In order to even consider shutting down the extinction machine, the mechanism driving it must be identified, analyzed and ultimately, disabled. What are the dynamics underlying the human activity responsible for massive destabilization of the earth's natural, life sustaining balance? Why do people persist in behaving in ways that clearly threaten their future existence . . . in fact, the existence of all life, as we know it, on the host environment . . . planet earth? There is no mystery about what is happening. Science has laid it bare.
Is it simply a matter of money and greed? Are people willing to opt for short term profits as opposed to the continuation of life on earth? Hard to believe. The money points to redirection. Even conservative, bordering on reactionary, political leaders, scientists and economists, concede that accelerating industrial contamination and climate change, the most pressing aspects of environmental collapse, being experienced now, will soon wreak havoc on global economies. Draught, crop failures, resulting food shortages, famine and war; acidification of the oceans resulting in the predicted extinction of all salt water fish by 2040, severe, catastrophic weather events, rising sea levels, coastal flooding, etc.; just to name a few of the predicted, inevitable economically devastating consequences of human caused, environmental collapse . . . all playing against a background of the number one, human industry: weapons of destruction and relentless war.
The drive train mechanism has been abundantly exposed. The results of its operation are catastrophic to life on this planet. This is not an outcome that may happen. It is happening now and accelerating. One can only assume, that the impulse to change, to awaken and avoid the inevitable conclusion of the extinction machine running its course, is being blocked by issues buried deeply and fundamentally in human consciousness. Beliefs that are more powerful than the drive to continue living.
Awakening and locking into an awareness of the reality of man's true relationship and place in the natural order of things, threatens the most fundamental assumptions, beliefs and values on which human identity is based . . . that constitute the fabric and foundation of the social order.
The majority of people believe that they are special . . . a superior form of life . . . put on earth to exercise mastery, to subdue lower, cruder nature . . . beings created by god, in the image of god, to manage and use this world as their personal, exclusive warehouse, without regard for consequences. This is the core delusion that drives the extinction machine. We created a fictional sense of reality that has no chance of success in an evolutionary sense, where success means survival.
Reducing the burning of fossil fuels, developing cleaner energy, cleaning up industrial and agricultural technologies, recycling, etc., etc., are all well and good. However, without coming to terms with an understanding of the reality of man's place in the natural order, nothing can substantially change. Unless human awareness extends to a point where it is capable of grasping the equality, unity and inter-connectedness of all life in nature and, of course, the resonant effects of its destructive activity on the web of life which includes us, our behavior will continue to reflect the fiction that we stand alone, that we are a truly unique, special, and invincible organism, entitled to anything and everything that it can bite off and chew. At this point, the prevailing view of the corporate/political power structure, seems to be that we are, indeed, the wardens and masters of the world . . . our world. But, well . . . we miscalculated . . . made some mistakes in our management that need fixing. Nothing that correctly applied technology can't make right. Really?
Due, primarily, to human activity, rapid, deep, volatile changes in the host environment are occurring and accelerating rapidly. Unless man can evolve and adapt at a rate that matches the imperatives of these changes, it is unlikely that he will survive, what, in fact, he has brought on by his own deliberate actions.
It is clear that we are no more special than anything else, except in the radical degree of our dis-alignment with nature. The conditions of death and destruction that we have perpetrated on the world are killing us as easily and indifferently as they are killing everything else.
How will it play out? Shall we approach the end of this cycle; sailing into the mouth of extinction, clinging to the fiction and delusion of our superiority and specialness . . . or . . . is it possible, that a critical mass of individuals will awaken in time to navigate a path toward life and survival?
These perspectives are developed more fully in Joseph Carlisi's book, "Playing God on the Eve of Extinction", which is available from Amazon:http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=node%3D154606011&field-keywords=playing+god+on+the+eve+of+extinction )
*extinction machine - see last posting of this blog: Extinction Machine: User's Guide
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Posted: 10/13/2014 4:35 pm EDT