Me: Good morning and welcome as we gather in this beautiful blog sponsored by.
You: Tube.
Please be seated. Oh, you already are. Let me begin by saying that many of you are troubled by AI and ask if it is anything to fear; will robots do what we currently ask of our nearest and dearest immigrants? Well look at the handout and what the Book of Netflix recommended I watch on a Saturday evening.
Although I must say, by the end of it I was dressed in cosplay as a Korean virgin in a short skirt and singing along with the rest of them.
But settle down, for instead I watched The Liver King and vowed to bang out dozens of press-ups this morning prior settling down to a breakfast of raw testes. Instead I sit here before you in a dressing gown with a bowl of Weetabix, hot milk and sugar.
But we all fall short when it comes to deceiving the world in general, don't we?
I do though like books about the world's end, and used to enjoy reading them to my child at bedtimes. This week it has been one of Luke Kemp's, who preaches at Cambridge University, about societal collapse and how we can all look forward to it.
Here are my takeaways, many of them quite cheery in view of what went on in the past. POTUS, which is not a medical complaint incidentally, has been berating us in Europe for not spending a sufficient proportion of our annual national wealth on our defence. Reading Luke's book however we practically invented it! Check the stats!
% of GDP Now: Russia 7.0%, Poland 5%, US 3.5%, Europe 2.5% if you're lucky.
% of GDP Then: 1630ish France 90%, Song Dynasty 85%, 18th C. Britain 75%.
Military, millions of: China 2.0, India 1.5, US & N Korea 1.3, Russia 1.1, Ancient Rome 0.5%.
Conscript Percentage Among Men: Russia 0.11%, Ancient Rome 25%.
Brother Luke's message is therefore that we are much less aggressive and warlike than our ancestors! The next bit though not so good, he pointing out we evolve as a global community through successive cycles of beating the shit out of others.
It is interesting where we see ourselves in the West in particular on this score:
'A growing pool of elites competing for status, power, and a limited number of high-status positions turn toward more extreme measures, whether it be starting coups, civil wars, or rebellions... among a wealth of evidence that shows the importance of elite factionalism to crisis and collapse.'
In a nutshell, people become more sedentary and more easily taxed, leading to an organisation headed by an elite who display wealth by building pyramids and shit. Then this is not enough, so they expand by conquest in order to feed the locals and build even bigger stuff. This leads to overstretch whilst the elite continue the status quo despite imperial reverse, environmental catastrophe and popular dissent.
And this is why, with the monkey-house on fire, monkeys prefer fighting to putting out the fire. (Ed. No record of monkeys ever putting out a fire, even on YouTube... but we're on it).
The author ends by pointing out that the longest-lived empires are at least united in a common cause, as was the 1000-year Byzantine by Orthodox religion. Throughout history, though, the world has been governed by narcissists and maniacs on divine missions that eventually lead to social, economic and environmental collapse... from where we start all over again.
Well not us, but the preppers on YouTube practising life without Weetabix.
The vicar apologises for not being here last Sunday instead of at an anime convention.
