The human species is living as if it had more than one planet to occupy... yeah, why is that!? I think that it is because we are no longer grounded in the production of food and material goods that it takes to survive. Specialization, the division of labor, has allowed us to develop into a society that doesn't know what it takes to produce shelter, clothing, food, light sources, etc. Technology, tv, facebook, iphone, etc keep us distracted and removed mentally from the present moment and we are no longer engaged with the material existence of the the human species and/or planet Earth. This last weekend I had to stop and think about when was the last time i walked barefoot on grass. I can't remember.
Capitalism. Money. Consumption. There I said it. How do we move into a space in which we understand the (social, economic, ecological) implications of our choices? What kind of education is required to instill in children the value of invisible others? If a child dies in a diamond mine... If a tree falls in the woods... are your ring laden hands covered in blood?
Like we talked about in class, how do you navigate a society in which there is no way to make a totally clean/benign choice? Are we always compromised, no matter what we do, are we complicit in the guilt of the oil companies just by virtue of living in the US? I don't know the answer to this question, thats why Im so interested in it. I watch individuals like the Dalai Lama and wonder if peace is the way. Who knew biochemistry was so philosophically heavy.
Seriously, who knew biochemistry was so philosophically heavy! But you know, even though we say there is no way to make a totally clean/benign choice, the things is, there really is no absolute 100% anyway. We can always strive towards making the world a better place by doing our bit though! :)
ReplyDeleteYes... I agree. It can feel really frustrating that no choice is 100% "right". but, doing our best and accepting imperfection can make some things change. It's kind of interesting to me how this relates to the short-sighted-ness that leads to enviro problems in the first place. We are impatient-- if we can't see the results right in front of us we give up :)
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