Eco-Green
By The English Teacher
 Dowsing For Intergalactic Balance WE have lost something on our journey as human beings. Something incredibly valuable – but what is it? We don’t know; but the lack of it gives rise to an endemic selfishness, materialism and divisiveness which, all interconnected, threatens our existence on this planet. On a psychological level, we are at war – with ourselves, the planet and each other. War is about hatred. The hatred of one another’s cultures, religions, nationalities and skin colours that has existed for centuries is encouraged and inflamed by rhetoric tailored to suit the occasion. The Witches will get your children; the Germans are coming; communists are hiding under your bed; foreigners are going to invade and take your jobs; women are going to get power and take your jobs; gay people are going to get married and bring society crashing down (and take your jobs); terrorists are everywhere; ad nauseum. And while we are all so busy hating one another, we do not see what is going on before us. I have heard so many people say that this has existed forever, and it will never stop. They say this as though it excuses them from doing anything about it. But how do we know it has existed forever? Are our memories really that long? And does “tradition” excuse us from working for a better world? The eternal existence of this hatred poses a problem. Why are we here, if all we can do is fight and kill each other? If so, one could say that we are little more than animals. If that is so, why then were we given intellect? Animals may not be able to think in the same way as we do, but they survive remarkably well (barring human predation). How do birds and butterflies know when to migrate, how do whales know where to go to give birth? They live through pure instinct. In their own habitats, creatures tend to live in harmony with their surroundings and become an integral part of the ecosystem. And what is our place? Humans as we are now destroy the ecosystem wherever we go. We know – generally in hindsight – how badly we have screwed up, but the attempts to fix the damage are often too little, too late. Are animals then better at this whole existence than we are? We have lost something. We have sacrificed intuition to intellect. We have severed our connection with the Earth and made a god out of rationalism and reason. Is this what we are here to do? Five minutes serious thought would reveal the stupidity of racism to any person. We all inhabit the same planet, and we don’t have anywhere else to go just now. Should we not work together to make it a decent place to live? I don’t mean in the technological sense – there is the road to comfort, separation from the world and other people, and sometimes environmental disaster. I mean a place where everyone everywhere can walk down the street and not be attacked. It’s more than that – a place where forests grow wild, and people respect them, know their ways, and can wander within. A place where the water is clean and plentiful, and the very air does not carry toxic chemicals. Where species do not die out, and the oceans are free of chemical spills – where there is no need for hatred and war, because people work together to produce exactly what they need. Do we have a purpose? What is the perpetuation of the human species here to achieve? Surely not the destruction of our only home. Think. Earth exists as one planet in one galaxy in one universe. Everything is interconnected – call it gravity, strange attraction, time, the Web, God, nothing is isolated, nothing is alone, nothing is independent of anything else. Creation involves the joining of two things to make a third, which in its turn will join with another to create something else. We have been created. What are we here to create in our turn? Consider a moment this idea: If everything is interconnected, then the Earth in Her turn must have a purpose. What balance does she maintain in the galaxy? What then the universe? So far as we can tell, there is no other planet quite like this in our corner of the universe. And we are all citizens of that planet. It’s the only one we’ve got. |
