Maybe we should start approaching life with our two magic words always in mind.
Use the textbook definitions of every root and derivative faithfully. Follow them as best as you can. After all, it is where you live.
Why wouldn’t you actually apply the self-explained laws of your environment?
Think about it. Imagine living second to second, minute to minute, hour to hour, day to day on your own accord. You can live your life trusting in the natural plan unknown to you. There are no positive or negative outcomes - only outcomes.
Mother Nature is the conductor of this human orchestra, and she will eat your motherfucking lunch.
It sounds like common sense, but there are so many people out there who think these rules don't apply to them.
These people are sleeping through a spiritual awakening, and totally missing the fact that we've defied the unwritten laws of nature and the universe for too long, turning this place into a cesspool, and it's time to pay the fiddler.
But I digress...
How could I just throw the book at humans like that?
There is a possibility that our unnatural human footprints draw no direct connection to Earth's gloomy changes (i.e. global warming).
Our own unnatural actions could only serve as a stark reflection of a dying planet. We could just be symptoms! We are the flared up herpes jumping off the face of Earth. How does that grab ya?
Perhaps we can be considered actors as well? Was Shakespeare right all along? Was it always the world’s stage, and are we merely playing the third act?
Well to say the least, these actions come at no surprise. The bequests of our ancestors resonate throughout time. As we all know from studying our ancestry, history tends to repeat itself. Over the course of time, empires rise and fall. There are many facts and opinions written in academic texts supporting several different theories for their decline - and I think they're all right. You don't have to qualify as a historian to know and understand these reasons. You only need be wary of the main idea, which this piece simply provides for you: Unnatural conduct is unsustainable.
Joseph Tainter alludes to this unsustainability in his book "The Collapse of Complex Societies." Tainter basically states that ancient civilizations drowned in their own social, political, and scientific complexities. These complexities continually grew until supply fell short of demand, and large groups of people found themselves in a tangled web wove by the human drive for more territory, food, water, energy, information, and technology. In other words, every well appeared to run dry because the simple notion of that hole in the Earth paved the way for other projects, such as channels, aqueducts, dams, sewers, and all sorts of irrigation systems from a rope and bucket to a hose and sprinkler. Get it?
In any historical context, our way of life has always been counterproductive. Our human progress slowly degrades nature with each passing day. This is the ultimate lesson only taught by the ultimate experience.
Keeping the wall theory in mind, we should be able to make sense of this suicidal behavior. We should be able to look at every worldly crisis saying, "C'mon, what did we really expect?" I mean every thing. Peak oil, global warming, economic downturn, etcetera are all unnatural products of unnatural acts.
At least I have the fortitude to say this. Our highest human authorities on matters of right and wrong can't even muster up the courage. They dub things like stem cell research and cloning as too "unpredictable."
Unpredictable?
Are you kidding me?
I guess that the majority of us aren’t "blessed" with thinking in terms of longevity. As long as there are no immediate or close to immediate repercussions, we basically don't give a hoot.
It's like trying to comprehend infinity. Stop and try to think about infinity. Dare yourself to fathom how far infinity goes. Where does it start and end? Our little minds just shut down, and usually deem it, um, shall we say unpredictable?
If nothing is immediately wrong, we just blow it off.
We simply can not comprehend outcomes because the actual weight of an outcome always conflicts with our present limited perception - similar to tossing trash out of a vehicle while driving.
Almost every driver has carefully checked to see who's around before thinking about innocently chucking an empty coffee cup, water bottle, candy wrapper, or cigarette box out of their window. For each one of us, justifying this act is easy, but it's only easy because there are no short-term consequences. "So what?” and “Who cares?" make up the bulk of the typically ignorant responses. The prisoners will pick it up, right?
Well, what about the garbage crisis in Italy? What about the massive plastic island floating in the Pacific Ocean? Each piece of trash carries a so-called innocent story, which climaxes years later into an epically guilty tale.
Only time can truly expose the deteriorating fabric of civilization.
We’re just beginning to witness all of history’s unnatural ideas fall through. We’re seeing the grim results of great ideas for short-term progress, like mass transportation, vaccines, and pesticides (just to name a few). Seriously folks, take a look at your local infrastructure. I dare you to drive 5 miles without seeing ANY bright orange signs for road construction or bridge repairs.
This begs some questions though – were we just not thinking things through? Did common sense only compromise seedy goals?
Well, ignorance is bliss afterall.
Hey, I’ve hid myself from reality just as much as anyone reading this. Every failed relationship recorded in my past is based on this concept.
Overly optimistic eyes believe whatever they want at first. For instance, in high school I knew certain girls weren’t right for me, but damn, some were so beautiful that all they had to do was give me the time of day. Once that uplifting, fuzzy feeling permeated throughout my entire body, I gained the biggest bullshit perception of that girl’s character. The truth was I never even saw past her eye-liner.
I must add that compounding the situation with false hope is even worse. Especially when I think that I might have a shot at actually making things work because my situation is so special and different from everyone else. Even when I know she’s been mounted more times than the Royal Canadian Police, I can still wholeheartedly believe that she’s my soul mate.
Human beings have a really hard time surrendering to the truth for all sorts of reasons, and if love can fool you, pretty much anything can.
Again, it is all because we hardly ever see or accept shit for what it truly is.
This type of thinking is one of the biggest reasons for our current predicament. Why shouldn't you be worried though? Well, maybe we were supposed to travel down this ungodly path. After all, we wouldn’t know how to succeed unless we really understood what it takes to fail. They say experience is the toughest teacher – in our case, nature administers the test, and after, she gives the lesson.
I think we need to wake up and smell the fresh cup of collective failure. We need to just play the hand we’re dealt. Face it - You can't reshuffle the deck, or ask for a mulligan. You can't divorce your destiny and marry a new one.
In the words of a cackling Joker played by the late, great Heath Ledger, “It’s all part of the plan.”
Don't pit yourself against nature. Be a part of it.
Mind your surroundings. Stop and observe your current existence.
Ask questions like, “Why are city people generally defensive and unfriendly?” It wouldn’t have anything to do with being enclosed by walls of concrete and artificial floors of gravel, would it? Very few signs of nature exist in cities; therefore, there are usually no familiar signs of life. Another commonsensical question – “Why is it better to consume fruits, veggies, and water over fast food, cookies, and soda?”
You don’t even need to consult a nutritionist to know how to take proper care of yourself. As long as you can distinguish natural from unnatural, you’ll usually be better than great.
Recognize our current dissension against the natural world. Realize what it takes to live harmoniously with our environment. Understand the grave difference between waking up to the sound of the wind and waking up to the sound of an alarm clock.
Stop seeing life brick by brick, and start looking at the entire wall.
But don't be too hard on yourself now. Everyone is guilty of raping nature, but, fuck man, we really didn’t know any better. As I alluded to earlier, being human entails that we were all born to eat the apple, and then, once finished, bulldoze the entire garden for profit.
BUT, can human beings somehow flip the script?
It’s a hard pill to swallow, but the quality of life has been eclipsed by commerce - everything from Wal Mart to government.
These institutions are too strong to be challenged. People who sit in positions of inscrutable power will never relinquish their lifestyles or reputations to refurbish balance. Unfortunately, the people representing these institutions have their own delusions of what’s good and bad for us - like when Mickey Knox tries to explain to Wayne Gale that there are people out there who can kill forests and pawn the idea off as industry, not murder. Similar to Colonel Jessep from A Few Good Men. Some people can seriously justify killing Pvt. Santiago. These people think we need them more than they need us. They think we need them on that wall.
Oddly enough, they're right. We really do need these fucked up people with fucked up perspectives.
Wait, what!?
Well, it's all apart of life. We need evil to complement good.
Just as up complements down, left complements right, and hot complements cold.Every aspect of our existence is ying and yang. There wouldn’t be night if it wasn’t for day – no men without women, no jocks without nerds, and not even a Batman without a Joker.
This is the most important lesson life has to offer. If society desires prestigious schools by means of straight-A students with promising futures, then there are going to be hard times at places like Frederick Douglass High School. The ONLY reason for a person achieving something is because someone else is failing. The only reason for people being economically poor is due the existence of economic wealth. Hence, the only REAL way to eliminate poverty is to eliminate prosperity.
What a lesson, huh? We just can’t have one without the other.
That’s the beautiful (or hideous?) coin of life. It always has two sides, and you can’t shrink or expand one side without directly affecting the other side somehow.
Someone needs to relay this message to the people who are cryogenically freezing themselves, so future science and technology can bail them out of their death sentences. They need to be reminded of the other side of that coin; that preventing or stopping death means preventing or stopping birth. If we uncover the ultimate life, we also unearth the ultimate death as a direct result to same extent. Get it?It’s really the toughest conclusion for any human to reach. If you asked every person in the world to offer a reason for death, you’re likely to hear every palpable response humans beings are conscious of - like war, heart attacks, car accidents, cancers, and O.J.; but you probably wouldn’t hear the most obvious reason of all - birth.
Who really wants to admit that love is only possible through hate, and hate made only possible through love?
Who wants to tell the world that the only real way to love and accept each other is through hating and condemning?
Ugh, the truth - the ultimate balance. It lifts you up when you're down, and down when you're up.
That’s the bittersweet coin of life.
2 comments:
Great post. But no resolution offered :( to the looming aspects today.
thanks. and i know. i know...
Post a Comment