Jerome Irwin
This is the question that lies at the heart of many political-economic-environmental crises in today’s world. Whatever the source, it always has something to do with humans not living within their means in harmony with other humans and the natural world around them. The very nature of humans is corrupted by the seven hellish sins of: pride, avarice, envy, wrath, lust, gluttony and sloth; engaged in perpetual conflict with their opposites among the seven heavenly virtues of: humility, generosity, kindness, patience, charity, temperance and diligence. It’s a perpetual Ying/Yang that seeks the creation of either a Heaven or Hell on Earth.
The crisis at the heart of the upcoming Paris Climate Conference is no different. All the lofty goals, hopes and expectations yet to be drafted by well-meaning humans will inevitably remain fraught with many such Ying/Yang frustrations and acrimonies.
Given the scale of the multitude of problems in the world – fueled by a constant out-of-control population explosion and neoliberal, fascistic war of economic-political-military-environmental terror - unless the human nature of Homo sapiens can demonstrate rapid, radical, positive change, nothing will fundamentally reduce the human or planetary crises at hand. So, unless and until some remarkable new balance or homeostasis somehow is struck between these seven sins and virtues, the Hell on Earth humans seem intent upon constantly creating for its own and other species will simply continue to escalate.
As the 2015 Climate Conference convenes in Paris, amidst on-going war tensions that threaten to engulf the world, the French government’s decision to ban civil society protests, marches and rallies around the conference, or the daily skewed spins created by the world’s mainstream press that constantly subvert the truth about so much, are reminders of what forever lies behind the catastrophe of the human crises and their parallels in the natural world. Since many of the world’s best and brightest will be prevented from convening in Paris or muzzled from discussing the real source and solution to so many perplexing human dilemmas and impasses, the real core question is whose values, ultimately, will be given the greatest precedence in the increasingly chaotic world in which the human species finds itself enmeshed?
As the 2015 Climate Conference convenes in Paris, amidst on-going war tensions that threaten to engulf the world, the French government’s decision to ban civil society protests, marches and rallies around the conference, or the daily skewed spins created by the world’s mainstream press that constantly subvert the truth about so much, are reminders of what forever lies behind the catastrophe of the human crises and their parallels in the natural world. Since many of the world’s best and brightest will be prevented from convening in Paris or muzzled from discussing the real source and solution to so many perplexing human dilemmas and impasses, the real core question is whose values, ultimately, will be given the greatest precedence in the increasingly chaotic world in which the human species finds itself enmeshed?
No matter what comes out of Paris, life will go on as it always must, whether human crises manifest through further horrific events like: the Paris Tragedy of November 13th; the Syrian Civil War; mass exodus of displaced Middle Eastern, African, South American peoples, or; the endless ‘War of Terror’ waged against both humans and the planet. Yet as life goes on, will it reflect ever more corrupt-anarchic-elitist-fascist values, morals and principles that are bringing the world to its knees due to too little propensity for making positive, life-giving changes?
The physical outer world is always a mirror reflection of the inner spiritual world. The mounting planetary climate change simply an extension of escalating climatic conditions among humans that only ever seem to change in the degree of intensity and amount of violence that is perpetrated against the earth or humanity, whether the violence is: some monstrous civil war; an ignorant, mean-spirited political harangue against raising the minimum wage of the average worker, irrespective of how much obscenely more their CEO counterparts receive, or; corporate monsters like Monsanto, Pfizer, Lockheed Martin or Raytheon, to name but a tiny few; and rogue countries like Saudi Arabia, Israel, United States, amidst a rogues gallery of still unnamed others, who constantly destroy the welfare and well-being of the planet and humans alike.
Some new all-encompassing word must be found for the human tongue that can succinctly communicate for the marginalized masses and their leaders the real dimensions of this violent human-climatic crisis that, once uttered, as if by magic, will everywhere cause the penny to drop and bring about a much-needed 180 degree sea change within the affairs of the human species and its tiny planetary home hurtling together through endless unchartered space.
Yet, one way or the other, with or without we humans as fellow travelers, our Planet Earth will continue, undeterred, on her cosmic journey towards whatever unknown destination.
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