The Hole
The news had broken slowly, for a number of reasons.
To begin with, while data had been collected for decades, the information as well as the understanding behind it had been kept secret from the public. To be honest, it was truly remarkable that no details had leaked in all those years, considering the number of high level officials, scientists, and bureaucrats, foreign and domestic, who had been in the know.
Additionally, the intricacy of the program, the data collection program that is, was extremely difficult to understand, even for those who had been studying the situation throughout the years, let alone for the politicians they informed. As for the public, it was decided right from the start that any premature release of the premise behind the data would certainly be catastrophic.
But mostly, the process was determined to be of the highest top secret classification because there was no consensus as to what was really happening. The Hole was certainly increasing in size, slowly but measurably, which indicated purpose to most of the scientists studying it, but the how, the why, and the who, which was the biggest source of the concern, if there indeed was a who, were all unanswered.
The one thing everyone seemed to agree on was the when, although that agreement was in contention for much of the first 15 years from the first discovery of The Hole. Fortunately, as 15 years became 30, and 30 became 50, the technology being employed to study the phenomenon seemingly caught up with the sophistication of the phenomenon itself, leading to virtual agreement that the hole had formed just as the 20th century dawned.
Reaction among those involved varied from generation to generation, and country to country. While all agreed that revelation needed to be delayed, what to do about it, was debated vociferously. The scope of ways to address The Hole was as revealing of the nature of humankind, although the idea of a military solution was never a viable option, something that, in retrospect, made for interesting philosophical discussions of those who promoted a positive spin on the situation.
Definitive agreement of the existence of The Hole occurred in the decade following the second World War. While scientists from a number of countries had been examining the phenomenon independently, it wasn't until the remnants of the animosity of World War 2 had begun to dissipate, at least among the scientific community, that cooperation produced some agreement, especially in the area of tracking the progress of the The Hole's size.
Once various nations began sharing this progression, an agreement was signed by all of the nations which had already been studying the curiosity, as well as those countries deemed crucial in moving forward with a global approach. Amazingly, this agreement was not the source which led to the release of details surrounding The Hole, amazing in that politicians are so often the least responsible breed of people when it comes to keeping a secret, especially when the release of that secret could lead to popularity, power, or both.
Ultimately, it was an obscure technical paper released in a little read scientific journal that, unknowingly, presented some evidence of The Hole, without naming it such. Basically, someone not in the loop, figured it out, or at least determined that something strange was occurring, and detailed it in her article.
At that point, speculation about the effects of The Hole slowly began to circulate, first among those smart enough to understand the ramifications of the article's observations, then into the conspiracy driven media outlets which reported on some of the more outlandish speculations, then doubled down to create stories that would spark the interests and wag the tongues of those who saw disaster, subterfuge, and blame in everything they read.
At first, it was easy to deny those kind of conclusions, but serious people were also discussing the strange data from that previously unknown scientist. And once discussions began to enter academia, in lecture halls, and on well established media programs, a representative group of the leaders of those nations who had maintained the clandestine operation, called for a press conference to quell the absurd and reveal the long held secret.
But first, those same leaders had to decide just what to say, considering they still weren't sure what was happening. They knew enough that uncertainty could be just as damaging. How many actions are inspired, not by reason or drive, but by fear of the uncertain? How often do we stay inert in our difficult situations, work, family, personal, community, not because we don't want those circumstances to improve but because we fear it could be worse?
The leaders knew that answers needed to be offered, even if those answers were not completely true, and not the full story. Their logic was sound, even if the reason it was now incumbent of them to be honest, rested in a decades long dishonesty.
As I sit here, writing this account, I can't help but wonder if that very reasoning was caused, in part, by The Hole.
On the day of the release of the biggest news story in history, a somber group of men and women gathered on a stage within the United Nations Building and addressed the press, and the world.
"In the past 5 decades or so, scientists have been observing the growth of what we have termed, a Hole," began the leader at the center of the group. "We call it a Hole, only to indicate that it is a lack of something that was there, as it is not a physical hole, like a hole in your shirt, or a hole in the ozone layer.
The leader paused, took a breath, then looked squarely at the camera rather than the teleprompter.
"During those years, our scientists didn't understand what we were seeing, measuring, only that something was changing. It wasn't that long ago that we were able to determine that The Hole began to develop sometime in the early 20th century, but even that conclusion took decades of examining data about the surrounding layers of atmosphere around our planet."
She paused, glanced to her left and right, then began again. "What we eventually realized was that in addition to the five known layers of our atmosphere, the troposphere, stratosphere, mesosphere, thermosphere and exosphere, there is a sixth layer which we have named the selfishsphere."
She waited for the laughter to ease, smiling, as fake a smile as she ever could concoct.
"Unfortunately,", she began again, "I am serious. After years of analysis, reams of papers, thousands of conferences, we have conclusive proof that there is a layer of, for lack of a better word, insulation, that acts as a filter to keep a specific kind of cosmic ray from penetrating to the surface of earth. It is that ray, or should I say the accumulation of that ray, that was discussed in the journal article which led to why we are here today".
"I don't want to go into all the research that has been done in the area of selfishness and altruism. Suffice to say, there is significant evidence that, as a species, we are instinctively more cooperative than selfish, and that from an evolutionary perspective, we have advanced more out of cooperation than selfishness. So yes, while there are individuals that benefit dramatically by being selfish, as a species, we are inherently good, inherently sympathetic."
"However, using advanced computers models, there seems to have been a change in our levels of sympathy, and selfishness in the last 100 years or so. Two World Wars, the holocaust and innumerable other instances of genocide, the prevalence of placing personal freedoms above those of others, it all adds up to a decline in our innate goodness, and an increase in our global selfishness levels. And, when all is said and done, the calculations indicate that this decline began about a century ago. Which also corresponds to The Hole which we have discovered in the selfishsphere. A Hole, we are sad to report, that has been growing, and continues to grow."
"Those of you who are here today, and those tens of millions listening to me across the globe, have you not noticed the surge in selfishness? When once we looked out for our neighbor's children, as they did for ours, we now reproach our neighbors for how they are raising their kids, while trying to isolate our own from those we deem evil."
"When a disease of uncertain effect turned into a global pandemic, there was some cooperation, at first, but soon far too many people turned their backs on those most vulnerable, refused even to wear a mask to protect their neighbors, family and friends from infection, a very real possibility given that symptoms often lagged by 2 days as compared to being infected. Folks, we lost upwards of 50 million people during the Spanish Flu, back when there were only about 1.5 billion people on the planet, because we systematically ignored the disease, pretended it didn't exist, and of course, had no vaccine to counter it. Conversely, during the 2020-21 coronavirus outbreak, we lost less than 7 million people worldwide out of over 7.7 billion people, because we took mediation measures and developed and distributed a vaccine in record time. Yet even now, there are people who want to prosecute those who led the efforts to save lives, and people who refuse to get a free vaccine due to a misguided belief in personal freedom over community safety."
"Add to that, a current war being waged by an aggressive nation which believes their rights trump those of a sovereign neighbor, and are willing to kill the citizens of that neighbor to advance their self interests. That being bad enough, there has been more than a smattering of protest by those who claim to prize freedom, but are unwilling to spare some money and resources for a nation fighting for its very freedoms."
"Even with capitalism, what most people acknowledge as the best economic system devised to date, we see an abundance of greed and selfishness which has corrupted the concept of opportunity and the pursuit of material happiness and has led to the richest 1% of people owning and controlling almost half of the world's resources."
"All across the globe, the wealthy nations operate in a might makes right mode, taking advantage of those countries which lack the resources and knowledge to improve the livelihood of its citizens, and worse, often taking what few resources they do have with little compensation."
"And in America, Reagan's shining city upon the hill whose beacon light guides freedom-loving people everywhere, the nation most associated with democracy, and freedom, and equality, there is a growing attraction to authoritarianism driven by the selfish belief that people who disagree politically are not patriots, and that election results that disappoint can be overturned through violence and intimidation."
"When cooperation and compromise towards mutual progress equals weakness, and strong leadership is equated to intolerance of different perspectives, when being against diversity, equity and inclusion becomes a rallying cry to make a country better, even though it is diversity through the waves of immigration that makes most Americans first and second generation Americans, even though it is equity that is enshrined in the Declaration of Independence, and even though it is inclusion that has provided opportunity to pursue life, liberty and happiness, well, I guess that tells us everything about the effect of The Hole."
"What does it say about a shining beacon of light for freedom that we spend over $120 billion a year on our pets, an amount greater than the GDP of over 130 countries, a number that would place it around 60th if it were a country's GDP? That despite positive gains in the last decade, there are still 2 billion, that is billion, people in the world, without access to clean drinking water?"
There was a pause, she took a breath, she smiled, this one much more sincere than her last one.
"However, we are here, not just to paint a picture of doom, but to offer words of hope. Sometimes, it is in the act of understanding, the simple knowledge of a bad situation, that can result in changing that situation. Our belief, a belief founded on the premise that humans are innately good, is that we can counter the loss in strength of the selfishsphere by acknowledging its effects on our actions, personal as well as communal. That, like a diabetic who reads food labels, monitors her diet, exercises, we can monitor our acts of selfishness, exercise random acts of kindness, and reject those who eat away at our collective goodness."
The leaders left the stage to applause; the speech given widespread coverage, widespread acclaim. In the streets, schools, business places, and all areas where people converged and engaged in conversation, a positive outlook was visible, palpable. In subsequent meetings, the leaders who had worked to fashion that speech, felt confident that their approach was correct, their plan a good one.
I would like to say that this marked the beginning of a change which saved ourselves, from ourselves. That the world understood the crisis upon them, and took individual and national action to reward selfless behavior, and shine a light on those acting selfishly. I would like to say that through this collective effort, the selfishsphere somehow healed itself, The Hole stopped growing, began to close.
But, alas, that was not the case. Partly, because the tale told that day from the building that was supposed to represent the unification of the nations of the planet, was only partly true. Yes, there was some kind of buildup of a cosmic ray that was heretofore unknown in the history of our planet. But the selfishsphere was a fabricated term, a simple way to convey the problem, a throwback to the lessons of Genesis.
Sadly, our species had passed the tipping point. Those for whom selfishness and greed had worked, those who had manipulated the system, rigged the rules in their favor, held too much power and influence, controlled too much global information, or disinformation, in this case. They worked against groups, policies, actions that would have addressed the inequities, the selfishness, the me first influencers. They repeated lies, used of words like socialism, and claims that it was all a hoax being perpetrated on the working class by the elite. It was a continuation of the playbook used for millennia by those with the power to retain the status quo, a status quo that favored them, that enabled them to do whatever they wanted.
And, since there really was no conclusive understanding of how, why or who was responsible for The Hole, it was easy for them to frame the issue in a way that prevented actions which addressed the true root of the problem.
Now, decades later, we have come to realize that it was the lack of identifying the who that gave those most responsible for encouraging the very selfishness that was ruining the species the power to prevent change. Perhaps had we been able to establish that it was an alien force, we could have rallied together against it. Perhaps even, had it been determined that it was our Creator challenging us to prove our worth, we might have been able to merge the great religions towards a global spiritual awakening.
But it was simply us, all along. Mankind had allowed itself to forego its most basic teachings, lessons that transcended all cultures, religions, nations, even our own innate nature itself. The experiment that was our species, the experiment that granted knowledge and the ability to think, empathy and the ability to help others, and a body and the ability to move and thrive within a healthy environment, failed to account for those who sought to place their own comfort and security over that of others, and miscalculated the effect that those most selfish and greedy would have over those struggling to provide comfort and security.
At this point, as even the obvious effects of The Hole manifest all around us, those who control the flow of information, who use that control to maintain their hold over a disproportionate amount of money, resources and power, have won the day. Perhaps the planet will witness a new iteration of a species like ours, another experiment which might transcend the failures of what has failed in the past, what is about to fail now.
If it is all just a series of circles, perhaps those circles slowly approach the realization of what life is truly about. Whether our circle, our brief civilization when compared to the age of the universe, and time itself, exists on the continuum in the beginning, middle or towards the end, the answer is not enough to satisfy the disappointment that we have fallen short of the goal, again.
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This is not the first post I have written addressing selfishness. Here is a link to one I wrote at the end of 2021.
https://wurdsfromtheburbs.blogspot.com/2021/12/selfishness-and-patriotism.html
