How to Colonize Mars and Still Be Unhappy

From candles to sockets.
From horses to rockets.
From wagons to rails.
From letters to mails.

How many years?
How many spices?
How many souls?
How many vices?

It seems that no matter how far we go or how far we reach, nothing is ever enough. Nothing is ever enough to cover up our ignorance or arrogance as a species.

The Illusion of Progress and Change

Look at history. The more things changed and technology improved, the more they stayed the same. Consider this:

The children now love luxury; they have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for elders and love chatter in place of exercise. Children are now tyrants, not the servants of their households. They no longer rise when elders enter the room. They contradict their parents, chatter before company, gobble up dainties at the table, cross their legs, and tyrannize their teachers. ~Socrates

The reason this statement is so true, or why divine books continue to be used around the world, is because humanity hasn't evolved on a spiritual level.

We can see this in the barbaric way history books are written in public schools. Great deeds are attributed to the actions of visionary leaders, the courage of the people, or the treachery of hostile forces.

If one were to consult actual historical documents, it would be obvious that more of history is due to chance than to the power of human will.

The Role of Chance and Luck in History

Consider how the Golden Age is defined. It is a time of great peace, prosperity, and happiness. Ancient Greek Athens, the Byzantine Empire, the Roman Empire, or the Italian Renaissance have all been attributed to these periods.

If you were to dissect most of the rulers in history, you would find them categorized by adjectives: wise, great, magnificent, conqueror, or terrible.

In times when favorable natural events bring about a period of abundance in one area, other events may bring about a period of scarcity in another nearby area.

For example, if there were several years of good harvests in a row, there would be an abundance of food. Since the local people have never had so much food, they now have a problem to solve. What to do with the food? They have no choice but to invent the granary.

This is only possible because, at the same time, disease has decimated their predatory neighbors.

Now that granaries have been invented, and they no longer need to gather as much food as before, they will have more time to raise their own army, or to engage in more leisure activities. This will lead to the development of art and spirituality.

Staying out of trouble would be the greatest challenge for a ruler in such times. If they could do that, they would be remembered as having ruled in the Golden Age.

Rulers who seize the opportunity to tinker and reform, to make radical changes for the sake of change, will soon find themselves in trouble for creating problems where there are none.

It seems that keeping one's feet on the ground and being patient is the hardest thing for a ruler to learn.

Just stay out of trouble!

Yet time and again we see ambition taking the lead. The need to be remembered, to be special, to have accomplished something.

For those still struggling with this concept, I recommend the book by Ernest Becker - The Denial of Death.

The Power of Coincidence and Survivor Bias

I am not here to lecture you on something you already know, I am here to remind you that these lessons have been taught for millennia and it looks like we still have not learned anything.

I am here to open your eyes to the power of chance and how it has fooled historians and scientists alike.

We like to think that cause and effect govern everything.

Unfortunately, it is sometimes difficult to determine how much influence a particular ruler had and how much of their rule was influenced by higher powers. The fact that someone won Russian Roulette does not mean that they had a better strategy than the other players. Survival bias is too often ignored.

Consider that Emperor Frederick I Barbarossa's campaign ended when his horse slipped on rocks and threw him into the water while wearing his heavy armor. With his death, his armies soon scattered and the Crusader cause was dealt a severe blow. Now, whether this was the actual cause of death remains unknown, and there are various theories, but they all involve bad luck.

Consider the conquest of the American continent by the Europeans, which was attributed to courage, superior weapons, tactics, technology, and many other things. Of course, we now know that the diseases the Europeans brought with them contributed far more to the conquest than people realized at the time.

And history is full of such coincidences. And there are probably many, many more that we may never know about.

The Persistence of Human Nature and the Need for Spiritual Growth

And through it all... through it all... People stay the same.

So we can extrapolate into the future that even if everyone had Android robots at home, or if we introduced teleportation, most of the problems we have today would be the same tomorrow. One of the main concerns would still be: What's for lunch?

Perhaps it is time to invest more in the spiritual enlightenment of humanity than in the technological advancement of humanity. Because even if we colonize Mars, and maybe even the whole Andromeda system, I can guarantee you that people will still be bored. And they will still find a way to be unhappy.

Then you realize: The more things change, the more they stay the same.

What has been will be again,
what has been done will be done again;
there is nothing new under the sun. ~Ecclesiastes 1:9

And no Great Reset will change that. Guaranteed!