OUT OF TOUCH

 

OUT OF TOUCH

 

As a writer, a student of history and philosophy, I have written numerous articles and books about our role on this planet.  I do admit that many of my observations have not been flattering where it concerns us; humanity, Homo sapiens.  I’m not the only one concerned about where we are headed as a species, but there is a perplexing conformity amongst ourselves, a stubborn reluctance and refusal, to change course and revert back to less invasive and destructive lifestyles.  We talk a lot, high-level discourse and debates, lofty agreements and promises, but reality shows exactly the opposite.  Every year we’re falling further and further behind in promised fixes, carbon reductions and less waste.  There is no resolve, no concrete action.  We have fallen victim to progress, to our addiction to artifice.  Our emphasis has been on growth, on profits, on accumulating things. 

Billions of years of evolution, of changes and planetary upheaval and extinctions, and yet diversity came back time and time again.  The natural world flourishing again for millions and millions of years!  The best way to explain the marvel of diversity is with a simple food analogy.  You can’t subsist on grains alone, even if as a crop it is incredibly versatile and efficient.  We require variety and so does nature.  Once in a while we should simply stop and observe the marvel that is nature.  Observe and recognize why diversity is not only necessary, it is crucial for life in general to flourish and prosper.  And yet, we have taken a sledge hammer approach to this planet and we’re still not heeding the wake-up call.  We’ll be done in by our own stupidity and greed.

In the natural world everything is constantly recycled, broken down into organic matter and renewed, natural and efficient.  There is no excess waste and everything is restored.  There is no artifice, no radical changes or upheaval.  Within the scheme of evolution it was perhaps inevitable that sooner or later a species would emerge with a slightly higher level of intelligence.  I refuse to attach the word superior when I take in consideration the incredible amount of damage we have inflicted upon the planet and ourselves.  We have used our hubris to excuse our actions.  In my novella Energy & Origin I have explained how life is about energy and momentum and how species use energy to advance.  The instinct to reign supreme, to be superior, is an evolutionary motivator that is a constant in all species.  We can’t change what we have turned into.  And yet I will continue my pleas for change, to at least recognize that life deserves a chance, and I am not talking about us, but about the threatened diversity around us that has no voice.  We share the planet with millions of diverse lifeforms, from tiny to gigantic, from ordinary to impressive, from scary looking to majestic.  For billions of years nature survived quite nicely and within a few millennia humans have upset the applecart.  What we have done in damage can only be described as stupendous and irresponsible.  I picked one species to highlight their plight.  Number one because we’re closely related and number two because they were bright enough to stay in the jungle, a jungle we left behind in exchange for a life as uprights.  His message is simple:

You can’t go back to the jungle and my jungle is getting smaller and smaller.  I don’t think that is fair, but I don’t get to decide.  You do!

Look at their world and then at what we have done to ours and please, don’t call it progress.  We attack the natural world with a vengeance and change its very composition.  Leaching into the water table are chemicals and materials that are foreign to the soil, destructive and poisonous.  Pollution is pervasive and permanent.  The evidence of neglect and abandonment are visible all around us.  Millions of items are left to rot, some of which don’t deteriorate at all or only very slowly.  Nobody monitors what all this garbage does to our health or how it may impact us in the future.

We overwhelm nature and in many cases totally destroy it.  Under our atrocious stewardship—a word we shouldn’t even apply to ourselves—nature doesn’t get a chance to renew and restore itself.  Everywhere where people settle down nature is abandoned like a wounded and rotting carcass.  Nature disappears.  We have reached a stage in our cycle of planetary destruction where our excuses increasingly sound pathetic and our clean-up efforts are a joke.

We have no real desire to change, to clean up our act and to live more responsibly, in harmony with nature, blending in, rather than overwhelming it.  We have become totally addicted to our artificial lifestyles and the process doesn’t include nature or the planet we share.  Let’s face it; we would have to give up so many things.

Our levels of artifice—all the things we have become accustomed to and which we must have—tie us down to where we live.  The impact of providing for a human population is coming home to roost with an alarming reality.  Billions of people have fallen behind in the race for plenty and affluence.  Personally I have a hard time defining affluence.  For many it is things and that could be anything.  As a result of our burgeoning human population we have increased the size of buildings, the number of roads, storing people and products as effectively as we can, packing them in like sardines in a can.  The demands that increased artifice has placed on us and societies has come at a cost, a physical cost and impact, as well as a psychological impact.

Food, fuel, maintenance, replacement costs and repairs, all extract a physical and financial toll.  In the process of progress and continual expansion we have also created a vicious circle of dependency and as individuals we mean less and less.  Within the vastness of the masses, within complex layers of expected compliance and conformity to keep societies functioning, the individual vanishes and there is no real room for individual growth, meaning and personal satisfaction.

                                                    Can you see me?

                                                    Do I even matter?

We have minimized the average human role, contribution and a sense of belonging and the backlash is an increased level of irresponsible, regressive behaviors.  Anything from outright rebellion to a disheartening level of apathy.  Our large numbers are now working against us.  Our levels of needs defy the ability to meet those needs adequately.  Our planet can only support so much and we are past the point of no return.  Right across the planet our ornery, disgruntled attitudes, are stripping us of our humanity.

Within the vastness of the masses we no longer stand out and as individuals we disappear, no longer connected, recognized, valued or appreciated.  Although our intelligence gave us a leg up initially, it no longer does.  Our species has become a liability, not an asset. 

              Too many people, too many voices and nobody is listening.

As a writer, a student of philosophy and history, I do have an obligation to chronicle the human journey as objectively as I can.  My motivation is life itself.  Despite the ups and downs and baffling inconsistencies, life is a miracle.  This is it!  There is no planet B.  I don’t believe in divinity or that our emergence as a species was ordained by whatever.  We can’t continue with impudence.  Those other critters, they depend on us and I will continue to speak up for them.  And so should you!

We love to monkey around, don’t we?

See you in 2025

You can purchase my novel Energy & Origin by W.A.M. Bes on Amazon.ca

All articles on my blog are from Earthbound & Incoming, volume 1, 2, 3