Double click
If you could push a button and make it all go away: pollution, industrialization, atomic power, oil derricks, the moderinized world, would you? I had this conversation with a good friend a few months ago, we stumbled around trying to get to a conclusion that just didn't seem to be there. At the heart of this issue is the question--will we ever learn self control? If we learn that we are currently living the antithesis of a sustainable lifestyle, can we change?
But before we go on and try to tackle that question, I want to deal with the notion of sustainability. There are a lot of assumptions when it comes to sustainability. First of all, that life should be sustained. Second, that it is possible to sustain. And finally, that if life is worth sustaining, and that it is possible to sustain it that we could actually realize that possibility. I was attracted to sustainability precisely because I think life is a good thing. And the way we live, we are running out of life as fast as we can. But, here's the kicker--sustainability is an illusion. We know about entropy, we learn about it in highschool physics. The energy of an organized system always tends toward disorder. There is no sustainability with the physics we have,--there is however conservation. And because life is good, we have the responsibility to offer its gift to as many we can.
But back to the question of button pushing. My friend was ready to push the button. He was also a little upset at the conversation because it was a moot. We don't have a button,--short of nuclear armegedon. And as I have thought about that hypothetical button I've realized that I think we need to fail. We need it so desperately that I hope against hope that we do. As a civilization, a global civilization, we need to fail at this modern endeavor so that we don't repeat the same mistakes in the future. So that our children's children can learn self control before they get this apparently limitless power of modern technology. So that when we build up again, we can do it with an eye for the fragility of our little biosphere, and the dramatically limited resources that we actually have.
So in essence we do have a button we can push. Not to make this go away, but to make sure that when this comes again, we understand its mercurial nature and use its powers not to spend harder, but to live better.
But before we go on and try to tackle that question, I want to deal with the notion of sustainability. There are a lot of assumptions when it comes to sustainability. First of all, that life should be sustained. Second, that it is possible to sustain. And finally, that if life is worth sustaining, and that it is possible to sustain it that we could actually realize that possibility. I was attracted to sustainability precisely because I think life is a good thing. And the way we live, we are running out of life as fast as we can. But, here's the kicker--sustainability is an illusion. We know about entropy, we learn about it in highschool physics. The energy of an organized system always tends toward disorder. There is no sustainability with the physics we have,--there is however conservation. And because life is good, we have the responsibility to offer its gift to as many we can.
But back to the question of button pushing. My friend was ready to push the button. He was also a little upset at the conversation because it was a moot. We don't have a button,--short of nuclear armegedon. And as I have thought about that hypothetical button I've realized that I think we need to fail. We need it so desperately that I hope against hope that we do. As a civilization, a global civilization, we need to fail at this modern endeavor so that we don't repeat the same mistakes in the future. So that our children's children can learn self control before they get this apparently limitless power of modern technology. So that when we build up again, we can do it with an eye for the fragility of our little biosphere, and the dramatically limited resources that we actually have.
So in essence we do have a button we can push. Not to make this go away, but to make sure that when this comes again, we understand its mercurial nature and use its powers not to spend harder, but to live better.
posted by King Rupert at 6:56 PM
2 Comments:
So here comes the opinion of a pessimist.(and a bad speller) Brace yourself.
I think that we are the buttons. That is what makes this scenario so complicated. There isn't just one button we can push or not push. I also think that society has already failed. Numerous times. I don't think that failure only encompasses complete or almost complete erasal of human kind. I think failure is evident in every attempt of human kind starting again. And that is what would happen with failure, we would have to start again.
Take for example when people first colonized america. It was suposed to be a new start. Getting away from the failure of the british. But the colonists treated the native people of the americas the same as they were treated in Britain.
The problem with our buttons is that we operate out of fear and desire. We kill or hide from what we are afraid of and we mass produce and hoard what we desire. I think that this is built into people,and sometimes for the good: survival obviously. But no matter how many times we have to rebuild the framework in which we live the same kind of things (people and their motivations) will be building it.
Now here comes the button part. If we stop acting on these motivations now, and start teaching our children (and unfortunately children of others as well) how to mold these motivations into something useful we shouldn't have to wait for the "giant button" to be pushed. It always seems easier to start from scratch rather than to clean up the mess we're in now. But that again seems like fear. And it won't change our motivation. People need to start doing instead of waiting.
rupert-
if i understand you correctly, you're suggesting that 'failure' is the button we need to push.
could you expand on exactly what you mean by failure and also how this failure leads to a remapping of our children's children's human nature?
also, remind this "friend" of yours, next time you talk to him/her, that any "button pushing" of the reset variety does not restore the Tao, but flies completely in the face of it. that should put him/her in his/her place.
:-)
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