This is the way the world ends, not with a bang but a whimper.
The BP oil spill fiasco makes me want to put my head through a desk. Time for a revolution. Let’s stop big business from literally getting away with murder. Let’s make our government work for us instead of favoring major corporations. Let’s have a planet to live on in 20 years. This is getting out of control, and our apathy is aiding and abetting a grim situation.
I am not prone to a feeling of hopelessness very often, but my cynicism regarding the innate goodness of humanity is on overdrive. There is an acquiescence, an utter disregard for anything but gazing at one’s own navel, a willing and enthusiastic ignorance running rampant like a disease in our society. You really want to be a self-centered fuck-wad? Take care of the earth so you can continue having a privileged existence. As much as I love “Mad Max”, that’s not the type of world in which I care to live. I like the internet, ice cream, and knowing, like, totally for sure that I won’t be stabbed in the neck while I sleep way too much to want to live in a post-apocalyptic world. You think I’m being melodramatic? We aren’t that far-gone yet? Well, maybe not yet, but…
Oil-soaked shore.
Dead Bird Floating in Oil
Let's go swimming!
Welcome to the Thunderdome, bitch.
It’s getting pretty fucking bad, and a lot of it is our fault. Yes, the earth moves in cycles. Yes, we would have experienced an ice-age or epic draught sooner or later as a way of the earth cleansing itself. These things are sure to happen, but we’re prepping a step-ladder to our own demise.
Maybe I’m wrong. Maybe, no matter what we do, we’re screwed because the sun is going to die and take all of us with it. Black holes do seem about as inevitable as an ice age…or those sores coming back…but do you really want to live in a shit-hole until it’s time for us all to go? I mean, just because we’re moving out in a few centuries doesn’t mean we should trash the place.
This is why we can’t have nice things.
July 2nd, 2010 at 9:38 am
I think it’s pretty critical that we, as a culture, begin to A. fully embrace the concept of putting value to the practice of ethics and spirituality beyond organized religion…and look critically at how we establish ethical values. Even with things like facebook. We are dealing with massive technological shifts to our world without having strong structure of how to analyze that on a philosophical level. How do we behave online? What is ethical there? And what are ethical business practices? B.) In a world that is driven by profit, technological advances, industrial advances, decision to drill etc etc etc…those decisions, as far as I can see, are pushed to action far far before anyone has real understanding of the ramification of actions. And the consumer becomes powerless to claim actual need – you MUST have the newest brightest technology now or be left behind culturally. Companies tell you what you need, and put it out before it is ready. And our capacity to effect our environment I believe has far outshot our current capacity to understand the impact of that effect, even if we care about that. And many people haven’t gotten to the point where they even CARE about that. It is frightening and this is the result.
July 2nd, 2010 at 11:44 am
nobody told us that we couldn’t do anything…beyond the walls of what little physics govern our gravity bound existence, this is a lawless universe. there was no “how to be a successful human” handbook. we only have each other. we’re big dumb animals looking for ways to survive. at one point in time, that meant drilling for oil. then it turned into a corporate agenda and eventually THAT became the reason to survive. BP could explode and and disintegrate and nothing would change. The corporate empire could fall and then what? we would be infants yet again. a refreshing and enlightening change of pace perhaps, but something i don’t think we’re ready to deal with. this entire mess makes apparent the fact that we really have NO FUCKING CLUE as to what we’re doing here. there will always be a “better” way to do it…but if we continue as an inherently destructive force of nature, then “better” may in fact mean leaving this planet so we don’t do something even more retarded. of course that’s ONE way to look at it…we could also decide to just get smart and take care of the planet we live on. but will that really happen? i just dont know. i think the worst thing any of us could do is decide that we suddenly have a solution…in the event of exploding suns, or black holes or the tesseract time cube apocalypse, who the hell are we to decide what’s right and wrong?
no, still, we shouldn’t commit ourselves to living on a human perpetuated hell hole. but maybe we deserve that. maybe that was our lesson. maybe that’s why we’re here. i might be completely wrong, but as long as we’re auditioning destinies, WHAT IF that was the point? destroy a planet, figure it out… don’t do it again.
do we really deserve the privilege of sympathy and hope when we clearly don’t give a fuck? maybe we still do…because apparently, there are no rules.
furthermore, do we really deserve ice cream and the internet when we’re obviously too aroused to pull our dicks out of the earth’s crust? what good is this massive array of technology and communication if we can’t figure out how to use it beyond keeping tabs on our ex-boyfriend’s new girlfriend? THIS IS a revolution. we have been in the middle of a revolution for almost 3 decades now, but we’ve been too bored to realize it! so what do we do when we’re bored? we blow shit up. we go to war. we drill for oil. we make movies about aliens and spaceships and superhumans and armageddon and time travel…and still…ultimately, nothing has changed. we’re homesick. i don’t know where home is, but i don’t think it’s here. if it was, we wouldn’t be mindlessly blasting holes into it’s shell with the intention of doing the “right” thing.
August 15th, 2010 at 1:15 am
I reckon Roger Waters got it right with his Amused To Death album. Cynicism and despair is the appropriate response for these times, despite it being optimism and positivity that we need.
I can do my bit – in fact I often do – but it’s a shitload of momentum we need to make a real shift in the global direction. Mostly we have denial or cheap talk.
Great post by the way – it was really well written.