The human race is doomed. But it has nothing to do with nuclear proliferation, famine, disease, or even overpopulation. No, the human race is destined for damnation because of its development of technology and its egotism.
Technology has been in effect ever since Neanderthals picked up rock with the thought of creating something new. The rock turned into a hunting tool. Time elapsed without further progress. These people were hunter-gatherers, taking from the land only what they needed, killing animals only for food. Communities grew and people lived peacefully within their tribes, content with their lives. Living harmoniously with nature. Treating the Earth as the Earth treated them-kindly and gently. But man was not satisfied. The land had to be conquered. So came the agricultural revolution. Water powered mills to grind grain, plows to help clear the land, and animals used to increase strength and production. The land was constantly cultivated over and over until it would reap no more grain, entirely bare. So came the industrial revolution. Edison invented the light bulb, Whitney the cotton gin, Watts improved the steam engine. Steam replaced water and the factory system developed. It became an assembly line; separate parts were merely attached together to make a more important whole. Cities grew. All labor was needed in the textile mills, mines, and other factories. Industrialists hired children and women. People began to work longer hours under horrible conditions with low wages. Poverty settled in permanently. Now agriculture was still important because it was needed to reap raw materials, natural resources for the production of goods. So now man was uprooting both nature and the lives of good people. But there would be no way to turn back. Next, with expansion, there is the need to create a railroad. So more workers, more horrid conditions and labor. People became disfigured from such conditions. Iron and steel and oil later develop. Fewer wealthy people, more poor people. The development of technology has taken a physical toll on both the land and people. Which brings us to today. Credit cards, the Internet, and daily scientific discoveries are made to make things in life "easier" for people. But fossil fuels are running dangerously low, and the discoveries are making people physically lazy. Technology has destroyed human constitution in that at first it was due to harshness, and today it is due to laxity. Instead of worrying about malnutrition and disfiguration, people worry about heart disease, obesity, and artery clogging. Technology has gone from bad to worse.
Human egotism stems from the day people turned away from hunting-gathering. Hunting-gathering was a system that worked. Animals were plentiful, humans had a balanced diet, and the land had time to regenerate resources. Then humans began domesticating animals. Cows were bred for milk and meat, chickens for eggs and meat. This led to the idea of hunting as a sport. People would kill elephants for only their tusks, rhinos for only their tusks, bears and tigers for their furs. Animals were no longer merely a different species living symbiotically with humans. They were now inferior creatures because they didn't have the capacity to think like humans. Slaughterhouses were designed, rubber and glue houses created. If the human race needed something from an animal, that animal would be dead in an instant. Now animals are only important to humans because of specific parts. Even vegetables are designed to only fit the needs of humans. They are genetically engineered these days for the sole purpose of supplying humans. This selfishness and belief that humans are the center of the Earth and everything revolves around them has created endangered species, depletion in natural resources, starvation, and overpopulation. It's physically destroying the Earth as each day progresses.
But the human race is not merely doomed in a physical sense. As people know, life isn't just about material objects, or so called "superficial" items. It's about happiness, liberty, and just living a full life. Thus, even if the human race is physically doomed because of the limited resources left on the planet, if they're ignorant about it, then it doesn't matter, right? Wrong. Technology and egotism have created a society of people who are unsure of what their purpose in life is. Hunter-gatherers had a purpose. They're goal was to provide for the community and family, and live a good life. Technology and egotism have created a society where people only care for themselves, and yet are still unsure of who they are. It's a life of spiritual dissolution.
To begin, let us examine technology. In this day and age, people need not move from their seat in order to purchase goods or even perform a job. Computers have created a trend of laziness and lethargy in people so much that even simple tasks have now become monumental. The Internet has allowed people to consider purchasing CD's from the store as a chore. Now all they have to do is go to Amazon.com and purchase the item, and receive it in the mail. The simple job of leaving the house is burdensome. In the work force, people used to have to move all the time for jobs. For example, the pharmacy in a certain hospital. Technicians would have to run up to the different floors of the hospitals and take med orders and deliver them back and forth. But with the creation of ordering meds through a universal network called Pyxis, and a tubing system that delivers the meds to the floors, there really isn't much for a tech to do these days except watch football, listen to music, and occasionally do some crediting on the computer and make the occasional IV. Yet, with this minimal amount of work, when asked to perform a task, techs are still reluctant to perform the job because making one IV per day seems to already be enough. Technology has made people avoid a hard day's work, and it is creating a society of spoiled rotten people who take everything for granted. Such people are superficial and do not know what they want out of life because everything has already been served to them on a silver platter. They are not accustomed to the grime under the fingernails, to the sweat on their foreheads. Society is encouraging more dissolution with each new invention to "better" life.
The bottom line is that humans don't care at all about anything other than themselves. And no matter how hard people may deny this, it is engrained in their lifestyles. For instance, when one sees a fat person walking along the road. I'm sure that everyone has heard someone call a fat person Shamu. Now let us look at this statement closer. Shamu is a killer whale. Killer whales are big, but with all the tricks that Shamu is able to pull, Shamu must be incredibly fit for a whale. Yet, because Shamu is larger than a person in size, people think of Shamu as a symbol of fat, whereas it is actually quite thin in comparison to other whales. This demonstrates man's thinking that everything in the world is based upon man's perceptions. The world is not looked at in the bigger picture, but merely the small window in which man looks through. This creates an apathetic society. A society that says "who cares about how the world will end up in a million years," just because they won't be there. A society that doesn't care about whether the pandas are becoming extinct because they like the furs. A society that is oblivious to anything outside their realm. And this in turn becomes individuals who are looking out only for themselves and who miss the clear point that without other people, they would be nothing. They miss the purpose of their lives because they are too caught up in me, me, me. Isn't it a universal truth that it's always better to help others than to help oneself? Don't humans look down upon selfish people?
In many years, the human race is doomed because of Earth's inability to sustain the exponential growth of people and the exponential decline of assets. But the issue is more than just physical shortcomings; it is about the already present spiritual shortcomings. The lack of drive and purpose in people's lives leads to nothing. There is so much apathy and dissolution in people, but they fail to acknowledge the causes, and they fail to admit the truths. They refuse to change. But humans are better than what they have become. That much was evident when we examine the hunter-gatherers. Those people were able to live pleasantly with nature and they had a purpose in life. Their lives were complete both physically and spiritually. Not a day would go by where they were sick of everything and questioned why they were living. While it may be impossible to revert to that type of fulfillment in living, it is always comforting to think about it. It's like a special movie or book-it gives us a newfound perspective on how to see the world, a perspective that makes it clear to us where the path is heading.
No further comment.
HOME THE ENEMY: HOLE CHILD THE ALLY: PINK FLOYD HUMOR GOOD LITERATURE A LITTLE STORY I MADE UP QUOTE(S) OF THE DAY A BIT ABOUT ME RANDOMNESS PHOTOS LINKS GUESTBOOK CREDITS
