In the end, entropy always wins.
Sometimes, it can be hurried along.
On an insignificant speck of rock hurtling along in a vast expanse of nothingness, a thin film of gas nurtures a rare and wondrous thing that has, over aeons, struggled to improve and refine itself. Its latest offspring considers itself to be all-powerful; supreme master of the universe: yet, for all its vaunted skills, its visionary foresight is stunted such that it can barely see beyond the tip of its own nose.
At a time when the north polar ice cap — the air conditioner for the planet — is in full retreat, and the antipodes burn with an insatiable hunger, the descendants of those who once devised something they called ‘democracy’ are now so thoroughly subjugated by a crooked and broken global economic system — one that is both too big to fail and, at the same time, on the brink of freefall implosion — that they resort to felling the forest on the slopes of a mountain that was once believed to house a squabble of deities.
Just to keep warm (for a while).
On their way up, as they raped their way across the entire planet, these jabbering ape-descendants named themselves ‘homo sapiens sapiens’: the wise, thinking man.
On their way down — had they paused to think at all in their headlong descent — they might have reflected that they had succeeded in evolving into ‘homo fatuus brutus’: the foolish, stupid man.
Good post. My only note is that sometimes evolution bifurcates species. Our species – should it survive – cannot expect to come out the other end of all this unchanged. I’ve idly contemplated the future of humanity if civilisation is wholly lost, and I thought it a distinct possibility that regression occurs – if the world became such that big teeth and claws were the best strategy – surviving humans would in effect move backwards in their history – probably for the rest of the history of the species (given the length of time we will lose the ecosystem that nurtured and supported us to let us do what we have).
Maybe there are other paths – but so damn few people are thinking about them, let alone acting towards them – and it’s already so very late in the day.
One path… another path… I don’t know whether to laugh or cry.
In any such ambiguous situation, I think laughter is alleged to have some health benefits and therefore is a good default option?
“…fatuus…”
Sounds like “farts” – quite descriptive of people who think the “free market” is efficient, and is free from manipulation.
Indeedy, quite so!
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very good, i like this a lot. we have reached peak oil stage, and i suspect peak humanity as well. we think we are above all animals, but climate change is a perfect eg of us thinking short term. And the politicans are the worst eg of the breed! so not much different to animals. Using up our resourses before moving on. Unfortunately, there will be nowhere else to go.
Thanks for your visit, and your comment, averagejoe.
Yep, so true: we have nowhere else to go…
The nearest Earthlike planet (of which we know)
Is some twelve hundred light years away.
Veni, Vidi, Flevi
[I took the liberty of adding a link to Google translate
]