A thought pondered publicly on my facebook page yesterday:
Hard to decide which is worse today … mother nature or human nature …
Since my thoughts were bouncing around between the hell in Japan going on now, the mess in Libya and the safety of friends in Bahrain … and feeling bloody helpless on all fronts … it seemed a valid point to focus upon.
Responses provide perspectives, as always …
Claire: nah – mother nature does not know spite – revenge – greed. She is an equal opportunities destroyer. Human nature picks off the weak, the frial, the least able to defend themselves.
Wow – that was a bleak thought!!
Bill: Gotta vote for human nature. Mother Nature is great. As Claire pointed out, she is equal opportunity. Do something stupid you get what you probably deserve. Act responsibly, sustainable and with the flow instead of against it and you’re golden. Mostly.
Yes, it does boil down to a case of Nature vs Nuture Murder.
There’s so often very little kind in mankind, as today’s world shows only too well. At a time when thousands upon thousands of fellow humans are suffering the consequences of living on our natural world, the best other thousands can come up with is beating the crap out of their neighbors.
Can we even imagine a world where dealing with the mindless harshness of our planet would be a group effort of global dimensions?
We all know shit happens … quakes, tsunamis, volcanic eruptions, fires, floods, droughts, avalanches, polar shifts, incoming asteroids, solar flares, and on and on and on … and that we are frail, furless creatures at the mercy of said shit. Doesn’t it seem that should be enough to bond us together as a species?
If resources were poured into hedging bets against the forces of nature instead of building weapons stores, our response to catastrophic events would look nothing like it does today. We’d live in safer, stronger places, have plenty of food and water set aside for emergencies and take care of each other, our children, and our futures.
After all, are we not sentient beings? Don’t we have the intelligence to see big pictures, understand consequences and make plans?
How can it happen that, given the instability and unpredictability of the rock we spin through space upon, the total stupidity of placing enough importance on ever-so-slight differences of opinion to have us killing each other makes any sense at all to anyone?
Sure, there were times when Japan was as if another planet and what happened there impacted no one else, when some asshole despot could wipe out a good percentage of his population and nobody would be the wiser. That, however, is no longer the world we live in, and we must be really fucking stupid if we think what happens over there can’t be biting our own personal ass within days or hours or minutes.
And maybe that is the answer: We ARE that fucking stupid.
We’ll continue as humans to be perpetually taken unawares when shit happens, to abuse each other in any way seems fit at any given moment, to foul our own dens and kill our own kind over things that don’t matter in the slightest in any big picture. We’ll learn little from disasters, continue making the same mistakes over and over again and suffer the consequences while shocked by events.
Yep. We are THAT fucking stupid.
A collection of my short stories:
I'm in this one, too ...
And I'm in here, as well ...
Paradise Preoccupied 
You hit the nail on the head “And maybe that is the answer: We ARE that fucking stupid.”
we pay to inhale arsenic (cigs)
we drink when we know it Will make us fuck it all up
And we irradiate our own planet.
pretty fucking stupid – but we’re only human.
Yep. Sad … but true.
whatever destruction mother nature bares down on us from time to time, will never add up to the level of destruction we bare onto ourselves…
we are an egoic species… as long as there is ego, we’re all doomed…
Don’t see that going anywhere anytime soon …
Superb article, Sandra. I agree with you and Ian. I know I’m that stupid. I smoked cigs etc. and drank way to much alcohol.
However, do you think we’ve been smart(or dumb) enough to figure out how to create earthquakes.
It seems it was on at least one persons mind in 1898.
Check out; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tesla%27s_oscillator
I’m sure we’ve made quite the advancement since 1898.
Check out; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HAARP
Who knows what is going on in the World in the name of research? I sure don’t.
Ah … that HAARP biz! Yikes.
Personally, I don’t care if someone drinks or smokes or intravenously injects cheese-and-caffeine-tacos, but beating the crap out of each other for reasons that amount to nothing but silly pisses me off.
Yes, it pisses me off also. I don’t get that whole mindset.
I’m far from the conspiracy theory thing and I just can’t help but wonder what we could be really capable of either directly or indirectly.
I think we’re lied to a LOT, but what they’re not telling us … well … we have no idea. There are times I can get very into the paranoia of conspiratorial conflagration, as it makes good fiction. At least I hope it’s fiction …
I like being human. I want to go to heaven, for sure. The answer is – how much are you willing to sacrifice to be kind to another. We love greed. I love greed. If it was my MG or that child in the road I’d take my MG. and what. If bohemia was stripped from us and you had a choice, would you pick bohemia or help the people. Japan got whacked who’s next?
Well, some are more willing than others, and some not at all. One thing to keep in mind is that none of us get out of this alive …
great picture, shining example of a moran.
Yeah … I liked it, too.
“There’s so often very little kind in mankind, as today’s world shows only too well.” So damn true – unfortunately. I look at even my own country and see things I’d rather not see.
“None of us get out of this alive” – but some of us seem to think we will live forever……..
It’s the whole of humanity that keeps getting it wrong, R …
All I can say is that though evolution is the reason we are who we are, it effects everything, taking everything to the next stage, to evolve into something better. so as the strong become stronger, the smart become smarter, well….. the stupid become…. you see where I am heading? 😉
Evolution is a process that depends upon several factors humans no longer employ, eg. selective breeding and survival of the fittest. That’s what got us here, but may not take us forward, but backward.
I agree, I think if we put a ban on stupid people breeding the world would be like 200 people, there would be no wars and eden would have a new meaning 😉
Maybe not a total ban … but perhaps a qualifying test?
You do have a point, its funny, we have to be educated to work, we have to have a license to drive, we have to be of age to drink. But anyone with a dick and a uterus can create the future of the human race
You should see the process that must be gone through to adopt a child! But to make one from scratch all that’s required is 5 minutes and a bit of phlegm.
There was also recently a bit of news here about the requirements for a couple to enter an IVF programme. Need police clearances from any coutnry they’ve lived in for more than 12 months in the last 10 years, that sort of thing. Yet we do NOTHING about ensuring the suitability about, as you say, people making one from scratch!
Even in my situation, I needed police clearances to become a step-parent – yet if I married a fellow Australian I could become a step-parent without anyone batting an eyelid. In my case it is Hague Convention requirements, which is fine – but does this mean we only protect overseas children and not ones born and bred within our own borders?
The inconsistency astounds me!
There is no rhyme nor reason when it comes to this stuff, as you know, Robyn.
So now they’re putting hoops up for IVF? Hm. I’m guessing that’s only for those without private insurance. And this is the first I’ve heard about the step-parent thing. How in the world do that do that when marrying someone with kids automatically conveys step-parent status?
Oh, no. Everyone. Private insurance doesn’t matter and our insurance is totally different anyway.
As for the step-parent thing – it is the difference between having immigration involved, versus marrying a local. That is the inconsistency. I find this inconsistency, well, remarkable is the only word I can politely post!
Ah.
It’s like with my kids and USA law … because Sam and Cj became mine through adoption, not homemade, and because I don’t live in the US anymore, unlike children born to me they do NOT automatically become US citizens. Nope. To have that happen I have to take them to the US and actually apply for that, and be charged something like $3,000 per kid. Well … since they have UK and Seychelles citizenship, I’m not one bit bothered about them being Americans. In fact, the idea of Sam having to register for the draft at 18 would not make me happy, so we’re passing on all that. Of course, if later they decide to go for it, they will have that option, but I’m not playing the game now. It SUCKS.
I don’t usually leave links to my own work here – but did you see this one? Not exactly related directly to my situation, but I found it very interesting nonetheless. http://teamoyeniyi.wordpress.com/2010/11/28/stateless-babies/
Oh FFS!!! The push it to the point of the ridiculous, don’t they? (Thanks for the link, Robyn.)
I do know that Sam’s and Cj’s children will not be granted UK citizenship unless they … Sam and Cj … reside in Britain for some time. Being that the UK is part of the EU, I have no idea what that means as far as the rest of Europe goes. Of course, they keep moving the fuckin’ goal posts every couple of years, so what happens by that time is anyone’s guess. Countries really need to get over it.
I’ve been reading a lot lately from international families in Japan … a Japanese married to a non-Japanese with children born in Japan or in other places … now trying to figure out what to do and where they can go with all this shit happening there.
Yes, I was pretty shocked when I read The Age article linked to at the top of my entry. FFS sums it up nicely! I couldn’t believe so few coutnries have signed the UN instrument to prevent this, ESPECIALLY since we are becoming an increasingly mobile global population.
You know, I didn’t think of the current Japanese situation in relation to stateless babies – but it is no doubt causing some issues.
Agree totally – countries need to get over it!
Not only mobile, but international. The very concept of borders is becoming more of a hindrance than any sort of boon, aside from those whose power base depends on keeping people separated and lines drawn. One very small world, we are, and the same species, and families are neither bound nor drawn together by nationality.