An Insane Human World Article 3

Present and future generations will have to live in the world that in so many ways we thoughtlessly helped to damage. The question is: what if we are constructing a world of increasing unfairness, greed and environmental destruction? What will such a world look like? Well we have only to look at much of the world as it is today for millions and millions of people. The often shoddily constructed, ugly, prefab, structures. Or watch and listen to, certainly in relation to the so-called developed world, an 'entertainment' media devoted to mind-numbing hype and delusion—pouring out sales pitches contrived to evoke the manic compulsion required to create an unquestioning aspiration to consume ever more arrays of unneeded, commercial products, as, all the while, its soul-defying criteria is internalised and the system's by-product erodes the natural world that we and possible future generations depend upon.

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For Phil Rockstroh: “This is the world we have made. We tend to believe that our present day actions will pass into the shadow of memory, but they will remain in the world as ghostly architects of the future. And this is where we are at present: We are transmigrating through a cultural landscape showing significant evidence of decline—a collective, psychical wasteland, defined by media mirages, political legerdemain, and ecological devastation. We find ourselves in an era in which arrogance and cupidity are enthroned while the veracities of the heart wander in the wilderness.”

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Again, for Rockstroh it seems that today cunning is lauded as a virtue, while compassion is all too often seen as weakness. He rightly maintains that our ancient ancestors would have regarded our predicament as catastrophic—a loss of our human spirit. They would somehow have innately known that the latest electronic gadgets will not bring true knowledge or joy; that weapons of war will not preserve you; and it is evident the nation's political class and power elites will not always assist us in times of great danger.

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How does one avoid being drowned in ignorance and dumbness? An inner conviction—an innate knowledge exists within—when your opinion on a matter aligns with the realities of the world. Often, one must oppose the rising currents of worldly, wrong-headed opinion—a discordant flood of stupid; a raging torrent of collective pathology. What practical steps, if any, can we take in order to move away from the destructive path we are presently on? What practical steps can we take together to build a new path that helps to ensure a worth-while existence for today’s and future generations?

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It is also worth keeping in mind that innate knowledge and intelligence can envisage what is stupid and sometimes simply absurd, but stupid and absurd cannot comprehend what is intelligent and sane. In reference to the well-being of both nature and humankind we cannot be indifferent to the stupid, the unrealistic. We must counter the compulsion of those who seek for domination of the things of the world, sometimes things one cannot control. There is a vast difference between surrendering to the stupid and absurd and surrendering to the vast, ineffable order at the heart of creation. As the philosopher Aristotle said: “The aim of art is to represent not simply the outward appearance of things, but their inward significance” so also with the purpose of knowledge. However, the reality today across the world is that a somewhat small cadre of elitist elements, often lacking both empathy and compassion control much of the earth's resources as well as of the world’s media.

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Returning to Phil Rockstroh, for him the fate of the earth's biosphere and its capacity to sustain human life is being subjected to an unfolding, desperate campaign—craven as it is noxious—in its intentions, scope, and side-affects, by the elite of an arrogant order to maintain their grip on privilege and power. By propaganda and coercion, they proceed, with cult-like conviction, on a course of catastrophic folly involving a race to secure and exploit the remaining resources of our ecologically taxed planet (at present the only planet available to us). If their agendas remain unchecked, the biosphere will be rendered non-viable to our own and other species. Without the voice of most people, necessary change is not possible, and the future for humankind is bleak. With regards to a viable future, we must become more aware of, and question given agendas, that is if we wish to build a fairer and more sustainable human, and non-human world.

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