Should we trust the one percent?

Nobel Laureate (Medicine 1958) Joshua Lederberg said in the 1970s that if we wanted to return to "Garden of Eden" living conditions on Earth, we would have to reduce the population to about 2 percent of its (then) current level. The world’s human population has doubled since then to 7 billion, which means that Lederberg’s “Garden of Eden” threshold today is one percent. A coincidence?

In the “philosophy” advocated by Ayn Rand which was converted into fiscal policy by her disciple Alan Greenspan, those we would today call “the one percent” are the creators and producers; the rest of us are useless eaters. In Rand’s gargantuan novel Atlas Shrugged (now so beloved by Hollywood), the creators and producers disappeared into a hiding place named “Galt’s Gulch”, leaving the rest of humanity to fight each other and starve to death. The residents of Galt’s Gulch believed that had no responsibility toward the useless eaters, and that’s just about how today’s one percent feel about the 99 percent.

But there’s a problem here: there is no Galt’s Gulch to which they can retreat. As the 99 percent turn the planet into a landfill/toilet, the air/water/food which the one percent needs is also becoming contaminated.

The simplest solution to the problem? Reduce the population to one percent of its current level.

They’re going to kill us. They have to.

First step: dumb us down

Second step: divide us by using fear, distrust, and envy

Third step: disarm us

Final step: kill us

There may be other steps between the third and the final ones listed above, but you get the picture.

Trust them? Over my dead body!

Oh, shit. That's what they want, isn't it?

[By the way, in the 1990s I met a Gulf War veteran who was writing informal articles about what we now call "Gulf War Syndrome" (GWS), a malady from which he was suffering. Joshua Lederberg called this soldier to argue with him about the non-existence of GWS. Why would a Nobel Laureate go out of his way to argue with a lay person over such an issue? What was the government trying to hide?]