Space Age or Stone Age?

Yesterday I saw a comment on social media that said “we are headed for the space age or the stone age”.

I have to admit it made me think about where we are, where we are going and just what I think about it all.

Quite where we end up will depend on a lot of factors - will technology be working for us or against us. Will we manage to avoid catastrophic conflict - possibly involving nuclear weapons.

But it also depends on where we go culturally and there is no simple answer to that.

Personally I think Western Culture is the best. There is plenty of evidence for that but my views have largely been formed by me living in a western democratic society.

If I lived in China I’d probably think the CCP culture was the best way but right now I see it as oppressive and authoritarian.

Would it be any different if I was raised in the middle east? Probably not, culturallyI’d likely be a muslim and would have been conditioned to accept the laws of the 6th century religion as the way to be.

Because I haven’t had that indoctrination I can look upon the doctrines of Islam as antithetical to progress and wisdom.

So maintaining our culture imprint, and your may indeed be different to mine, will depend on the extent to which others spread.

However it will also depend on what we do to ourselves.

A lot of the traditions and customs that have underpinned our development have been chipped away in recent decades. We’ve dehumanised human beings by equating them with animal species.

The value of life and how we die are very  differently today than in times past. There is seemingly less interest in true knowledge and understanding, they’ve both given way to bits of paper handed out for reciting PC talking points.

Last week I discussed how our culture is sexualising children. There was so much more that I couldn’t say but believe me, it’s much worse than even I imagined.

Incredibly, the media gatekeepers around the world have largely ignored the Balenciaga scandal. The trusted brand ambassadors like Kim Kardashian and Nicole Kidman are sticking in there for the free clothes and accessories.

These are the same celebrities people who seem happy to give gratuitous advice on who should be cancelled and what is acceptable behaviour in todays world…but they can’t bring themselves to dump a company associated with child sexualisation.

But should we be really surprised?

Our society adores celebrity. It worships those who are famous and parade their fake lives through Instagram, Facebook and other narcissistic media.

Just this week, a hero to many, the Liver King was caught up in a scandal of his own.

The Liver King claims to exist on a diet of raw nose to tail animal eating, lives ancestrally and sleeps on the ground. That’s what results in his rather impressive physique.

But this week, the myth of the liver King was broken when leaked emails reveal he also sustains himself with a cocktail of steroids costing over USD $11,000 per month.

It’s all ok though because he has amassed an estimated $100m fortune flexing his inflated pecs and peddling his ancestral living guide.

Interestingly, no one really cares. He got famous made his pile and that is what really matters in our society today.

You either need to be famous and pretend you have money or be famous and make money. It doesn’t really matter how you do it. You can leak your own sex tape, jump on only fans, peddle political influence, push illicit substances or just run a giant Ponzi scheme while stealing billions in life savings.

If you think I’m joking here are some examples.

Kym Kardashian had a sex tape and is one of the most followed people in the world of social media.  The Clintons were broke when they left politics and somehow managed to make hundreds of millions. Bikies wearing balenciaga have devoted followings of those seeking to emulate their lifestyles…all funded through the pushing of drugs.

And then you’ve got Sam Bankman-Fried. We spoke about him a couple of weeks ago detailing his estimated $50 billion fraud involving collapsed crypto exchange FTX.

In any other world this bloke would be in jail awaiting trial.

But no, this political donor and woke fraudster is on a speaking tout sponsored by the New York Times.  Fielding softball questions like this from a clearly infatuated host.

The audience even laughed when he said he’d ‘had a pretty tough month’.

People have lost everything due to this blatant fraud and he’s treated like a celebrity.

By any standards he’d done all the wrong things by society but all the right things according to politicians and the press.

Some of those scammed have even publicly stated they’ll invest with him again. It's clearly true what they say about fools and their money.

Anyway, SBF and the others are just how far we have fallen. Legitimacy is gained through having money, or the appearance of money and fame.

Once you have those two achievements - and the right words to comply with the woke world you are set.  You can get away with almost anything.

Now I am a great advocate for working toward financial success and independence. You won’t hear me complaining about someone’s success.

But our society is upside down when those who celebrate the likes of the woke soy-boy fraudster, or overlook the corruption or criminal activities of their Insta-heroes, are the same ones who criticise those who make money legitimately.

This was brought home to me this week when Gina Rinehart’s Hancock Prospecting delivered a $5.8 billion profit. It’s a staggering amount of money and well deserved. I actually don’t know anyone who works harder than her and she has maintained that incredible work ethic for decades.

She has also paid $4.4 billion in State and Commonwealth taxes in the past year and more than $11 billion over the past 5 years.

That’s what i consider to be an extraordinary commitment to Australia and to creating jobs and building prosperity.

It’s more than any vacuous celebrity poser will ever achieve or contribute and yet they are the ones celebrated by the an increasingly vacuous society.

Maybe we don’t look up to people who actually deserve respect because we’re envious of them, as legendary investor Charlie Munger said in this clip.

So whether we are headed to space or back to the stone age is going to depend on changing our current attitudes to what it means to be heralded a success.