In our quest for immortality, we have almost sought to convince ourselves that we are not from Earth, therefore not mortal. The industrial revolution, the look and feel of our modern cities, our cars, our houses, have all served to try and convince us that we are not even related to everything else that lives and breathes on this planet. We are made of glass and steel, not flesh, bones, feelings, fears, and sensitivities. We refuse to be reminded that we are as fragile as the 8 million species we have subjugated on this planet. Our denial of our mortality has meant that we have constructed civilizations which nurture contempt for nature, and the natural cycle of death and rebirth which is part of Earth. Our civilizations look to shield us, and distract us from anything which will remind us that we are in fact, from Earth: that at some point way back, we came from the “wild”, out of the jungles and savannahs, just like all the other beings – and that this is where all of our molecules will return when we die.
The image of nature as an “unruly wilderness” is of course a fraudulent human narrative. Nature is a product of careful, conscious, natural evolution over billions of years, which followed a precise set of physical laws respecting the stability, sustainability and circularity of energy, water, and life itself. Nature is not an accident. Nature is a product of the laws of physics, and it is precisely because of these laws that it has an incredible ability to find its balance and recover, if only it was left alone. Nature’s economy doesn’t need electricity, jobs, money or supermarket food. It doesn’t fret constantly about its GDP. It already has its own grassroots-powered political system, and the perfect resource-based economy. Through the Earthnet of Things, this planet is 100% connected, conscious, and aware of any imbalances around the clock, which it actions immediately. The natural ecosystem which we consider “wild”, is in fact the only truly intelligent, sustainable and self-aware civilization that has ever existed on this planet.
We tend to shun nature and the natural ecosystem precisely because they remind us of who we are and where we came from. Yet in our quest to shield ourselves from mortality, we created polluted cities which are toxic to all biological life, including our own. Our psychonomy traumatizes us with meaningless soul-sucking “bullshit jobs” which only push paper and CO2 around the globe, and end up pushing us towards burnout, for the reward of a salary that enslaves us to the consumatron farm.
As this self-harming civilization becomes increasingly toxic to us, to the planet, and to all life, it will need to keep devising more narratives, more coping mechanisms, more consumer rewards programs and entertainment technologies to keep us within its grip of trauma denial: until the day when it unavoidably comes face to face with its own, sudden, death. Our only defense is to begin questioning every single aspect of the pre-rehearsed, pre-packaged and mass manufactured life that the psychonomic farm has put together for us to follow, down to the last detail. Because obviously, this life has failed.
George is an author, researcher, chemist, molecular biologist and food scientist. You can follow him on Twitter @99blackbaloons or enjoy his books
George Tsakraklides 