The connection between Ayn Rand’s “Objectivist Ethics” and last week’s insurrection at the Capitol is not obvious. There were no picket signs featuring Rand’s face or slogans. No one was asking “Who is John Galt?” as they vandalized the rotunda. Still, Rand was present for Wednesday’s treason.

That’s because Rand advocated an alternate reality of her own making embraced by Donald Trump, Ted Cruz, and other Republican defenders of the Objectivist faith. They have cultivated adherence to Rand’s fictions in MAGA loyalists, some of whom feebly attempted to end democracy in America on January 6. …

Roger Sylvester-Bradley is on a mission. He’s a crop scientist for ADAS, “the UK’s largest independent provider of agricultural and environmental consultancy.” He’s growing barley and other crops using “legacy phosphorus” from previous harvests instead of industrial fertilizers rich with mined phosphate. He hopes to develop farming techniques that can meet increasing global demand for food while reducing the use of phosphorus reserves. So far, he’s met with promising results; he continues to raise healthy crops in defiance of expectations without adding a single new particle of phosphorus to his soil.

Unfortunately, however, Sylvester-Bradley’s experiments have not stopped business as usual on American industrial farms or their counterparts around the world. Phosphorous is a nutrient that is key to life, but the world has a finite supply, and that supply is running perilously short. Some studies estimate that global phosphorus reserves will run out within 50–100 years. And, as early as 2030, world phosphorus production will likely reach its peak. When that happens, food prices will steadily climb in conjunction with rising fertilizer costs. When the supply runs out, crops will fail and the food web will collapse. Phosphorus depletion is, therefore, an extinction level emergency more pressing than even global warming. …

In November of 2019, 11,000+ of the world’s foremost climate scientists published a bleak forecast of rising global temperatures that cannot be averted apart from drastic societal alterations the world over. It allows for little time to course-correct, meaning that the required changes will likely be painful. Such reports understandably dominate both science news and public policy debate, but they fail to take the full measure of human-caused environmental injury.

That’s because human activity currently portends irreversible damage to several planetary boundaries necessary to human life. Among the most alarming crises are biodiversity loss, nitrogen cycle change, groundwater depletion, ocean acidification, and peak phosphorous. Alone, each of these crises is enough to precipitate widespread human suffering. …

I was 27, newly married, and working a low-paying job in retail when I got a letter from a shadowy organization that called itself the Neo-Tech Society. The letter referred to me by my first name and informed me that the Society’s elders had been keeping a close watch on my life. They had determined that I would make a fit candidate for Neo-Tech membership; I was a rare individual, the letter claimed, uniquely suited to harness the ancient secrets of wealth and happiness guarded by the Society.

I had never been targeted so aggressively by scammers before, and I must admit the letter briefly intrigued me. I was poor and it hurt, and Neo-Tech’s audacious appeal to my poverty and ego sliced me directly in my softest spots. …

In 1998, Dr. Melissa Marschke of the University of Ottawa traveled to Koh Sralao to study resource governance strategies in Cambodia. In her book, Life, Fish and Mangroves, she relates her astonishing experience dwelling near the area’s lush mangrove forest and its diverse species of birds, monkeys, and marine life. At the time, Marschke observed that Koh Sralao was attracting numerous migrants from other parts of Cambodia because it was so “resource-rich.”

Sadly, just six weeks after she arrived, developers logged much of the mangrove canopy surrounding Koh Sralao. Mangrove log sales provided a modest financial opportunity for the villagers and a “feather in the cap” of Cambodian politicians seeking reelection. Marschke, who returned to Koh Sralao for 12 consecutive years, labeled the short-sighted logging enterprise a “tragedy of the commons” — the term applied to resource shortages caused when many individuals, motivated by self-interest, consume a resource to the point of depletion and thus work against the common interests of all. …

On Wednesday, President Trump addressed an angry crowd of his supporters at the National Mall. He vowed that he would “never concede” defeat in the 2020 election and encouraged the mob to descend on the Capitol. Additionally, he incited his supporters to “take back our country” during a largely ceremonial electoral vote certification scheduled for later in the day. Finally, Trump prompted the crowd to “show strength” at the Capitol building, telling them that “you’ll never take back our country with weakness.”

After the mob clashed with security and breached the Capitol, Trump tweeted that Vice President Mike Pence, who indicated that morning that he would not attempt to block Joe Biden’s certification, “didn’t have the courage to do what should have been done to protect our Country and our Constitution.” …

Feature

The Southern Baptist Convention made me who I am, for better or worse. I spent years of my adolescence terrified of the dark; every shadow was a demon from hell; my every sin proof that my soul belonged to the fire. And my sins were many.

That’s how I felt at the time. And while I’ve learned not to be so hard on myself, those insomniac nights that plagued my youth have stayed with me; I wrestle with crushing anxiety to this day.

I rejected my fundamentalist roots on the grounds of how the church, its social expectations, and its doctrine made me feel. Certain books and movies helped me on the road to recovery. Though another piece of the puzzle should be considered because it can help anyone who still feels religious panic from time to time, even if they left the church long ago. …