For your information: Why this book matters now: 1. Fact - based, 2. G lobal perspective, 3. M odular structure, 4. M arket - proven – already awarded a verified 5 - star reader rating at Barnes & Noble. Retail ordering information : Orders from the US and international markets: Available via Ingram Wholesale (GD1) Returns & discounts: Standard terms of your distribution network apply (GD1) ISBN: 9783695760893 For questions, contact: artedition@t - online.de Tomorrow is the most important day in life. It comes to us at midnight completely pure. It is flawless when it arrives and places itself in our hands. It hopes that we have learned something from yesterday. John Wayne Imprint Peter Sohler (Author and Publisher) Amberger Str. 7 81679 Munich Germany Email: artedition@t - online.de © 2025 Peter Sohler Title and photo collage design according to §24 Copyright Act: Peter Sohler Used external texts, photos, and quotes according to § 62 / § 63 / § 49 / § 50 / § 51 / § 23 Copyright Act. Wikipedia Germany Public Domain (CC) Fair Use - USA § 107 Act 17 U.S.C. as well as statutory limitations Photo collages according to § 24 Copyright Act Free use Production and Publishing BoD – Books on Demand Norderstedt ISBN: 9783695760893 The German edition was also published in 2025. Table of contents Foreword : Herbert Gruhl * October 22, 1921 † June 26, 1993 The Horrific Record of Our Politics.......................................... p. 6 The Titanic Effect by Bernhard Trautvetter, Peace Activist ...........p.21 Introduction: A Very Short History of Time. 1.1 Once upon a time, there was a species called Homo sapiens...p.44 1.2 The World Under the Devil's Spell.....p. 46 1. 3 The Devil's Pact and the Thoughts of Evil ...p. 47 1.4 When God created man, he said: "Subdue the earth." And what have we made of it?..p. 53 Chapter 1 : The Paradox: Man constantly talks about peace, but constantly wages wars. Will this never end?.............................p. 54 1.1 World War I and the Hell of Verdun...p. 58 1.2 World War II, the Holocaust, and the Rise of Evil... p. 67 1.3 Z for Turning Point: NATO Enlargement and Putin's War...p. 215 1.4 Putin, the Alpha Male, and How He Became What He is Today p....262 1.5 So - called Putin Apologists Have Their Say: Helmut Schmidt...p. 340 1.6 Klaus von Dohnanyi...p. 341 1.7 Erhard Eppler...p. 350 1.8 Peter Scholl - Latour...p. 366 1.9 M. S. Gorba chev - Nobel Peace Prize laureate ...p. 369 1.10 The USA and the Vietnam War...p. 371 1.11 The Never - Ending Powder Keg in the Middle East ......p. 379 2. Chapter : 40 Valuable Years Wasted. ................................p. 391 3. Chapter: SACRILEGE - When Homo sapiens, the Clever, Wise, and Reasonable One, Came to Eden............................p. 396 3.1 Beast Man.....p. 408 4. Chapter : We and the others, or justice is just a word ......... ... p. 414 5. Chapter : Africa, Europe, and the Chinese................ ........... ..p. 429 6. Chapter : Modern Times: Genius and Madness Out of Control p.451 6.1 The First Flight to the Moon.....452 6.2 The Industrial Revolution.....p. 453 6.3 Twilight of the Idols.....p. 454 6.4 KO by AI...: p. 455 6.5 Cyber - War...: p. 457 6.6 Weapons and the Strategy of Madness...: p. 459 6.7 Dante's Inferno...: p. 460 6.8 The Generation of Idiots...: p. 468 Chapter 7 : Brilliant Minds Have Their Say.................. .... ....... p. 469 7.1 Dr. Gerhard Baum - a German politician : “Politicians must reach out to the people”... p. 470 7.2 Dirk Stefens - environmental activist - : “Ignoring environmental destruction would be a crime”... p. 479 7.3 Dr. Eckart von Hirschhausen: “We only have 10 years left to ensure the survival of humanity”... p. 484 7.4 H. Georg Schramm, also known as “Sanftleben” and “Dombrowski”... p. 491 7.5 Dr. Harald Lesch: “Young people are telling the truth ... p. 515 7.6 Dr. Ranga Yogeshwar: “We must create a world that is still worth living in”... p. 519 7.7 Dr. David Precht: “The main thing today is attention, not ideology”... p. 522 7.8 Hannes Jaenicke — actor and environmental activist - : We owe him a little more knowledge about animals... p. 528 7.9 Dr. Mojib Latif: “I waver between hope and apocalypse” ... p. 536 7.10 Dr. Alexander Gerst - Astronaut - : “Shocking sight. Everything that should be green is brown ” ... p. 542 Chapter 8 : Democracy, its God Complex, and the Ugly Truth..... p. 544 8.1 Democracy, a political aberration?... p. 572 8.2: Germany in the year 0 and the good old days... p. 577 Chapter 9 : Xi Jinping. The most powerful man in the world... .... p. 617 9.1 The worst - case scenario is drawing closer... p. 619 9.2 Rainer Meyer z. Felde. What a military alliance between Russia and China would mean for NATO... p. 626 Chapter 10: We always want to know our future. Here it is... .... p. 677 10.1 Welcome to reality... p. 678 10.2 A devastating assessment... p. 683 10.3 And now?... p. 712 10.4 Our children and grandchildren have the floor... p. 719 Epilogue : T he prophecy .................................... .. ...............p. 721 References ................................................... ..... .............p. 722 About the Author. I was born in 1948, a free spirit without prejudice, a swing voter, an agnostic, an optimistic pessimist with a tendency toward satire and even sarcasm, and grateful to belong to the gifted generation that was able to live in peace, freedom, and prosperity . Unfortunately, the next generation will not have this privilege because we have created a political and ecological disaster. My intention was for my book to be authentic, based on facts, and a mirror of the time in which we have lived and live. Quo vadis? How should things proceed, and what else awaits us? Can we still be saved? These are questions that urgently needed answers, as we are standing in a decisive era and the Doomsday Clock is ticking. High - profile personalities of all kinds provided me with the answers. Their opinions and insights were not only inspiring; they were also guid- ing. My numerous original images and photo collages also make a useful contribution to this, because one must see and feel in order to under- stand. Unfortunately some of the images used are shocking, but that is inherent in the nature of the matter. For now, there remains the hope that I have succeeded in raising some awareness and sharpening the view of reality, in the form of interpretive approaches that encourage reflection. 5 Foreword Here: Herbert Gruhl (* October 22, 1921 † June 26, 1993) was a German politician environmentalist, and writer. As an author, he became especially well known through his book published in 1975, "A Planet Is Being Plundered: The Terrifying Consequences of Our Politics". Here his foreword, his introduction, the concluding text, and afterwards his afterword, which remain valid to this day. "We use the Earth as if we were the last generation. Nature will strike back at an unpredictable time and in an unpredictable manner." Rene Dubos 1901 - 1982 "And on prescribed paths the crowd moves through the fields; everyone follows the unfurled banners of lies – sheep nature." Johan Wolfgang Goethe, Faust II 6 Today's Necessities Introduction "Aligning one's own behavior with the natural processes on which we all depend is indeed the crucial point for the future development of humanity." Maurice Strong April 29, 1929 – November 28, 2015 The analysis presented was to be carried out. It had to move away from the popular, superficial clichés often labeled as "pessimism" or "optimism," since these are merely human moods, at best character traits, which are entirely irrelevant in view of the l aws of nature. What matters is only the current situation and its assessment in terms of the remaining possibilities. We attempted to depict a chance for survival, but at the same time we noted that this would likely be too arduous for pampered humans to a ccept. In analyzing the scientific, economic, and political state of today's world, we came across ethical aspects In analyzing the scientific, economic, and political situation of the present world, we did without ethical considerations. By contrast, the path that could lead out of this dilemma can no longer be found without higher values. It is clear to see: When we, in concluding our painful assessment, call for a new ethical orientation of humanity, at least its most active and aggressive part, we must start from the fact that never before have the moral and ethical values of contemporaries been so far removed from the objective demands of their era as they are today. 7 The acquisition of new values to replace mindless materialism is the task of every individual and of the state. Who else should undertake this task institutionally, given that the state controls all schools and educational institutions? Unfortunately, th e prevailing trend of recent decades has been that education has served only to provide the economy with the most knowledgeable, but value - neutral, workforce, programmed to do nothing other than increase production. Ethos sets the goals and the values to be defended. A defense of purely material values has never lasted. The materialist will always defect to the stronger side. And in this respect, the stronger side will be the Soviet Union, because it already posse sses by far the most material resources. Therefore, anyone who is not prepared to fight for freedom of thought and belief, freedom of expression and artistic activity, for the preservation of privacy and the freedom to shape their own life — in short, for an y ideal value — should avoid the conflict altogether. Perhaps Marxism is being kept alive in the East simply so that the people can at least be offered some ideological value after religion has been thoroughly suppressed. The last "religion" of humanity, emb raced by both capitalists and communists alike, was the belief in material progress. We are currently witnessing, based on hard facts, the dissolution of this belief and its reduction to nothing. The disenchantment of material values will undoubtedly be followed by the disenchantment of all exploiters on this earth. 8 This gives rise to a new social ethic. It is impossible to completely redesign this ethic and the resulting practical social policy in just a few pages. What is certain, however, is that people's material possessions will vary at a lower level and within a significantly narrower range than is the case today. Everyone will still be asking for the most convenient economic and technological solution. But who can offer a "solution" once the damage is done? The Tower of Babel has reached a dizzying height. Now it is creaking everywhere; the first cracks are already clearly visible. Inspection reveals that the foundations are not solid, indeed, that they were never even calculated. There was never an architect who designed and planned the entire structure beforehand. (Because this was known, it was simply claimed tha t the tower "grew up".) Thousands and millions of specialists, each working independently, have simply added to it again and again. The general confusion of languages — as described in the Bible — has long since set in; the various experts each have their own specialized jargon. They haven't understood each other for a long time, which doesn't stop them from continuing to build, each according to their own whims and tastes. Who is supposed to find a solution now? There are only two "solutions": Solution 1: Wait until the current Tower of Babel collapses. However, it will then bury at least 2 billion people beneath it. (!) Solution 2: Attempt to carefully dismantle the highest towers and floors to reduce the initial strain. Perhaps then something can be done about the foundations. 9 How little prospect this second solution offers has surely become sufficiently clear. For humanity, in almost all nations, still prefers to keep pushing the tower ever higher. It must first become utterly clear that the current policy of success is the sur est path to catastrophe. (!) So far, little has been revealed about the results of so - called "peace research." However, it could have reached at least one conclusion very quickly: that wars approach all the faster the more people demand ever more resources from the same Earth. In this respect, all "growth fanatics" are, by definition, "warmongers." There is a physical law at work here. One only needs to consider the laws of energy. The higher the temperature (= standard of living) is to be maintained under all circumstances, the more f uel must be procured, since a correspondingly large amount is constantly being consumed. Those who are content with a lower temperature from the outset consume less fuel. To ensure its supply, they only have to resort to extreme measures much later. Conseq uently, growth fetishists are the worst harbingers of doom in today's world. They want to further increase the temperature, which is already unsustainable at its current level. This is nothing other than a further extension of the deadline, literally trans lated as the death line, which will inevitably have to be abandoned all the sooner, and the state of emergency will begin. Therefore, the nations that continue to follow growth fetishism will be the first to suddenly find themselves in catastrophe, unless they are determined to kill others, that is, to wage wars of extermination. 10 It may be, and it is even likely, that the problems are unsolvable. But must all our mental and physical energies be devoted to hastening the catastrophe and making everything even more fruitful? And isn't it a crime to recommend precisely this path to the ir own downfall to unenlightened peoples as the absolute pinnacle of human achievement? That humans invented thought might have been unproblematic as long as they didn't translate the results of their thinking into reality through labor. Only since they employed labor power multiplied by technological energy have they been able to construct a second, artificial world through their own actions. This world turned out so well for the sorcerer's apprentices that they couldn't expand it fast enough. To this end, they exploited the millions of years of the past ever more frantically, thereby simulta neously emptying the future. Five enormous, illicit preemptions of the future have been made in recent decades: 1. Preempting energy and raw material reserves. 2. The depletion of our knowledge base in favor of the present. 3. The environmental destruction we have already inflicted, which we are now passing on to future generations. 4. Economic inflation: Buy today, everything will be more expensive tomorrow. 5. The empty political promises whose fulfillment is still being held out. 11 These five points contain the entire extensive arsenal of weapons that led to "total success" and instilled a diabolical arrogance in humankind. Humanity must free itself from the ludicrous notion that this universe is an event for its own sake. Or, as Carl Amery puts it: "Theologically speaking, we must aim for this ultimate kenosis, this ultimate self - alienation; for the alienation from the guara nteed future. Only by losing it will we gain it; only by acting as if it did not exist will it — perhaps — fall upon us." That is to say: Only by letting go of expectations can we expect a — modest — future. Nature, in all its laws, is frugal. It rations. It cannot afford short - term waste, because that would be its downfall. Johann Stuart Mill speaks exaggeratedly of the squalor of nature, of its "incomprehensibly filthy avarice." This is wrong. Nature, while not as boundless as humankind, is nevertheless v ery reliable. Sunlight falls upon us with unchanging intensity and will likely continue to shine for billions of years. Annual harvests fluctuate, sometimes bountiful, but living beings can always count on a certain yield. Yet humankind arrogantly dictates what it is allowed to take. (!) Its attempt to take responsibility and regulate the world has failed because it has constructed a system outside of nature. The entire artificial production cycle lacks a (permanent) foundation. 12 When Schumacher sums this up with the phrase, "the production problem is not solved," it is an extremely understated description of a fatal miscalculation. The human - made substitute world essentially lacks everything necessary for long - term sustainability. A comparison illustrates this. 1. Natural Control Loop Endless solar world. Essentially self - regulating and organic. Low energy consumption. Utilization of all waste. Perpetual scarcity. Local supply. Scattered settlements with alternative options. Manageable economy. Craftsmanship. Holistic view. Individual demise. 2. Artificial Production Loop Short - term substitute world dictated by "nature." Predominantly inorganic without control. Enormous expenditure of energy and raw materials. Environmentally damaging waste. Temporary abundance. Long - distance supply. Concentrated settlements without alternative options. Anonymous economy controlled by paper (including money). Fragmented work processes. Expert chaos. Total demise. Humanity's attempt to control things will only succeed if it acts in full accordance with the laws of nature . (!) This is the condition for survival. "We must integrate our thinking, production, and actions back into the immutable order of the natural world, upon which our continued existence depends." 13 This by no means implies a return to nature in the sense of romantic or revolutionary apostles. However, we must renounce any so - called progress that damages or destroys our inherent, non - renewable conditions for existence or those of our descendants. Ther efore, there can only be progress in harmony with nature, and certainly not progress directed against it. This also means that we must refrain from interventions wherever we lack certainty about the consequences. (!) Gerhart Helmut Schwabe further states: “Only reverence for life as a whole can change our attitude towards non - human existence in such a way that a dignified continuation of human life becomes possible again; for only reverence can still set limits to available power. If the forest is to be fel led or cleared for some progressive or profitable enterprise, and if it were no longer merely on the map but also in the conscience of the planners, then, and only then, would they have to take its reality seriously. The ethics oriented towards our fellow human beings and the environment, which no longer or not yet exists, is the only proven guidepost wherever reason fails. The necessary environmental conscience is at the same time the conscience before posterity.” However, humankind has already so thoroughly disrupted the planet that it is probably no longer capable of restoring it to its former state. The main point is that he must abandon his freebooting methods, whether he calls them a market economy or a planned economy. That nations will very soon have to ration their goods is as certain as two times two equals four. Whether they do so sooner or later depends on the degree of their sense of responsibility. 14 Not just a sense of responsibility towards future generations, but a sense of responsibility towards the children already living today. Afterword: I spent five years working on the conception and writing of this account. During that time, events developed ever more rapidly in the direction I feared. An earlier publication date would therefore have been desirable. However, thoroughness could not be sa crificed for the sake of immediacy. The present theoretical justification for why humanity's current way of managing this planet cannot be sustained appears now at a time when uncertainty has already reached alarming proportions and this economic system is already faltering. Thus, some point s actually no longer needed to be proven. Nevertheless, I have left some formulations as they were written one or two years ago. The reader will discover the irony for themselves. This irony arises when the euphoria that prevailed then is confronted with t he disillusionment that has since set in. Never before in world history has the dilemma we all now face been so great. E. F. Schumacher stated in his 1972 book: "Anyone working in business today who keeps their eyes and ears open finds themselves in an unusually difficult and confusing situation." 15 For him, thought and action have lost their unity; he leads a double life, and his thoughts have a double meaning. In his office, from nine in the morning until five at night, five days a week, he thinks and acts based on certain assumptions that are compl etely different from, indeed diametrically opposed to, the assumptions that confront him when he comes home in the evening, reads newspapers and magazines, turns on the television, or consumes the books he's currently reading most. The problems he grapples with from nine to five relate to the same issues as those he encounters after business hours, but otherwise have little in common. The vocabulary is different, the diagnosis is different, and the objectives and future prospects are different. From nine to five, he fights for growth, expansion, rationalization, job cuts leading to complete automation, and much more, all with the aim and expectation of promoting prosperity, comfort, and happiness. After work, however, he is bombarded with urgent prophecies w arning him of the collapse of civilization, environmental catastrophes, the depletion of natural resources, and similar dangers. From nine to five, he pursues every conceivable method to accelerate the course of development, while in the evenings he can ha rdly avoid addressing every imaginable argument in favor of stabilization, a cessation of growth, in short, a general slowdown. From nine to five, he leaves no stone unturned to multiply his successes; after business hours, he is confronted with analyses s howing that humanity faces its greatest danger not from its failures, but from its successes. (!) 16 And so his life deteriorates day by day. Week after week, in periods filled with tasks and demands that are completely contradictory and irreconcilable. The politician fares even worse. He is condemned to think and do the irreconcilable at every hour of th e day. He rushes from appointment to appointment, tinkering with laws intended to make everyone's life ever more beautiful, safer, and easier. In doing so, he encounters realities that forcefully demonstrate that this is no longer sustainable. Nevertheless , he races from one event to the next, where the audience confidently awaits promises, if not for now, then at least for the period after the next election. Should he tell them the truth and turn their hopeful glances into disappointment? Do they even want to know the truth? And what good would it do if he described the true situation to them? Can he even hope to make himself understood? So he puts on a solemn expression, tries to suppress his own doubts, and, as usual, indulges in matters of great triviali ty. But strangely, even that doesn't quite work anymore in 1975. Or is it because he himself has become insecure? Does he have to worry that a few years later, he might be accused of having had the exact opposite of what he already suspects? For the politi cian, the dilemma is thus even more unbearable than for any other professional, because he cannot claim that there is someone above him who gives him instructions and thinks for him (hopefully correctly). At the same time, he is painstakingly working on im proving laws whose imminent inadequacy he recognizes, and yet he cannot hope to implement even a little of what is truly needed. 17 He sees the chasm between his daily actions and "what he truly does" and has no idea how it could be bridged. Indeed, he doesn't even know if it can be bridged at all. Meanwhile, he is driven by the clock from one obligation to the next, crushed between th e pressure to conform and a sense of duty. However, it is urgently necessary to focus on what is essential in order to at least mentally bridge the gap. That is to say, a holistic perspective must be taken; nothing is more urgent than this. (!) There is only one choice: either close one's eyes or t ake the risk and endure the hostility of a conformist environment. I am taking a holistic perspective and already know what accusations will come from the "experts": My expertise in field x was insufficient, have I never even heard of y, that z needs to be investigated much more thoroughly, and that my approach is methodo logically questionable in the first place. I return the accusations by accusing all these clever people of being one - sided. I even accuse them of being irresponsible. Because while they talk like this, action is being taken nonstop all over the world. And on a scale never before seen in world histo ry. Fascists are being created, which in turn have inevitable consequences. People are continually overwhelmed by countless developments that no one has considered, until one day they perish under the consequences of their own thoughtlessness. 18