As IF Times

link: https://www.earth.com/news/greenland-ice-fossil-discovery-stuns-and-worries-scientists/

When did society in general change from one of curiosity and discovery to one of complacency and fear? How did we become hand wringers and cowering knaves instead of being brave explorers? How did fear of catastrophe become so widespread in western culture?

Our history books describe the many great leaps made by mankind through the many milestones made even before actual recorded history.  The progress of civilizations have been marked by advances in technologies; of geographic and scientific discoveries and of ingenious inventions that propel man to the next levels of human achievement.

If you were to draw a chart of man’s achievements using the birth of Christ as a reference point, you would see that human achievements have accelerated from a gradual ascending slope to an almost vertical ascent in only the past 100 years.  Only a hundred years ago, people were still moving around by horses and buggies. Since that time, the presence of personal cars are as common worldwide and as unremarkable as dandelions, even in the poorest of nations.

Just a scant 500 years ago, a blink of an eye in evolutionary terms, a crazy and intrepid mariner named Columbus decided it was a good idea to sail off in some ships to see if there was a faster way to get spices. Today, the role of intrepid explorer is headed by Elon Musk and the next target of exploration is another planet altogether, Mars.  And beneath these lofty aspirations of men and mankind, there are a multitude of minor inventions and discoveries that continue to push the limits of the human experience.

It appears that a big part of the human condition: is to want to improve the human condition. Yet somehow in the last 50 or so years, a distinct malaise is impeding the inexorable progress of mankind.  The naysayers, the alarmists and the skeptics have become such a force as to blunt the edge of human progress.  Even as the passage of time has rendered virtually all of the alarmist bleats invalid and the general condition of humanity being at its best point in history, the distraction of alarmist views has never been stronger.  Doom has become a business.  There are those that insist on making people’s lives less pleasant because of imagined threats in their minds.

While we are currently pushing back against the vapid bleats of climate alarmism, especially since more polar bears are showing up, society has had to suffer through numerous alarmist crises du jour over the past 50 years.  Some of us will recall the overpopulation ‘bomb’ endangering mankind: there was the prediction of the great global freeze; there was Y2K; there is always a financial crisis; there is always some kind of pandemic crisis including aids, bird flu and recently of course, Covid 19. This phenomenon is made much worse these days by the reach of social media as well as media in general since sensationalism gets eyeballs.

It’s hard to understand why there is such a willing appetite for narratives of catastrophe. It must be linked to some kind of physiological wiring in the brains of certain humans. We can see the parallels with people who have an affinity for horror movies.  It’s always puzzled me that there is an audience for movies about teens being chased by chainsaws, or of vampires, or of masked slashers.  Clearly, there must be a physiological as well as psychological button that provides a dopamine hit when experiencing these films. Anecdotal experience shows that females are more likely to enjoy this kind of entertainment than males.

What does this have to do with the progress of civilization? Historically, it’s been men that have done the wild and outlandish things that can lead to significant changes to society.  They’re the ones most likely to try things… just to see what happens.  It’s in men’s nature to be curious about almost anything and that curiosity can result in some kind of invention or new process. Women have generally been more prudent in their approach to the unknown and they leave the crazy stuff to men.  In today’s belt and suspenders world, that kind of unfettered innovation has been blunted by an increasingly overcautious environment.  As more women move into positions of political influence, so also does the rise of nanny culture.  People, especially men, need to be protected from themselves from doing dangerous things.

It’s clear that in today’s zeitgeist, anything can be construed as being dangerous or of having some kind of detrimental effect on humans, if someone says it does.  Historically the voices of the naysayers didn’t have great impact on human advances, if at all.  Imagine during Columbus’ day if some lobby groups existed to protest his expedition because of their fears of the unknown.  Imagine if protestors prevented the use of the printing press because of tree destruction.

I can foresee now the next crisis of the day will be the proliferation of robots and artificial intelligence. They will framed as an existential threat to mankind and the law industry will do what they do best; to make our lives miserable while we try to harness the power of these new technologies.

Despite an unbroken record of man successfully overcoming obstacles to the progress of human civilization, people always seem to fixate on the next great crisis, no matter how abstract and illogical. We can’t discount a meteor crashing into the planet tomorrow and wiping out all life forms.  If that happens, we all die.  Why worry about it? In the meantime, human ingenuity needs to be unfettered.  Forget the tin foil hats.  This is best summed up by a not too famous quote attributed to Michel de Montaigne in which he states: My life has been filled with terrible misfortune; most of which never happened.

Today’s article written by guest author, EL.

Apparently, the hockey bros have emerged from their two-year hibernation—shivering behind homemade plexiglass, elbow-bumping each other through Zoom—and decided now is the time to “take a stand.” Brave stuff, boys. Nothing screams “defender of freedom” like finally speaking up when there’s zero risk and maximum optics.

Let’s cut through the Tim Hortons fumes: #ElbowsUp is cosplay patriotism. It’s a rebrand for the same people who spent COVID clapping like trained seals for government overreach, but now want to wear plaid and act like they were in the trenches the whole time. Spoiler: they weren’t. They were online ratting out their neighbors for having more than six people over for Thanksgiving.

But now? Oh now they’re ready. Now that it’s trendy. Now that defending Canada is as easy as posting a selfie in a red flannel with a caption like “Don’t mess with the North.”

Where were those elbows when small businesses were being crushed under the boot of arbitrary mandates? Where were those elbows when you needed a permission slip to leave the country? Where were those elbows when the government decided which forms of protest were “approved” and which got you financially erased?

I’ll tell you where they were: folded politely in a Zoom town hall, nodding along while some bureaucrat explained why your kid couldn’t play outside. Now the same people who once wore three masks to go pumpkin picking want to body check foreign policy. Sure. Let me know how that works out when the next variant drops. This isn’t patriotism. It’s TikTok nationalism.

It’s the same kind of lazy self-branding that gave us “Live, Laugh, Love”—only now it’s “Post, Pout, Pretend You Fought for It.”

And look, I’m not against Canada standing up for itself. But if this is our resistance—if this is the big cultural counterstrike—we might as well hoist the white flag, slap a maple leaf on it, and livestream the surrender with patriotic lo-fi beats in the background.

So to the #ElbowsUp crowd: congratulations. You’ve finally found your backbone—just two years after it mattered.

Better late than never, I guess.

But don’t expect a parade and for sure don’t drive trucks around with Elbow logos.

You already had your moment.

And you elbowed right past it.