and rampant violence in the world; in our own society, often without any consequences from diminishing law and order. We see very few things or people that inspire, who are heroic, or true geniuses except at things like making a bunch of money. In fact, the world has narrowed down to an extremely limited mental focus on money and materialism, an inhuman economic system, and an obsession with how much things cost or if they are free.
The enlargement of human powers and creative powers are very low priorities as are institutions (which used to make civilization and societies work), and the relief of global human misery. The machinery that has evolved in the past decade keeps man in subjection, removing his independence, autonomy, and innate self-confidence. Nobody in the West can function without their screens anymore.
More and more, one can feel a general widespread angst, dread, fear permeating all beneath the cheery surfaces of the increasingly fake, pleasured e-world. There is, more and more, an underlying sense of hopelessness that is setting in in the wake of grinchy government deconstructions of institutions or public services and, subsequently, people’s lives and public supports. I believe the signs are all around us (well-documented by the media) of a new emerging period of barbarism and a serious decline in the power of human kindness and caring. After all, the public takes its cues from government actions and hostility to the public (especially its most vulnerable citizens).
What the 19th century taught us about human sympathy being more important than ideology and a zillion agendas would be considered laughable today by many. Though we are part of the whole, that whole–as Yeats (someone no longer studied in schools)predicted in “The Second Coming”– is rapidly coming apart. There is no centre at this point in time, certainly not Apple or the latest e-gadget. The worst (as in the Boko Haram and ISIS types) continue to run amok as the rest of the world too often stands down or turns a blind eye.
And certainly, nowhere, do we hear great leaders walking the talk that we are part of the whole, as in Nature. The tailings ponds, coyote and wolf hunts, and weekly train derailments go on with governments’ blessings and indifference. (“We are not in the Nature business or the the people business” is their credo.) The current rule or practice of the perpetual almighty-buck-quest remains: “Kill anything that gets in the way or out of hand even if it’s living or part of the ecosystem.” Well, there ain’t much soul or human sympathy in or about pipeline obsession.
Ironically, there are many alternatives to the ills and evils of our increasingly dehumanized world as well as our greatly diminished connection and responsibility to Nature. It’s a cryin’ shame that the ‘bright’ Brave New E-World has distracted us and hugely failed us and generations to come.
I ain’t seen no screen, government, or business that will truly love a person, a tree, a lake, or the air that we all breathe.