It Was Always Like This?

I’m getting more and more convinced that our species can only watch out for itself at an individual unit, while we have immense powers to act as one gigantic, destructive organism. And that it’s always been like this.

We exploit, trash places, take no responsibility for “ours” and look for “better opportunities” where “they” manage and maintain things better. We do not build, co-exist. We use, abuse, and those amongst us who can do this extraction better are celebrated as the rich and powerful, signalling more of this. Our infrastructure, our conveniences — however fleeting, imaginary or harmful — are constantly sold and applauded as wins. The costs are never counted.

It’s indeed true across species. But they have no means or technology to act and destroy collectively at a scale that we can. We celebrate this as our achievement!

Even our stories — since time immemorial and at least for the “civilized” world where “innovation” and “discovery” was the focus — celebrate the man made and destructive and not the natural. Solomon’s empire, Kubera-nagari, promised lands and what not.

We do NOT love our places. We do not strive for their betterment or longevity. We aren’t the custodians of them we pretend to be. Our pride is around the right to extract and destroy, as opposed to others’ rights. We only benchmark our outcomes against other humans, not accounting for the natural world at all.

With globalization, it’s hit planetary scale and there’s nowhere to run. The idiocy and lack of collective wisdom has manifested itself as a planetary crisis.

I hope for, but do have much optimism about this dumb, short-sighted species’ ability to live with the planet, tbh. We’re likely better gone, for the sake of all living systems.