Being human is pretty damned complex. We have certain things, like our sex drive, which we come into when our bodies have matured enough, and which becomes a biological imperative. It’s established by nature, not us and we have no say in its existence. We also have an autonomic system, the system that keeps our hearts beating and us living and breathing and just gets on with the job of keeping us alive. We have an immune system flowing round our bodies, checking for invaders and dealing with them. And then we have this need for connection, for platonic relationships that are different and separate from our biological sex drive, and I don’t know if it even has a discrete name, the desire for love (in which sex becomes involved), close connection, friendship, a mental and emotional connection to significant others.
All these things together define who we are and yet it is also true that we are more than the sum of our parts. We inhabit an internal universe and I am not sure it isn’t capable of being as infinite as the physical universe. There seem to be few limits on it, no end to the questions we can ask or the answers we’ll find. Look at the modern world and compare that with the world of the Romans, all the technological advances we’ve made have come about through human thought and ingenuity. We live in a world of realised ideas which is phenomenal.
That we exist at all is incredible. I care not whether you believe in intelligent design and that we’re put here by God, or you believe we’ve come about entirely through evolution, any which way you look at it, our existence is amazing and each and every one of us is a unique being, subject to our own personal thoughts and ideas, wants and desires, skills and talents, ambitions and dreams.
In short, we are amazing and anything that makes us feel small in our own sight is an abomination, an assault on our reality.
We live in a universe of wonders, if we stop long enough to think about it and absorb it and not just take it for granted.
We are even made of the stuff of the universe, every atom of our bodies was formed in stars, and the heavier elements, like carbon and iron, came from super novas, vast stellar explosions which provide the universe with the stuff that makes us possible. We are literally made of star dust [1]. It is a rather sad truth that most of us don’t really appreciate just how wonderful we are and how extraordinarily lucky we are to be here. Being alive is a pretty exclusive club, life the possibility is not the same thing as life, the actual thing that we inhabit for our short but remarkable time on Earth.
Sadly, all is not well with the human race, we find ourselves in a situation, brought about by the reckless greed of a grasping profiteering few, that sees most people, far from enjoying life, struggling in a world of plenty. In Britain alone more than 14 million people are living in poverty – An estimated 14.3 million people are in poverty in the UK. 8.3 million are working-age adults, 4.6 million are children, and 1.3 million are of pension age [2].
Our glorious leaders prioritise war over ending poverty and hunger. The great technical advances that were once hailed as bringing us more free time and leisure, have seen people forced into low paid service industry jobs for poverty pay and for Jeff Bezos to become the richest human ever to exist on the backs of the people who work for him, and he calls his fortune, his ‘winnings’ [3]. In his own words, “The only way that I can see to deploy this much financial resource is by converting my Amazon winnings into space travel. That is basically it.” This not a nice man. Hardly a visionary human being, in fact, barely even human if he is prepared to sit back and allow his workers to exist in poverty whilst he can think of nothing better to do with his fortune than to spunk it into space.
The exploitation of humanity and, indeed, all life for personal gain beyond any possible human need is not a sane rationale for life on Earth.
The fact is, it’s gone too far, our technology has outstripped the ability of the only planet we can call home to sustain life. Vast conglomerates are tearing the planet apart to rape it of its resources. All life has become subservient to greed and profit and even humanity is exploited solely for profit and, indeed, punished if we refuse to take any bullshit job we are offered for bullshit pay.
It’s not good enough, is it? Or is it? Is this all ok? Is this the way things ought to play out, because they can? Is this just reality and how things are? Is it a case of, that’s life? Actually, it’s life defined by a few greedy, grasping, people, but it cannot be said to be life as defined and formed by nature. Who do they think they are to dictate the lives of others in this way?
I have always been called a dreamer because I am not happy with the way things just are. I think a better world is possible and have done since I was a young teenager.
The question is, is it? Can we change things for the better? There is no biological or natural reason for the current system. It is an abuse of life and nature. Who is there who can hold out for change, believe and make it happen?
Other than us.
You and me, holding on, faithful to our dreams, working to make them reality, in mostly small ways it must be admitted. But here’s a thing, who despises small things, tender beginnings, hope, the outstretched hand of kindness, a tender touch, an act of generosity, a kind word?
In the face of the hopeless, what makes me tick is hope. I cannot submit to the fatuousness of pointless, lifeless, self serving, greed.
I couldn’t bear to be so small minded.
KOG. 12 September 2020.
[1] https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/are-we-really-made-of-stardust.html
[2] https://fullfact.org/economy/poverty-uk-guide-facts-and-figures/
Conspiracy of Kindness 