A large portion of the effort which humanity has expended during our brief sojourn on this planet has been devoted to three basic questions: “Why are we here? Where are we going and what should we do?” Religion and philosophy attempt to answer those questions and the explanations have grown so intricate and complex that, in many cases the original questions have been all but lost.
We perceive truth “through a glass, darkly.” For some of us, faith illuminates that darkness, but if we are attempting to navigate a labyrinth, the possession of a candle may light our way, but it does not guarantee that we will solve the puzzle.
If we are determined to move consciously through life, we look for navigational clues. If we are spiritually inclined, coincidence and synchronicity can become indicators of “God’s will.” If we are scientifically or mathematically inclined, we may intuit an underlying structure or geometry in the relationship between cause and effect. For many of us consumed in the struggle to survive assuaged by the myriad material gratifications offered by our civilization, we are like the toy trains we had as children. These little trains would travel in one direction until they encountered an obstacle, at which point they would then turn and go in the first available direction until encountering the next barrier.
Humanity is at this point in time being offered some very strong clues as to the consequences of our collective choosing and we can see the guideposts of our chosen route in the international headlines as well as the local. We have chosen a way of life that is enabled by the expenditure of vast amounts of energy, and along that path we have emphasized convenience and profit over efficiency and sustainability. We have chosen immediate gratification over the long term effects on future generations. We have ravaged the land, poisoned the air and the water and disrupted the food chain so that we can watch television in our underwear. We complain about “global warming,” but we can’t be bothered to turn down the thermostat. We flood the night skies with wasted light while we sleep. We drive ten miles for a jug of milk. We pave farmland so that everyone can buy Chinese plastic at Walmart. We destroy mountains and watersheds so that a privileged few can enjoy a pretty view for a few weeks out of the year and call it “economic development.” We blame the Japanese, the Americans, the government or the local power company for nuclear waste left to our descendants, for mercury in milk, for ugly steel pylons marching across the landscape – but we rarely if ever trace accountability back to the face in the mirror.
The Exxon Valdez was a clue. The Deepwater Horizon was a clue, as were Three Mile Island and Chernobyl. The ongoing struggle at Fukushima is a clue. Together these clues are a gigantic billboard advertising the cost of our energy intensive way of life. The west is engaged in Libya, not in some noble sacrifice to protect civilians, but as an effort to protect the energy interests of the UK, France, Italy and the United States which, when mapped out, cover more than half of Libyan territory. Look no further than the main street of Hiawassee for towering steel indicators of the cost of unplanned, unregulated development at the local level.
An individual unaware of his connection to his fellow man, oblivious of obligations to his community, blind to his dependence on the earth which sustains us all, can make a bad neighbor. The autonomous, independent egos of the Me Generation, taken individually, can be annoying. They can, among other things, cut you off in traffic and litter the sides of the road with fast food garbage tossed out of car windows. They can rob you at gunpoint, on a spreadsheet or in the halls of government. They can conceive more children than a family can afford to feed or add to the growing burden of individuals for whom the planet must provide food, clothing, shelter and manufactured widgets for entertainment. Added together and magnified by our institutions, ego becomes catastrophic. The signposts we are being shown today are clear indicators of the destination to which our current path leads. Our choice is more fundamental than choosing fossil fuel, nuclear or renewable energy to empower our journey into the future. Our choice is about whether our energy intensive, materialistic, self absorbed trip is indeed the journey we wish to make.
