We require sleep.
But that isn’t what this post is about, so why am I beginning with that statement? Because everything matters. Everything.
That we require sleep isn’t an opinion, it is an established fact. Experiments involving various creatures we pitiless humans are willing to torture, maim, and murder in our relentless search for explanations rather than understanding have shown that after extended sleep deprivation something scientifically inexplicable happens. Sleep deprived animals simply keel over and die. It doesn’t matter how healthy they are, or how much food and drink they have. If they are denied all rest, they just die.
Read the single paragraph abstract of this experiment, one of hundreds that have reached the same bizarre conclusion. As you do note the language used in order to justify humans treating so-called lower creatures with such callousness.
Now let us consider the relative value of souls. Who are we to strip away any soul’s host? What harm do we do to the soul to whom we have denied life? Is a rat’s soul worth less than a human’s? This is deep, heavy stuff that reveals a dark side of human nature few seem willing to even superficially consider, and still fewer are willing to directly address. Are you already feeling pangs of discomfort? Are you already telling yourself, “This is not for me! Get me out of here before I start feeling uncomfortable!”
Virtually all life requires the termination of other life to exist. That the living feed on the dead is an inescapable fact. However surely the method and manner of death must be a factor in the moral equation of life? The deceased do not bear the burden of guilt in the manner of their demise, that guilt falls squarely upon the shoulders of the creature[s] that caused life’s termination. I abhor cruelty. Morally, I cannot accept cruelty is ever justified. If research requires that we humans be cruel, then such research is morally repugnant and should not be undertaken. Yes that’s just my opinion, and my opinion is definitely not fact. But perhaps it’s your opinion too? Even if it isn’t, I hope you’ll take time to consider it. While you do, consider how crucial diversity of the species is to humanity and indeed to most species. Also consider a few further points I’ll raise below.
We humans are the most voracious, greedy, inconsiderate, cruel, and destructive species to ever have ever inhabited our sorely beleaguered planet. We claim a dominion over land, sea, and air to which we have no right. As sentient beings, capable of understanding our terrible impact on the world, we should be Earth’s caring custodians, but we are not. Instead of our planet’s careful caretakers we have collectively become the worst blight to ever afflict it.
Similarly to the innocent creatures we “use” in our experiments, we have sorely used our planet, to the point it is in dire need of rest.
Humans are not above nature, they are part of nature. How sad for us to forget that? How insane is it to mistakenly believe the purpose of nature is to serve mankind? How foolish is it for something which is part of a far greater whole to believe the greater whole’s sole purpose is service to one particularly unpleasant parasitic element within that whole? {Yes, the particularly unpleasant parasitic element to which I’m alluding is mankind.} How tragic for our species to be the implement of not only our own ultimate demise, but the absolute extinction of literally countless other unique and precious species?
The path of devastation mankind currently follows will ultimately lead to our own extinction.
Does that sound like my opinion stated as though it is a fact? Mere moments of logical consideration result in that inescapable conclusion. Unless we change our approach to our relentless consumption of our world’s resources, our willful destruction of its diversity, and our unconscionable pollution of land, sea, and atmosphere we will cause our own extinction. That such extinction is unlikely to come within our lifetime, or perhaps even within the lifetimes of our great grandchildren isn’t the issue. The issue is that the longer we delay changing the course of mankind, the shorter mankind’s journey through this magnificent Universe will be.
Is mankind willing to become nothing more than a forgotten blip on the Universe’s radar? Unless we radically change course, that is precisely what we doom ourselves to become. Apparently our most primitive ancestors appeared about seven million years ago. Wow! Seven million years is a long time, isn’t it? Not when measured on a cosmic scale of billions, or more likely trillions. {Wait a moment! Is a trillion a million billion, or a thousand billion? It doesn’t matter, except to establish perspective. And the perspective is this… the amount of time you’ve just taken to consider how many years exist in a trillion is far longer than the Universe will remember the ugly little blip we call mankind.}
However the situation is far worse than that.
Mankind wasn’t the Earth’s cancer until very very recently. Collectively we set out on a path of rampant, willful devastation of our planet and its resources with the start of the Industrial Revolution. Barely two hundred and fifty years ago… In a mere two hundred and fifty years we have managed to pollute our fresh water, our oceans, our air, and every landmass upon this formerly pristine planet. We have also managed to drive uncounted thousands of unique species into extinction. And in that same miserable two hundred and fifty years the overwhelming majority of humanity have been driven into abject poverty.
Mankind has been deceived into accepting that the unconscionable greed of the few outweighs the modest needs of the many.
If we wish to survive, we have to change. There is no other viable choice than drastic change.
If we choose to say nothing, then nothing will change. Words are the fruit of thoughts, and within the fruit of words are the seeds from which deeds grow.
Raise your voice for change. If you don’t then who will?
