Short term profit at expense of long term survival

Humans are the only species capable of seeing the big picture and also ignoring what they see to get what they want right now.

We are currently a country polarized by politics, surrounded by evidence of ignorance about current events, decisions made not based on facts or research, but on whether or not the person telling us the thing is on our team or if what they say makes us feel safe or better than or justified in not changing.

We are not here for the first time, pollution for profit to the point of killing our selves and any other living thing, hate that makes us commit atrocities in the name of god,  loyalty based not on goodness or rightness to a group, but on whether or not it makes us feel like we are on the winning side because being on the winning side, even if they are some scary, evil, crazies, just might get us a better deal personally.  We are predictable in our inability to learn from our own history.

 In the latter part of the 13th century, in an effort to reduce air pollution, England’s King Edward I threatened Londoners with harsh penalties if they didn’t stop burning sea-coal. However, the king’s regulations–and those of subsequent leaders–had little effect. (i stole it here http://www.history.com/topics/water-and-air-pollution)

Acid rain was first discovered in the 1850s,  I heard about it in the 1960's,  it sounded scary, but basically it is bad for the life of anything made of concrete (infrastructure) or limestone--and living things.

 By the late 18th century and first part of the 19th century, coal came into large-scale use during the Industrial Revolution. The resulting smog and soot had serious health impacts on the residents of growing urban centers.Water pollution intensified with the advent of the Industrial Revolution, when factories began releasing pollutants directly into rivers and streams.  (killing ourselves? that is my job, if you make them play by the rules, they might not hire me).

In 1948, severe industrial air pollution created a deadly smog that asphyxiated 20 people in Donora, Pennsylvania, and made 7,000 more sick.

 In 1952, pollutants from factories and home fireplaces mixed with air condensation killed at least 4,000 people in London over the course of several days.

In 1963, in an effort to reduce air pollution, the U.S. Congress passed the Clean Air Act, and people screamed about the risk of their jobs if the big companies had to follow rules.

 In 1969, chemical waste released into Ohio’s Cuyahoga River caused it to burst into flames and the waterway became a symbol of how industrial pollution was destroying America’s natural resources.

A couple of years later, congress passed  the Clean Water Act (1972).  More complaints about jobs, cost, loss of money from those that are loyal to those that need workers.

 In 2006, the Environmental News Service (ENS) reported that “more than 62 percent of industrial and municipal facilities across the country discharged more pollution into U.S. waterways than their Clean Water Act permits allowed between July 2003 and December 2004.”

In 2007, almost half (46 percent) of all Americans resided in counties with unhealthy levels of either ozone or particle pollution, according to the American Lung Association.   CNN reported that “up to 500 million tons of heavy metals, solvents and toxic sludge slip into the global water supply every year. In the developing world [according to UNESCO] as much as 70 percent of industrial waste is just dumped untreated into the rivers and lakes.  (Most of our citizens gripe about this, those folks aren't on our team, forget that the companies are frequently owned by the same individuals)

  And we humans are revolting.  ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_revolutions_and_rebellions)  We have been revolting and rebelling as long as someone thought they were in charge of the group.

Looking at all these revolutions, they are caused by 2 things:
 Anger and frustation--usually over either unjust governance in which one group is treated as better than or more deserving of favor, and income inequality, in which one group has all the money and the other group is destined to spend their lives toiling for enough to eat while trying to provide for their families.

Not one revolution or rebellion should have ever been a shock or surprise.  Angry and frustrated people get louder and louder as their tolerance for feeling used and mistreated rises.  We have the historical lessons to warn us about this.  It has happened thousands of times in the past.  Why do we never do anything to prevent it from getting there.  Why do we never recognize the unjustness or the inequality.  Why do we blame the victims of the greedy and powerful--even if we, ourselves are not powerful and have almost nothing.  We send our children to die for their causes and we argue for them when if they were in another country, we would want them dethroned.

Financial shenanigans have been causing woe to the point of the collapse of nations for ever.  The Medici Bank became too big to fail, then failed, the sudden influx of (stolen, the oil in the middle east has nothing on the allure of riches that the plunder of Central America had to the conquistadors) rich resources.  The sudden inflation made some rich, but ultimately created a horrible gap between those that could afford to live in the inflated times, and those that could only do without.  And North America, as it was first taken, then sold off, created quite the Real Estate bubble long before we were a 50 state nation.  Inevitably, in each of those events, the rich get richer until it peaks out, then the poor get poorer.

Why do all of these easily foreseeable events keep playing out through history?

Because of greed.  Humans have a greedy gene.  And while people like Sister Theresa and Mahatma Gandhi and Nelson Mandela seem to be nicer, more farsighted, more capable of seeing the connections between how we are all treated, for most of our leaders, the idea that people without power don't count,  is the way of the world.

If you see those people that are angry about being poor or frustrated by being treated badly on an institutional level and think  "this is gods will"  "this is how it has always been"  while denying that you are much more like them than the people that are benefiting from the income inequality and the unjust governance, you just might be confused.

I think its called "stockholm syndrome".

(And yes, If you can't get in your personal jet and come out here to slap me in person, I'm talking to you)