I wonder what will happen when the world realizes humans are under existential threat well above and beyond that brought upon ourselves by predatory disinterest in our own biosphere’s health and well-being.
Most countries are disproportionately composed of the aging and elderly; in almost every instance, devalued and shunted aside once they become unable to perform at minimally profitably levels to corporations or the tax system.
Meanwhile, women are choosing more and more often not to have children. Not that it’s a visible problem at present; the overpopulation problems occlude it and the biggest hurdle is the most unlikely – that humanity can grow beyond its insistence upon animal territorial behaviors.
The concept of family as a biological unit of father, mother, and children is in death throes; just like the former concept that included grandparents and great-grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins.
(Side-note – I never had these beyond age 5, so my experience and perspective is limited. Fortunately, the studies speak better and louder for those interested in hearing.)
Instead of growing beyond family into community and global collaboration, we fracture into the discrete unit called ‘individual’ as we scramble for livable wages, food, shelter, and some sense of safety within an increasingly unstable world.
These are not issues that affect one set of people, they affect all of us. As will become clear with time, it has never been any different. It has always affected all of us; the time for selective blindness to the reality of who and what we are must end.
These issues are not externally initiated, they are part and parcel of humanity… us.
As their medical and scientific causes just begin to become visible, it will surely be generations before the information is in any manner ‘common knowledge’ and I am no longer certain there are generations remaining to wait.
It is time to accept the factual reality in which we live as humans, homo sapiens sapiens:
- We are not highly evolved.
- We are not unique, merely divergent.
- We are intrinsically bound to this planet and its fate;
a. bound by biology to the planet,
b. bound by inter-dependency with the planet,
c. bound by necessity to assure continuation of human life… the goal of all living things of this planet. - We cannot continue without immediate action to end depletion of the planet’s resources.
- We cannot continue without ending biospheric interference without understanding of long-term outcomes.
- We cannot continue without completely rethinking the living systems created by humanity and restructuring them to align with planetary needs that are requisite for human life continuance.
- We cannot continue without an immediate imperative as a species toward these ends.
In a world where humans would rather argue over political affiliation, plausible deniability, and the various forms of tribalism and tournament behaviors across the globe, it seems a delusion to write this as I look at the state of this humanity and what we have done to this world.
It seems there are so many examples in nature that we learn from in the arts, in the material sciences, throughout the humanities. Why then are we so unable to approach this looming threat that affects and impacts all of us?
I wish words were magic, but then again, I do not. Most people do not consider the long-term impact of their words; in their own heads or in others. Just part of our dopamine sex machine? I no longer think that is true.
Rather, our evolution follows our own behaviors and habits, just as with any other species. Which means in an ironic and visceral way, if our long-term choices are not sustainable, our short-term outcomes will deteriorate and, eventually, fail.
No news here; medicine, psychology, countless philosophers, and physicists have said as much, written as much. But, as a species, we have repeatedly elected into short-term gain at long-term loss and we show no real interest in choosing otherwise.
Not even in the face of a growing global collapse of both our systems and our biosphere, clearly indicating the wholesale impotence of us to direct our own fate.
Not even in the face of population crash in progress.
History informs us that humans have survived a number of potentially existential occurrences on this planet. But none of them were instances of species-induced existential threat within the biosphere itself.
I truly fear for humanity’s future. I wish I could be more, do more. But words are all I have these days… my hope is they will resonate with those who read and have better circumstance and potential than myself.
You know, the young and those to come.