As It Is ~ DISASTER
TELEVISION HAS BROUGHT
the furthest corners of the world into our living
rooms, and while this is indisputably marvelous, it
has also trivialized things. Constantly, we witness
wars and conflicts going on live, we see people actually
being killed, or dying of starvation and disease,
we are exposed to brutality and crime, and gradually,
imperceptibly, we become inured to it all, to the
point where it loses its shock value, and no longer
moves or affects us. Reality is reduced to the level
of fiction, as in the movies. We get overdosed, not
being able to fully comprehend; we lose our sensitivity
and become dull. It is quite true that too much of
something good may easily become bad in its effects;
TV is a prime example of this.
Our complacency and false sense of security
are sometimes profoundly shaken by unexpected and
unpreventable natural disasters like earthquakes,
storms, droughts, volcanic eruptions, etc.; our lives
may be turned upside down instantly by such things
and our nicely constructed plans for the future brought
to nothing; pride of technology and ingenious achievement
is humbled, and the prospect of having to start rebuilding
what took us so long to build before is daunting,
and fills us with despair.
We do not know all the causes of Nature's
ferocious outbursts, and will certainly never be able
to bring them all under our control, so we must reconcile
ourselves to living with them, and accept them as
part of the price we have to pay for being alive;
as long as we live on this planet we shall be subject,
in some degree or another, to the various disasters
that may strike us without warning from above, below,
and around; they have gone on for infinitely longer
than Man has been here, and there is no guarantee
that we shall continue to swarm over the Earth like
ants indefinitely; our existence is precarious, and
we could easily be terminated by one of any number
of causes, as have been countless other species before
and during our time. Moreover, the ease and comfort
that we have developed has lulled us into a state
of indolence and complacency, and weakened our physical
and moral fibers; we have become addicted to it all,
as upon some drug of dependence, and are unwilling
to give up any part of it for the sake of saner living.
Nations that were once virile and energetic
have lapsed into lethargy and decadence, and their
places in the vanguard of things have been taken over
by more youthful and vigorous nations. Thus, the Law
of Change plays its eternal game with us, moving us
now high, now low on the ceaselessly turning Wheel
of Life.
We have been led to believe (and most of
us need little convincing about this, but are eager
to accept it), that with money, we can do anything.
And so the motto on the currency of the U.S.: "In
God we trust," is seen to be missing the letter
'l', and should more appropriately read "In Gold
we trust," for without a doubt, money is the
religion with the most adherents in the world, no
matter what they call themselves. We cannot deny that
money is important, and has been ever since it was
invented; no-one can give up using money without being
a burden on others. But to place such emphasis on
it as we do, and measure people's worth and success
by how much money they have, encourages the growth
of antisocial qualities such as unchecked greed and
envy, and leads to all manner of excesses and crimes.
Disaster is not just something that comes
to us from Nature, but is engendered, more so, by
human beings. The suffering that Nature causes us
is much less than that caused by other people. A severe
earthquake might kill fifty thousand people or more,
and cause immense property damage, but one of man's
stupid wars might cause ten times more deaths and
do just as much damage?or more?to buildings, roads,
and other infrastructure. A volcano can cause considerable,
but usually temporary, climatic changes, while man
in his ignorance and carelessness has also brought
about such changes, the effects of which are only
just now starting to become apparent and which might
be permanent and irreversible; we have yet to learn
to what extent our lives and our planet will be affected
thereby. And in spite of the fact that millions are
dying of starvation, due to natural and artificial
famines, people in other parts continue to blithely
reproduce prolifically, unaware, it seems, of the
consequences of their unrestraint, and encouraged
to do so, in many cases, by benighted theologies which
unashamedly proclaim contraception to be unnatural
and therefore evil.
So, while natural disasters?still termed
"Acts of God" by some insurance companies?go
on, the biggest disaster is Man himself, and it is
ironic that while there is little we can do to prevent
earthquakes, droughts, tidal waves, and so on, it
is quite within our capacity to lessen and somewhat
control the major disaster that is Man and his impulses.
Yet, in our age of increased and unprecedented education
and literacy, multiple means of worldwide communication,
jet travel, and other wonderful forms of technology,
it is as if we insist on remaining basically ignorant
concerning our humanity?prejudiced, aggressive, and
destructive. It's really quite amazing!
Ask anyone, anywhere, if they like to suffer,
and almost no-one would answer in the affirmative.
But so many of us actively cause and promote suffering
in various ways, either at home within our immediate
family, and/or around us in society; we are a troublesome
species, and many of us are hard at work disturbing
or hurting others, unaware that they are just like
us in their desire to be happy and free from suffering.
Don't like suffering, we say? It's not true! We are
actually very fond of it, not in ourselves, of course,
but in others. Yet if we clearly understood how society?any
society?is made up of individuals just like ourselves,
all contributing to the whole of which we are parts,
we would see that whatever affects one affects all,
and hence, to cause suffering to another is also to
hurt oneself.
We cannot all be doctors or teachers, it
is true, nor do we all need to be, but we can all
tune into the common life that we all share and try
to act in ways that are beneficial to one and all,
instead of harmful. It is not very difficult to understand
this; we don't need a Ph.D. to grasp it; all we need
to do is consider first our own interests, and then
to consider those of others, for they are very similar;
remember, we are of the same species. And thus, the
disaster that is Man might be brought under control,
and the energy that he hitherto used for negative
purposes could be turned to positive ends.
|