I just finished watching a movie. The remake, actually, of an old movie and an even older story. The Day The Earth Stood Still - about an alien visit to earth to save it. Not the people, but the planet. Somewhere in there, someone answered the question, why? "This planet is dying. The human race is killing it. If the Earth dies, you die. If you die, the Earth lives." The original had a message directed to nuclear discoveries at the time (1951) and this one was that and more: our treatment of our planet and our treatment of ourselves. I don't think the movie was given much acclaim at the time it was released (2008), but man, is the message timely now!
There is something that has begun to weigh on me, in a strange way. It's almost as if I can feel the weeping of the earth, a groaning, an anguish. "How long will the land mourn and the grass of every fiend be withered? Because of the evil of its residents, the animals and birds have been swept away, for the people have said, He cannot see what our end will be." Right now, the hatred I am witnessing around me scares me - I am becoming more sensitive to animosity around me, and it doesn't matter where it is coming from. The Right thinks they're correct and the Left thinks they're the ones who are correct. Each wants to remove the voice of the other. Christians think they're right and Atheists / Gays / Liberals are wrong and the other side call Christians bigots and racists and all sorts of other inflammatory names. Both sides use labels of hate to the other, in ways that I have never seen. Globally, the average of 90,000 Christians are martyred every year; regimes exist and persecute and kill, in the name of power and control. If one thought that genocide only happened with the Nazis, it's happening right now. So, the quote from the film: yes, it can be about our environment (for we are destroying that, too), but it an also be about us. We have lost the ability to get along with each other ... or, did we ever have it? Maybe not collectively, but I do believe that there were people throughout time how did. And, they were often killed for that message.
We talk about the importance of mental health - maybe we should talk more about the important of love and community. there was a study done, many years ago - Rat Park. Prior to this, they thought that the addictions kind of fed themselves until it killed the subject; that given the option between drinking water and ingesting the drug, the rats come the drug until it destroyed them. However, when 'Rat Park' was created (with things to do and people/rats to see), the 'addiction' was much lessened and in some ways, removed. Oh, the test was flawed, the results were skewed, addiction doesn't work like that. However, what I think is important from there is the social connection. And we, even more than rats, are social beings. And, if we thought and talked and lived more in community, I bet there would be many changes in many areas of life.
In the movie, removing the threat of annihilation came at a cost. The quote above - there's a part of me that wonders if that is what it will take. A removal of the world as we know it: technology, energy, and all we take for granted. Even this computer I am typing on. What if it was all taken from us, but were left with our lives? Maybe when we discover we need to depend on each outer again, for our very lives, then we will change. Maybe, when we reach that precipice, the one between existence and annihilation, maybe then we will see the value of the other person, regardless of what label they have. Will that work for 'us', for Westerners .. but will it work for 'others', like those that propagate hateful rhetoric in both North America and other nations? I wonder what would happen if all their technology stopped working for them? Would they then turn to other non-technological instruments to continue their quest? or would they begin to review their part in this?
I once got in a discussion with a friend - this person was adamant that 'we' need to stop building all pipelines because, in her way of thinking, without the pipelines, we will stop (or slow down) the climate change. And, they might, if ALL pipelines, the world over, were shut down ... but one, I doubt it. And, if this is the ONLY thing being addressed, I wonder how much good it will do. It will have far worse consequences to those affected by its absence. It seems to me that big-picture thinking is absent ... let's target one thing and think it will change everything, and to hell with anyone who is affected by it, but the more it will crus part of our society. Just ours - and other will then take advantage of us. Pressure needs to be for more than just one, for more than just here. Maybe, if the plug was pulled on all energy all at once, the world over, then change would have to happen. Change or die.
I hate to say it, but I agree - maybe we need to come, collectively, to that precipice ... one then, do we have a hope to change. Until then, the hatred and targeting will not stop, only grow. Medication and drugs will continue to be used for bandaids, greed will continue to kill, spirit and human, and we will continue to be broken. What a sad, sad state!
There is something that has begun to weigh on me, in a strange way. It's almost as if I can feel the weeping of the earth, a groaning, an anguish. "How long will the land mourn and the grass of every fiend be withered? Because of the evil of its residents, the animals and birds have been swept away, for the people have said, He cannot see what our end will be." Right now, the hatred I am witnessing around me scares me - I am becoming more sensitive to animosity around me, and it doesn't matter where it is coming from. The Right thinks they're correct and the Left thinks they're the ones who are correct. Each wants to remove the voice of the other. Christians think they're right and Atheists / Gays / Liberals are wrong and the other side call Christians bigots and racists and all sorts of other inflammatory names. Both sides use labels of hate to the other, in ways that I have never seen. Globally, the average of 90,000 Christians are martyred every year; regimes exist and persecute and kill, in the name of power and control. If one thought that genocide only happened with the Nazis, it's happening right now. So, the quote from the film: yes, it can be about our environment (for we are destroying that, too), but it an also be about us. We have lost the ability to get along with each other ... or, did we ever have it? Maybe not collectively, but I do believe that there were people throughout time how did. And, they were often killed for that message.
We talk about the importance of mental health - maybe we should talk more about the important of love and community. there was a study done, many years ago - Rat Park. Prior to this, they thought that the addictions kind of fed themselves until it killed the subject; that given the option between drinking water and ingesting the drug, the rats come the drug until it destroyed them. However, when 'Rat Park' was created (with things to do and people/rats to see), the 'addiction' was much lessened and in some ways, removed. Oh, the test was flawed, the results were skewed, addiction doesn't work like that. However, what I think is important from there is the social connection. And we, even more than rats, are social beings. And, if we thought and talked and lived more in community, I bet there would be many changes in many areas of life.
In the movie, removing the threat of annihilation came at a cost. The quote above - there's a part of me that wonders if that is what it will take. A removal of the world as we know it: technology, energy, and all we take for granted. Even this computer I am typing on. What if it was all taken from us, but were left with our lives? Maybe when we discover we need to depend on each outer again, for our very lives, then we will change. Maybe, when we reach that precipice, the one between existence and annihilation, maybe then we will see the value of the other person, regardless of what label they have. Will that work for 'us', for Westerners .. but will it work for 'others', like those that propagate hateful rhetoric in both North America and other nations? I wonder what would happen if all their technology stopped working for them? Would they then turn to other non-technological instruments to continue their quest? or would they begin to review their part in this?
I once got in a discussion with a friend - this person was adamant that 'we' need to stop building all pipelines because, in her way of thinking, without the pipelines, we will stop (or slow down) the climate change. And, they might, if ALL pipelines, the world over, were shut down ... but one, I doubt it. And, if this is the ONLY thing being addressed, I wonder how much good it will do. It will have far worse consequences to those affected by its absence. It seems to me that big-picture thinking is absent ... let's target one thing and think it will change everything, and to hell with anyone who is affected by it, but the more it will crus part of our society. Just ours - and other will then take advantage of us. Pressure needs to be for more than just one, for more than just here. Maybe, if the plug was pulled on all energy all at once, the world over, then change would have to happen. Change or die.
I hate to say it, but I agree - maybe we need to come, collectively, to that precipice ... one then, do we have a hope to change. Until then, the hatred and targeting will not stop, only grow. Medication and drugs will continue to be used for bandaids, greed will continue to kill, spirit and human, and we will continue to be broken. What a sad, sad state!
