Sunday, April 18, 2010

My Sense of Hopelessness and The Big Silence

It is clear to me that we, all species on our planet, are headed for disaster. The climate is changing so rapidly, we can't do enough to stop it. The glaciers are melting, taking with them most of the major rivers of the world. The shorelines are coming inland, taking away habitat for an awful lot of us. Habitats for so many creatures are so badly degraded, all of us have to figure out new ways of surviving. Many of us will not survive these needs to adapt. I find that horrifying. And yet, what I hear is mostly silence. HELLO!!!

My need to break the silence and have the conversation about this lead me to at least be clear about the issues. All I could think about was how stupid humans are and felt that might not be the best way to start this conversation. I'm still sorting it out. This is how things are falling at the moment::


Everything dies; everything has an end. We are animals and now appears to be the time for our end (at least for a great many of us). Why does that have to include the end of so many other species?

People are wired in a way that makes it impossible for them as a species to evolve and makes them so unnecessarily destructive.

Is it so difficult to step back and take a look at the big picture? That all these environmental changes are going to deeply affect the lives of their children and grandchildren?

When conflict arises, why does it so often end in violence? Have wars of the past not been horrific and tragic enough?

Where are the honorable, loving leaders? Greed and a need for power cripples clear thinking, particularly in our leaders.

Positive changes:

¨ Democracy

¨ Women’s rights

¨ Peace groups

¨ Safe birth control



Well, that's my brainstorming so far. I'm going to keep tweaking it was my thinking progresses. Please feel free to jump in any time by writing something in the Comments. We're all in this together.

3 comments:

Unknown said...

stop stressing over it, carolyn! whatever will be will be. we do our parts and that's all we can do.

sorry to add to your worry but i do believe people are inherently evil. i remember learning in sociology class about Freud's theory... human are born with only 2 instincts -- ero (sex) and death. we unfortunately cannot freely express our instincts because we are living in society and we can't have people sexing and killing anytime they please. this therefore leads to the title of the book "society and its discontent". there'll always always be conflict in society because we are oppressing our instincts.

Carolyn said...

I don't think people are inherently bad or good. We are animals with animal instincts. That's not bad, particularly when it is coupled with a brain and heart capacity that can think through things and care about things. But, as a whole, people don't do that. And I think they are just too frightened to look reality clearly in the face.
It will be interesting to see how things turn out. That is worrisome.

Unknown said...

I know fully well where you're coming from, Carolyn. But we can't afford to despair. I take each day as it comes, and ask myself..what is the very best I can do to help create a better world. What has to happen will happen...but we all play an important part in leading society towards that critical tipping point of consciousness. Much love, Bhavani