Biodiversity and its human counter part, cultural diversity, is declining rapidly. Not the years biggest news scoop, I know, but it seems important to me. Not trying to sound dramatic, but where we are at is rather climactic. Criticizing the West for its Imperialism and Consumerism is pointless, and although historically justified, a short cut to thinking. The truth of the matter seems to be to me that humans are humans, and just because one group develops a concept and takes it on a world tour, doesn't mean that it is endemic just to them. Ideas have always been contagious, and this materialism that has replaced so much of the worlds multiplicity is clearly no longer something exclusively Western, it is omnipresent. We have been consuming all the previous lifeforms on earth by burning coal and oil, scavenging our world relentlessly for whatever resources that our collective desires requires. Chopping down the majority of the worlds forests and damming most of its major rivers was accomplished in the span of just a few lifetimes; which is absolutely staggering when one considers how long humans have been around. Say what you will about the spreaders of this affliction, it has been all of humanity harvesting life at an ever increasing rate of late. As I sit writing this I know that I am what I am commenting on. The machine I am using to share these ideas has parts that come from all over the world, and many people, animals, plants were harmed in their acquisition; but I wanted a laptop so here it is. Suppose you have to be part of something to realize what it's all about, hypocrisy has a funny way of revealing complex truths. Having said that, I've concluded alienation is the reason we can cannibalize our home without consciously having a desire for extinction. A brilliant French playwright once observed "There is no religion in which everyday life is not considered a prison; there is no philosophy or ideology that does not think that we live in alienation" and I can find no fault in his statement. The very fact that we now are at the point where complete environmental collapse is no longer a theory but a terrifying inevitability speaks to the depth of human alienation. Just as I said earlier I don't blame the West for introducing materialism and showing the world what it can do for organizing people, t'was just the way the cookie crumbled. I also don't think anyone can blame humans for being voracious omnivores and rather clever, it's what our development made us and the rest of life had a hand in it. I'm past the point of thinking humanity will change through conscious effort, just not how we have functioned so far so why bother holding out hope? The world made us what we are and then we made the world what it is today; one turn deserves another I suppose. If there is any chance to change this epic epoch we are on it is to learn the lesson that the minute you give one human power over another on any scale for any reason it is a slippery slope that leads to the world we now live in. This is purely my opinion and I freely admit I'm no smarter or better than anyone else, probably significantly worse considering I'm a Californian and we're arguably the most hardcore of the materialists. I just wanted to share my conclusions for what they are, one person's meditations on the human condition and position. So brace yourselves my fellow humans for one hell of an evolutionary test. According to scientist's we have been evolving more in the past few thousand years than we did in the previous few million, which should give us some hope for our chances to sort out our current status. So in conclusion- here's to you humanity, I love you and wish you the best in the year to come. "The past is but the beginning of a beginning, and all that is and has been is but the twilight of the dawn."
- H.G. Wells
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