Modern society is run by the worst criminals ever

Of course we are all to blame for what is happening to our world, certainly in the developed countries, with our obscenely oversized ecological footprints. But there is a huge difference between those who actually commit crimes and onlookers who dare not interfere.

The worst eco-criminals are not the henchmen, the mindless wretches who wield the tools of destruction to make a few bucks, but those above them, the bosses, the rich, who control the big companies polluting, exhausting and destroying our world, the banks financing them, the unscrupulous media and scientists whitewashing their deeds and, most important of all, the corruptible politicians ready to change the laws to empower them.

There is little evil in nature. Even the most gruesome parasite is just struggling to survive. Pure evil is our invention, a product of our twisted imagination, our fantasies of malevolent creatures, both supernatural and natural, from ogres and vampires to big bad predators and many different versions of hell. But not even our imagination could have conjured up the horror among us now, almost invisible, nothing supernatural, just successful men and women in expensive suits and luxurious offices, putting on shows of normality while they plot the money-making schemes that have taken us to the brink.

The pursuit of happiness is a legitimate goal. The pursuit of excessive wealth is not. It is irrational and abnormal and serves no sensible purpose, while it does immense harm to society and the environment. It actually suggests a mental disorder.

It is no coincidence that that many big corporations employ a disproportionate large number of psychopaths as CEOs, because those corporations themselves display traits that would be called psychopathic in individuals:

superficially charming
they spend fortunes on advertising and PR campaigns to stress how nice and wonderful they are and, especially nowadays, how green and environmentally-friendly they behave, without actually doing so

full of themselves
they are always bragging that they render invaluable services to society, entitling them to cause some unpleasant side-effects

deceitful
they will lie about anything that might affect their profit, from climate change to health hazards, spending fortunes on biased publicity, enlisting armies of unscrupulous lackeys to spread their message.

manipulative
they are constantly lobbying, bribing scientists, media, politicians and lawmakers to do their bidding

ruthless
they never compromise, always brush aside anyone getting in their way, treating them like mortal enemies, whom they discredit, intimidate, bankrupt with costly litigation, threaten with violence and, increasingly, murder

devoid of remorse or guilt
when their misdeeds are exposed, they never show any genuine regret but instantly start legal battles to avoid making amends

callous and without empathy
they always belittle the harm they do to people and the environment

irresponsible
they never voluntarily take responsibility for their misdeeds, preferring denial, casting blame on others and producing false reports to prove their innocence

The harm these companies have been doing to the environment defies belief. Their incredible stupidity is even more mind-boggling. Where do these crooks think they are going, once they have succeeded at making this planet uninhabitable?

And here their madness comes full circle, to yet another psychopathic trait: a lack of realistic long-term goals.

It is a truly terrifying thought that the fate of the only inhabitable planet in the galaxy (and perhaps in the universe) lies in the hands of these madmen, who are found in almost every field of human activity.

Some examples:

Bankers need no introduction, of course. They showed their true face once again in 2008. There cannot be the slightest doubt that they will finance anything that offers a profit, no mattter how harmful to mankind or the environment.

The oil industry has also always been at the forefront of destruction, ready to despoil everything in their path. To make things even more sinister, recent reports have shown that at least one major oil company knew about climate change and its dire consequences many decades ago and chose to conceal it, because it might jeopardize business.

Car makers have also joined this rogues gallery with their despicable deception about emissions.

Industrial farming is turning the countryside into a morgue. In many countries it is killing everything but a handful of commercial crops. Not a tree, bush, flower or plant is left standing, completely removing any habitat for animals, birds or insects to live in. So they die. Once beautiful, environmentally rich farmlands are being turned into ecological wastelands, green slabs of chemical-saturated crops stretching away to the horizon, empty, lifeless and silent. This in itself is criminal enough but the true madness is that this destruction of whole ecosystems will ultimately lead to destruction of the soil itself.

Industrial fishing is wreaking havoc in the seas. Some fishing methods are so destructive that they kill many times more marine life than they harvest. The numbers are breath-taking (perhaps literally if enough phytoplankton is destroyed).

The list could be continued almost indefinitely. The one common denominator shared by all these criminal organizations is that they care so little about the environment that they actively resist attempts to protect it.

They don't even seem to view their destruction of the natural world as a necessary evil, just as a minor inconvenience to their public image. Their guilt is immeasurable. They are knowingly and deliberately destroying our world, seemingly too powerful to be stopped until nature itself stops them. By then it will be too late for most of us.