, if not in the real world that you can actually smell, taste and touch, then in the surreal virtual reality world of artificial pixelated digitized and sanitized sights and sounds.

So as the human population continues to increase everyday, more and more people are forced into the cities seeking employment opportunities that do not exist any place else.

But I want to hear birds singing, not car horns beeping. I want to smell fresh flowers in the air, not putrid car exhaust. Problem is there are few jobs in the country, and even fewer higher paying one's. To live in the country you almost have to be independently wealthy, retired, able to work from home, or willing to commute long distances. This is why more and more people are moving into larger cities, for education and jobs. But I do not want my whole life to be about making money. Yes, you need money to live, yes you need a job to make money, but if it means giving up the beauty and serenity that a rural landscape provides, then that's almost akin to selling your soul for money. But for some people, its either that, or death.

The future sounds bleak. Overpopulation is a huge problem. More people means more mouths to feed, more garbage to contain, more pollution to control, and more natural resources consumed. Pretty soon there won't be enough resources to go around, and not enough space to safely contain and control all the pollution and waste. Then what? Wars. Disease. Natural disasters. Massive starvation. And incomprehensible suffering.

The elite know this. Who do I mean by the elite? The very intelligent and the very rich. Although it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure it out. Some conspiracy theorists speculate that some of the elite are planning a major population reduction, forced population reduction. Some say a massive poisoning, perhaps through vaccinations, bio-warfare, genetically modified foods, microchip implants, or other toxic exposures that will either weaken immunity, cause sterility, or just outright kill you.

I'm thinking that widespread sterility would have the most immediate, far reaching, and long-term consequences, and perhaps would be viewed as being more humane than murder. Only problem with that would be how would you contain it, so it doesn't make everything sterile, like in the film Children of Men, which would defeat the elite's whole objective, by getting rid of everybody, themselves included, through the eventual extinction of the human race.

Well I'm not having any kids EVER so they don't have to worry about me.