In nature, it would never occur to a predator (meat-eating animal) to run around slaying other animals beyond the number it can comfortably consume. The predators instincts inform it that such behavior is a waste of its energy, and is destructive to its life and future because it reduces the number of prey animals available to it the next time it does get hungry. Even after a predator has made a kill, once its fed itself it leaves the remains of its kill for other animals, so that nothing ever goes to waste. Humanity, as an aware and self-conscious iteration of nature, has been gifted the mental capacity to either choose to operate within these natural living flows and balances, or to defy them and deny their existence for self-serving ends. Thats how we wind up with human beings who ignore the fact that they are working ceaselessly to accumulate far more than they can ever possibly consume or use, and who do so at the expense of other people and the natural environment upon which they they too depend to supply and meet their genuine needs—both now and into the future. A person who works to accumulate hundreds of millions or billions of dollars is comparable to a lion who has chosen to run amok in the fields, slaying zebra after zebra with callous disregard for the impact its behavior has on the zebras, the health of the veldt AND on itself. We would consider such a lion insane, and would probably shoot it for the good of the whole. Why then, do we hold up and honor as beacons of success those human lions who tear off vast chunks of social resources—more of our shared society than they can ever possibly use—and then deny access to what theyve claimed for themselves to anybody else? When did we decide it was okay for such beings to pollute and degrade our shared planet and its rivers and air, or to cause mass extinctions and mineral depletion in the name of greater short-term profits? When did we get comfortable watching so few accumulate so much, while so many have so little? How does this behavior—or our tacit approval of it—in any way genuinely benefit life, or honor the balance of nature?
Posted on: Thu, 10 Apr 2014 14:31:11 +0000
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