How can the most intelligent life form the world has ever known – supposedly the only animal with powers of reason and of foresight – be mismanaging its own existence on this planet in such a catastrophic way? And, moreover, why aren’t those of us who are aware of the problems reacting to them with the kind of urgency we should be? Even though we know about it, we don’t seem to be fully aware of the danger we’re facing, and so aren’t prepared to take the appropriate kind of action. One of the main problems is the narrowness of our vision of the world. Our attention is usually taken up with the present and immediate realities of our lives – our day to day problems, our own needs and desires, the things we’ve got to do now or tomorrow or next week. Many of us are fairly indifferent to social and political problems until they affect us directly. The issue of nuclear power may not bother us until a power station is built a few miles away and the children in our town develop leukemia. The issue of global warming may not bother us unless we happen to live on the coast, and our homes start to subside because of rising sea levels. Our awareness is usually confined to our everyday worlds. And this is the problem with environmental issues: they are too “wide” for us for grasp. Issues like global warming, the chopping down of the rain forests and the extinction of other species are too far away from our everyday worlds – too vague, intangible and impersonal for us to be clearly aware of. The narrowness of our vision of the world causes another problem too: a lack of foresight. Human beings undoubtedly have a greater ability to plan and anticipate the future than any other animal, but our powers of foresight are still limited. Like our general awareness, they work well enough for the immediate future, but not for the long term. Anything beyond 15 or 20 years seems to be a vague, foggy reality to us, and so what happens then doesn’t really concern us. As a result, we’re not prepared to make sacrifices for the future; we’re reluctant to endure inconvenience for the sake of future generations. The Fall: The Insanity of the Ego in Human History and the Dawning of A New Era by Steve Taylor; tinyurl/l7ke65j
Posted on: Sat, 22 Mar 2014 20:53:24 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015