Urgent Evoke

A crash course in changing the world.

To the people of Ushahidi,

It is equally disastrous and ridiculous that I must bring to your attention my home's current outbreak of egomania. Long have we been a people proud of our abilities and accomplishments, but recent developments have led this mindset to a state of national crisis. Likely even global.

It began innocently enough with a drive for affordable food and a simple, safe lifestyle. This meant farms, houses, roads and stores. And it worked. With this strategy, people were granted their food and safety. And then their numbers began to grow.

Farms became orchards and fields, houses began to multiply, stores became larger and roads became paved. And strangely enough, even with their goals achieved, people strove to attain even cheaper food, and a safer-yet environment.

Agriculture turned into monoculture, the growing of one crop, which meant it could be grown for less money. However, it was soon discovered that a lack of plant diversity meant soil became inert. And instead of undoing a simple error in natural sustainability, my people chose instead to take nature into their own hands. They felt they had discovered what healthy soil is made up of, and they produced the lacking ingredients synthetically. They called it fertilizer.

Unbeknownst to my people at the time, they were lacking some very key information. It's like the difference between a dog and dead dog: They both have the same ingredients, but one dog is very unhealthy indeed.

And so it became to be not only was our land poisoned, but the food supply as well. One might think that it's not too late, that there's still time to go back to the way we know that works. And one would be right. However, so strong is the ego-maniacal mind that resides in my land, that people have forgotten altogether that a working way had ever been, and have come to assume that their methods are the only ones that exist. And so the plight towards ever stronger and deadlier synthetics has none but continued to grow.

And this is just the beginning.

People soon discovered that the easiest route to a safe environment, is to simply remove the environment itself. Our land of gra**** and trees has been all but covered in cement, asphalt and tars. The few animals that survived were seen as plagues to our lifestyles and hunted to extinction. Remaining insects were seen as pests, and so poisoned, adding yet more carcinogens to our food supply (which is now shipped around the world).

And still, the urge for more privileged lifestyles never ceased, and has come to grow exponentially. We now not only consume all our own natural resources, but those of other countries as well. The earth, air and water has become more depleted and contaminated with each passing year. Plus our fanatic mentalities can seen to be spreading as more and more nations try to apply them as their own. Our very livelihood is on the cusp of devastation, and still we show no signs of relent.

Even though we know what must be done, even though it has proven to work for millions of years, even though we've come to suffer daily by devastating degrees, we continue down these broken and doomed tracks due to the fool notion that no matter how much damage we do to the planet and ourselves, we are humans: We are the smartest race on this planet, as proven by our very many clever inventions, and so no matter what we do, no matter what the damage, we will figure it out. We will figure out some sort of method, likely in button form, that will sweep all the disastrous realities away in an instant. We see ourselves as so intelligent, that we do not even need to follow the laws of the universe, as we can remake it in a way that is smarter, simpler, and more profitable for us.

We have become ego-maniacs to the outrageous extent of assuming that we're Gods who can play life due to the size of our tinkering monkey brains. And we doom our very existence with the hellishly vain hope of proving we're the smartest species we know, when all indications point to the fact that we are, indeed, the dumbest.

Views: 39

Comment by Iyamuremye Jean de Dieu on May 4, 2010 at 12:10am
Cool!
Comment by A.V.Koshy on May 4, 2010 at 12:16am
We have become ego-maniacs to the outrageous extent of assuming that we're Gods who can play life due to the size of our tinkering monkey brains. And we doom our very existence with the hellishly vain hope of proving we're the smartest species we know, when all indications point to the fact that we are, indeed, the dumbest.
i cant give you points or id give you all mine for that sentence
Comment by Nathaniel Fruchter on May 4, 2010 at 12:19am
Humans are the only race that can destroy the world, but we're also the only ones that can prevent the world from being destroyed. Sometimes we're too smart for our own goods. :)

Thanks for some thoughtful comments on a subject we rarely think about.
Comment by Crispy on May 4, 2010 at 2:28am
Much appreciation for the positive feedback on a seemingly negative subject.

Spot on Nethaniel, and yes we can save it. Or, that is to say, save ourselves. We have the capacity and there's certainly time left to do so. It will take a lot of us working together to pull it off, but I have high hopes for just such a thing.

Koshy, your words are too kind. Be well my friend.
Comment by Patricio Buenrostro-Gilhuys on May 4, 2010 at 4:10am
We can destroy our World and save it and yet sometimes it seems we keep on going on the wrong direction, despite all evidence, all signs we keep on the way to self destruction . . . funny and sad.
Comment by nomadHAR on May 4, 2010 at 4:32am
awesome post!

egomania is indeed at the heart of the problems of the world. i believe that the worst evil is being self-centered. from this comes ethnocentrism, closed-mindedness, greed, bigotry, hatred and violence.

it reminds me of the phrase, 'you can't fight fire with fire'. people keep trying to solve the problems of science with science. while that keeps money flowing to governments and corporations, that notion is totally illogical and unsustainable.
Comment by Julio Cesar Corona Ortega on May 4, 2010 at 5:14am
Great and impassioned post. Thank you.
Comment by Crispy on May 5, 2010 at 3:11am
A tragicomedy indeed Patricio. In the eternal words of Dr. Seuss:
"Unless someone like you cares a wh*** awful lot, nothing is going to get better, it's not."

Very well stated nomadHAR, a wise observation. Such a regrettable seed that grew unforgettable weeds. In response to fire with fire: I once heard a quip of a man who walked a path and found a boulder had blocked his way. Unable to go over or around, he opened his arms and embraced it.

And an impassioned thanks to you, Julio.

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