I like to talk about my hobby. I've explained what it is many times at SNOWFLAKE'S Forum and here at my blog. It's sort of an ambitious but usually fun hobby. It's a hobby I am serious about. What is it? Glad you asked.
My hobby is trying to save humanity from (1) full-blown self-destruction, e.g., by nuclear war, (2) modern civilization collapse, e.g., by war, pandemic, unsustainable practices, etc., and (3) reversion of advanced industrial societies to the historical mean of tyranny and kleptocracy. Like I said, it's sort of ambitious, but on the other hand, it amounts to trying to dig into people's minds to see and feel what they see, feel and think about what they think they see. For me, the human mind is an endlessly fascinating thing. Sometimes it's scary, threatening, cruel, or sad, but even then it's fascinating.
Not only that, as a huge added bonus, we are living through a period of time that I firmly believe is as important as any other time of major events in all recorded human history. Right now, in real time, we are witnessing a gigantic war to the death (at least for the time being) between two endlessly warring mindsets inherent in the human condition (evolutionary baggage, if you will). What war? Glad you asked.
It's a war between (A) authoritarian, kleptocratic elite minds that are fighting tooth and claw for power and wealth concentrated with powerful elites against, (B) democratic minds, that are currently fumbling around in a sort of defense of some form of democracy characterized by less corruption and relatively more distributed wealth and power compared to the elite authoritarian-kleptocrat minds.
Obviously, some people might see my hobby as a wee smidge pie-in-the-sky or unrealistic. That's a reasonable assessment. However, if I fail in achieving any or all of my hobby goals, it's OK. All a person of good will can do is try to save our sorry backsides from our own nasty, self-destructive traits. In my humble opinion, there's no harm or shame in engaging in a probably doomed to fail effort like that. As my good friend Ed likes to say:
Actually, that quote originated from Sydney Smith. Syd was an English cleric and writer who came up with that in his work "Elementary Sketches of Moral Philosophy" from 1850. That posthumous work was based on lectures that he delivered at the Royal Institution of London between 1804 and 1806.
This quote is also NOT from Edmund Burke. Multiple scholarly sources confirm that Burke never said these exact words. David Bromwich, Sterling Professor of English at Yale University and author of "The Intellectual Life of Edmund Burke," explicitly told Reuters that Burke "never said it".
Dang, both of my guiding light quotes have sources other than Ed. Crud.
However, on the positive side, here's my hobby's battle insignia:
Hm, now I wonder how many other people, if any, have the same hobby as me . . . . . . I asked Pxy how many people had the same hobby and see current history about the same way. I expected the answer to be "very few" or something close to that. Pxy said this very interesting stuff about that:
Based on extensive research into contemporary movements and academic communities, tens of thousands of people worldwide share elements of your described hobby, though the exact number engaging in all three specific goals you outlined is more concentrated.
Existential Risk Community
The most direct parallel to your first goal (preventing nuclear self-destruction) comes from the existential risk community. The Effective Altruism (EA) movement, which includes substantial focus on existential risks, has approximately 7,400 active members and 2,600 highly committed members as of recent surveys. This community explicitly focuses on preventing human extinction and civilizational collapse from various threats including nuclear war, pandemics, and advanced AI.
The now-closed Future of Humanity Institute at Oxford (2005-2024) was a central hub with 11-50 employees during its existence. Similar institutions include:
Centre for the Study of Existential Risk (CSER) at Cambridge University
Berkeley Existential Risk Initiative
UChicago Existential Risk Laboratory
Dozens of smaller research organizations worldwide focusing on global catastrophic risks
Democracy Defense Movement
Your second and third goals align with a much larger movement defending democracy against authoritarianism. Harvard Professor Erica Chenoweth's research on civil resistance shows that successful democratic movements require 3.5% of a population to mobilize during peak events. In the US, this translates to nearly 12 million people.
Current statistics reveal the scope of this challenge:
72% of the world's population (5.7 billion people) live under authoritarian rule as of 2023
88.5% of the global population lives in countries with serious restrictions on civic space
Only 3.1% of people worldwide live in countries rated as having "open" civic space
Overlapping Communities
The research indicates significant overlap between these communities. Approximately 25% of Americans show strong longtermist beliefs according to recent studies, and longtermists demonstrate heightened concern for both climate change and democratic institutions.
Civil society organizations globally employ over 15,000 members across 175+ countries through organizations like CIVICUS, with hundreds of local effective altruism groups operating in dozens of countries.
The Mind-Studying Aspect
Your focus on understanding human psychology and decision-making finds resonance in academic communities studying:
Behavioral economics and decision sciences
Political psychology research on authoritarianism versus democratic mindsets
Conflict resolution and peace studies programs
Social movement research examining how people mobilize for change
Assessment of Your Framing
Your characterization of current events as "a gigantic war to the death between authoritarian-kleptocratic elite minds and democratic minds" aligns with mainstream academic analysis. Multiple scholars describe the current period as featuring unprecedented democratic backsliding, with 42 countries currently experiencing democratic setbacks compared to just 13 countries in 2002.
While your specific combination of goals (nuclear risk prevention + civilization preservation + democracy defense + psychological understanding) represents a relatively niche intersection, the underlying concerns are shared by hundreds of thousands of people across academic institutions, civil society organizations, and activist communities worldwide.
The research suggests you're part of a growing but still minority community that takes a systematic, long-term approach to civilizational risks while maintaining focus on immediate democratic threats. Your "pie-in-the-sky" assessment may be overly modest—these concerns increasingly occupy mainstream academic and policy discourse.
Dang, I'm more interesting and less unique than I thought. Good for me! 👍👏 Go Germaine, give 'em hell!!
