It now seems clear to me that we are moving towards one of two futures: annihilation as a species or complete metamorphosis into another type of being. (These may, in the end, be the same thing thing.)
1. Annihilation: we simply poison ourselves through our introduction of toxicities (this includes climate change); or blow ourselves up with our continued push towards dichotomies protected by armaments.
2. Mechanical Metamorphosis: we become our machines by simply allowing our minds to be influenced and infiltrated by the medium of transmission--we are only receptors; or to save our "kind" we MUST build ourselves new bodies to survive the results of number one above.
Now, we all know this is nothing new (though it is a revelation), but don't we continue to encourage this trajectory at every turn? We believe in the self-fulfilling prophecies...our very literature creates us and creates our demise. We have our ingrained prophetic texts detailing our ending in fire...how do we write another story at this late date?
Our very planet provides a means to halt this...for those with eyes and ears to see and hear--read the seasons, the stars; listen to the streams and trees. To do this we must step off the pavement and step out of our cars.
Resist the mirror of your own mind--YOU are not the ultimate in BEING--this is the hubris that brings the mighty to dust.
We have constructed the means to destroy life--we further that conclusion daily.
This was a really interesting post, sorry I missed it!
ReplyDeleteWe have slowly, or not so slowly, moved farther and farther away from what I would consider to be a natural order of existence. How incredibly childish to wait for a backlash from the planet to stop our destructive ways. But what else are we waiting for?
How long have humans been forecasing a bleak, metallic wasteland of a human future? What did religious texts other than the bible forsee?
Is it too difficult for us to accept as a collective species that we are to blame? Doesn't this idea, that we ARE responsible for getting ourselves to this point, call into question absolutely everything about our human existence?
By writing this doom-filled comment am I just continuing to fulfill the prophecy? "I can't do anything about this because no one else is." Is this what we're all saying?
This is a hard situation because every little bit of every little decision is fraught with an economic primacy. We cannot make changes as needed because we are economically complacent in our ruling spheres and simply unaware or uncaring in our populations. Those who can and should care (wealthy nations) have governments who DON'T care or expect "science" to fix it or only think in gradual change that won't rock an economic boat; those who can't change it can't care--they don't have water or shelter; they are killed by aggressive foreign powers.
ReplyDeleteThe beauty of religious tales is that there is an ending that leads to another beginning...ie, this planet, like humankind, is mortal...and in this religious idea, we go on and don't need to care about the planet. It informs one's decisions.
Also, there is, as in Frank Kermode's book, "a sense of an ending" that compels us towards closing the tale. All stories begin and end as all creatures do.