Someone recently asked me if I am optimistic about the future of humanity. Despite dire statistics and the (anecdotal?) knowledge that people care more about maintaining quality of life than about big-context global sustainability*, I still feel that people work best at gunpoint. The worst may not yet have arrived, but neither has the best, and we have to traverse the former for the latter. That is just how we are. (Hopefully the wake-up call isn't full-on apocalypse, though.)
For as much waste and destruction we're capable of producing, we are just as equipped for producing miracles. There are some who say we are fascinated by our trajectory toward imminent tragedy. This isn't the case, and every little thing we do -- connecting with the world, self-organising for human rights, cooperative farming, purchasing locally, correcting wrongs, even advertising with greater care for both the long-term sustainability of the brand and our children -- makes a ripple in the sea of our collective destinies.
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*There are currently as many people alive on Earth today as the total number of human deaths since the beginning of organised civilization: 6.8 billion. Is that not ostentatious?
3 comments:
Hi Angela,
I saw this video the other day when you posted it to Google+
Thanks for that.
As much as I am an optimist, as much as I believe that things do and will get "better," I sometimes need to see an obvious and lovely example of such moral progress.
Paul
I miss talking to you, Paul. :)
yeah but will there ever be enough ripples to cause a big enough tidal wave of positive change that will forever affect the human collective?
Has our evolution ended here at a desolate stop in which our mainstream culture now teaches that one should only care now about self-image, self-indulgence, and self-perservation?
When will we wake up and really strive to help our fellow man to build a more sustainable future built around knowledge and generosity?
Idk, sometimes I even contemplate giving up trying to make a difference and disappearing into the mediocrity of an obscure existence with the rest of the crowd. Sorry I totally became a "Negative Nancy" tho I view it more as being a "Realistic Rita."
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