All humans are included under the umbrella species of ‘Homo Sapiens’, ironically with Sapiens meaning ‘The Wise Ones’. The Wise Ones who have built an economy based on destroying the planet on which they live. The Wise Ones who escalate war and conflict to benefit their economic policies and their shareholders. The Wise Ones and their colonialist agenda that stomps over Earth and peoples without even noticing what is there to begin with.
We should be renamed Homo Stultum – the foolish ones.
“The point is, there is no feasible excuse for what we are, for what we have made of ourselves. We have chosen to put profits before people, money before morality, dividends before decency, fanaticism before fairness and our own trivial comforts before the unspeakable agonies of others.”
Iain Banks
We seem obsessed with our rights to drive cars or take planes anywhere we choose, killing the silence and sounds of nature whilst polluting the places through which we pass with oil guzzling monsters.
Driving tons of metal to carry our tiny bodies in vehicles that run at 20% efficiency. Driven by ego and greed. Driven by insecurity that there is not enough to go round, so we must grab it all in case someone else takes it first. “Gotta pay my mortgage”. “Gotta get to work on time”. “It’s my job”. “Been there – Got the T-shirt” – absolving ourselves from responsibility because we are slaves to a system and it’s the system’s fault. A system that has now brought us all to the brink of a planet no longer viable for human occupation.
We even set up monsters in a constant parade of ‘Punch and Judy’ shows and call it Government so we can point the finger and have someone to blame for it going wrong. In the meantime, claiming our ‘rights’ and ‘freedoms’ without knowing the difference between freedom and license. Often our ‘freedoms’ express themselves as license to abuse: other people, other races, other species, our own families and relationships – nature itself; we are coercive, dominator-narcissists asserting our rights.
Some of our human indigenous peoples see their responsibilities to the earth they live on. To help all the creatures, to not pollute, to live lightly with respect for others and themselves. The culture of colonialism sees them as ‘in the way’ to exploit the natural resources of the earth where these people live. North American Indigenous people, the tribes of the Amazon, The Masai, Australian indigenous people for example – all driven from their traditional lands marginalized in the quest for profit. This has been going on for hundreds of years now:
“We can, if need be, ransack the whole globe, penetrate into the bowels of the earth, descend to the bottom of the deep, travel to the farthest regions of this world, to acquire wealth.”
William Derham, ‘Physio-Theology’, 1713
But now we are so close to the edge of extinction it has even been named; ‘The Sixth Mass Extinction’. Many people are realizing that our culture has made a terrible mistake. It has been using the capital assets of Earth as if it is income. And it has been taking and never replacing for so long that our planet is groaning under the weight of extraction.
In the 1700’s the Earth appeared infinite and the people few. But now there are 8 billion of us and resources are becoming scarce through poor management, greed and plain stupidity. Unlike previous extinction events caused by natural phenomena, The Sixth Mass Extinction is driven by human activity, primarily (though not limited to) the unsustainable use of land, air, water and energy use, and climate change.
People are up in arms about this; ‘Why doesn’t the Government do something?’ But the dominator classes just want to keep the scam going because their personal fortunes are invested in exploitation of nature, destruction, the medicalisation of everything, armament manufacturing [and using them up in made-up wars before they become old technology]. They are even bringing-in new legislation to imprison and fine demonstrators who oppose their ideologies of extinction.
simonthescribe