GARY JOHNSON WAGGLED HIS TONGUE AT ALEPPO, NOBODY WAS INJURED

by Rob Loggia

Wednesday, September 28, 2016

The passing of the first "debate" of candidates - well, some of them - running for the office of President of the United States signals the beginning of the end for this election cycle. And while the leaves have not yet started browning over, make no mistake: November shall be upon us very soon. Barring some catastrophic event, the American People will find ourselves being lead by scum of one variety or another for four more years. A year that should have been The Year of the People instead appears destined to become yet another rung on the ladder upon which we descend into wretchedness.

As expected, at least by some of us, the quest embarked upon by the Libertarian Party to gain "respectability" and win a seat at the table by running "adult" candidates with a "sane" message enjoys very little traction. Indeed, also as expected, the big boys have already deployed countermeasures to ensure the effort comes to naught. These are sad days for the ideals of Freedom and Peace that many people, despite what you may hear on the news, still hold dear.

Matters are made worse for the Libertarian candidate, Gov. Gary Johnson, by the fact that as he attempts to wage war on Goliath, he does not enjoy the full support of his party. The reasons for this are numerous and complicated, and the reaction to his candidacy outside of his core base has ranged from reluctant support for the good of the party all the way to active, vitriolic opposition. In between are many who are mostly waiting it out so they can rebuild on the ruins. And so Johnson can get back to what he loves best.

One pastime shared by the mainstream media, opposition candidates and those that do not support the Johnson candidacy has been the gleeful roasting of Johnson for the abundant gaffes that he serves up. This too was predictable, and some people warned that he was not the man to get the job done. Johnson's supporters by and large act like this treatment is unfair, but the truth is evident by the savagery inflicted on the mainstream candidates by each other. This is politics, in all its ugliness, and one should have a rather thick skin if they endeavor to participate.

One of these Johnson gaffes was delivered as half a joke - yet another from Johnson that missed home. When asked about global warming, Johnson stated that it mattered little since the Earth was destined to plunge into the sun. He went on to explain that the future of mankind was space exploration, and the colonization of other planets.

Depending on who you ask, Johnson's position is characterized as either a dodge on the question of global warming or as more fantastic evidence that the man consumes too much dope. The media has had a field day as usual, and many disgruntled Libertarians have joined right in. The rest of us sighed with amazement and said: finally here is some wisdom. Too bad he doesn't always seem to mean it.

Implicit within the simple scenario described by Johnson is the roots of a much larger issue. For while some "environmentalists" definitely give the impression that they do not care for human beings very much, most reasonable discussions on the health of the planet begin with the assumption that humanity is worth preserving if we can do it. That, whether due to cosmic accident or intelligent design, something special exists in the human species. Most people, including opponents of global warming theory, do seem to believe this, so the question becomes: how do we make it happen?

While we are assured that the probable destiny of Earth being consumed by the Sun is roughly 7.5 billion years off, it is a mistake to stop the discussion by dismissing this outcome as too far off to worry about now. For much can and will happen before then. For example, according to scientists there won't be any human beings around to lament the Earth plunging into the sun because 4 billion years from now other conditions are guaranteed to make us extinct. A little closer…

Continuing on backwards, passing by all manner of planetary-wide extinction-level events that we are told could occur at any moment including meteor collision, super-viruses or nuclear holocaust, we can see changes taking place today that will radically alter our relationship with this planet, indeed our very way of life. And they have nothing to do with global warming.

Medical science and futurists have been in the news a lot lately. Medical and technological advances have achieved a rapid enough pace to cause respected futurist and Google engineer Ray Kurzweil to suggest that by 2030 we will have achieved the ability to be largely immortal. The implications for population statistics are staggering, so much so that while the science may come to exist, it will likely be only for the super rich, or be outlawed entirely. Because where do we put all of the people?

Global warming, whether or not it is happening, is - like most of "the issues" under debate - a red herring. It puts the focus on saving a planet that, when all things are considered, is not an adequate answer for sustained humanity in the future, perhaps even the immediate future. If we are to endure, it must be by expanding our reach beyond this planet. Cultivating redundancy, and seeding as much of the universe with humanity as possible. In fact, humanity will not be safe until we can confidently kick this planet behind us like a wasted tin can.

Which isn't to say that is what we should do.
It is reasonable to expect that if we begin offloading portions of our population elsewhere, we would be able to sustain the ecosystem here without sacrificing our preferred lifestyles. Because ultimately, that is what proponents of global-warming response really want. The end game of the type of demands they make is for us all to become wretched dirt farmers once again. By all means live like that if you want to, but don't try to force it on the rest of us. Not while our impending doom as a species will still be staring us in the face as we fatuously tend our assigned carbon-neutral plots.

Gov. Gary Johnson will assuredly not be our next president. But life will go on, and hopefully we can avoid destroying ourselves or being destroyed before the next presidential election comes around. We really only have only one hope at this point , removing all obstacles to meaningful space travel, including obstacles placed in the way of profitability for private individuals and organizations that wish to pursue it. Because until the problems of scarcity are fixed and as long as corruption rules government, they're the only ones that can get us where we need to be.