Explore questions as community
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Editor,
A funny thing happened on the way to my daily computer news forums. Two articles appeared which spoke volumes about human annihilation.
One was “Shielding a Flickering Flame” by Chris Hedges, the other “The United States of Fear” by Tom Engelhardt. Both of these men are bright and thoughtful authors with their own websites.
Here’s the first paragraph of Hedge’s article: “At the U.N. Climate Talks in Warsaw and the folly of the human race with its perhaps unconscious lust for self-annihilation, it is easy to succumb to despair. The world’s elite, it is painfully clear, will do little to halt the accelerating destruction of the ecosystem and eventually the human species. We have, through our ingenuity and hubris, unleashed the next great mass extinction on the planet. And I suspect the reason we have never discovered signs of intelligent life elsewhere in the universe is because extraterrestrial societies that achieved similar levels of technological development also destroyed themselves. There are probably more wreckages of advanced civilizations, caused by poisoned ecosystems, floating through the universe than we imagine.”
Engelhardt’s article was outlining the same general theme concerning our very strange human impulses to set up conditions that raise great concern about our very survival.
Here are the questions I feel I need to ask myself after reading these articles: What is this all about? Climate changes aside, how about just our war mentality? What really motivates me as a human being? From what and from whom do I receive inspiration for living my life? How do I feel about change? And collectively, in living our lives today, what wisdom are we adults demonstrating to our next generations of humans?
I believe that our society would gain much by having the courage, the will, and the “forums” for exploring such questions together. We can do this in family gatherings, church groups, organizational settings, or anywhere in our communities. We just need to do it. This would be transformation from the ground up.
Bob McClellan
Polson
