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7/27/2006
BLASPHEMY
http://www.bettybowers.com/nl_july2006.html
In vaguely related ideas, I’ve pretty much decided homosapiens are built to
fight and no philosophical idea or religious inspiration or bumper sticker logic
is going to change that. In fact, as the earth becomes more crowded it ’s going
to get worse. Competition for natural resources is going to drive wars like
never before. Eventually we’ll even drop the bullshit reasons – race, religion,
WMD’s – and just fight for oil, timber, food, water, or just a few square feet
on which to squat. It’ll be like The Road Warrior but on a national/global
level.
So now when I see the news about Israel/Lebanon/Syria/Iran, or
U.S./Iraq/Afghanistan, or any other bloody squabble, sometimes I just shake my
head and sometimes I laugh.
“Go ahead, destroy each other. Tomorrow it’ll be more of the same. And the next
day. And the next. There might be a break one day, but it’ll just start up
again. There’s no point in my worrying about it, much less trying to do anything
to stop it, because we, as a species, are doomed. Our only hope is that the next
version of sapiens is built differently, or that we don’t destroy the place so
badly that even the cockroaches can’t build the next civilization.”
You can tell me I’m wrong, but I can show you any history book covering any time
period as a counter argument, or turn on the news at any moment any day. What
have you got as your proof there can be lasting peace?
At best, you can say we should work to make a difference in someone’s life.
But we’ve got almost 7 billion someones and counting. How does the suffering or
death of one more or less, or a dozen, or even a million, matter?
Yeah, it’s bleak and cynical but at least giving up hope has freed me to laugh
about it.
“And if I laugh at any mortal thing,
‘Tis that I may not weep.”
Bryon, from Don Juan
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