5 posts tagged “w”

No, the only fundamentally unsolved problem is the unsteady interregnum between imperial ages which may be dying and a planetary society which struggles to be born is whether the rich and fortunate are imaginative enough and the resentful and underprivileged poor patient enough to begin to establish a true foundation of better sharing, fuller co-operation and joint planetary work. The significance of the Mediterranean setback is quite simple that it underlines how little those nations with the genuine power to act – for conservation, against pollution, for the shared commons – are ready to confront the cost, minimal though it is compared with the gargantuan wastes of war. In short, no problem is insoluble in the creation of a balanced and conserving planet save humanity itself. Can it reach in time the vision of joint survival? Can its inescapable physical interdependence – the chief new insight of our century – induce that vision? We do not know. We have the duty to hope.

Barbara Ward in Progress for a Small Planet, 1979

It seems that our autocatalytic social evolution has locked us onto a particular course which the early hominids still within us may not welcome. To maintain the species indefinitely we are compelled to drive toward total knowledge, right down to the levels of the neuron and gene. When we have progressed enough to express ourselves in these mechanistic terms, and the social sciences come to full flower, the result may be hard to accept. It seems appropriate therefore, to close this book as it began, with the foreboding insight of Albert Camus:

A world that can be explained even with bad reasons is a familiar world. But, on the other hand, in a universe divested of illusions and lights, man feels an alien, a stranger. His exile is without remedy since he is deprived of the memory of a lost home or the hope of a promised land.

This, unfortunately, is true. But we still have another hundred years.

Edward O Wilson in Sociobiology – the new synthesis, 1975

There are lots of compulsory optimists, considering it will always continue somehow, because it always continued. How would that be nice! The future is prepared now and starts NOW. It has a stable trend in the wrong direction. This will also be the end of a sweet dream. The expelling from Paradise ends in nothing. The larger part of humanity is marching noisy into cataclysm; the smaller part resignating in a proper blend of helplessness and wisdom. It is too late to create power from the despair. With eyes wide open, we are looking into the emptiness of the universe. We are lost between billions of miles and billions of years. This is the way things are.

Manfred Wöhlcke: Das Ende der Zivilisation (The End of Civilization), 2003

I believe that in the process of locating new avenues of creative thought, we will also arrive at an existential conservatism. It is worth asking repeatedly: Where are our deepest roots? We are, it seems, The Old World, catarrhine primates, brilliant emergent animals, defined genetically by our unique origins, blessed by our newfound biological genius, and secure in our homeland if we wish to make it so. What does it all means? This is what it all means. To the extent that we depend on prosthetic devices to keep ourselves and the biosphere alive, we will render everything fragile. To the extent that we banish the rest of the life, we will impoverish our own species for all time. And if we should surrender our genetic nature to machine-aided ratiocination, and our ethics and art and our very meaning to a habit of careless discursion in the name of progress, imagining ourselves godlike and absolved from our ancient heritage, we will become nothing.

            Edvard O Wilson: Consilience – the Unity of Knowledge, 1999

There are many constrained optimists, thinking that somehow life will continue, because it always did. That would be nice! The future is prepared today and it starts now. It indicates a steady trend in the wrong direction. This starts the end of a wonderful dream. The expulsion from Paradise ends in nothing. The majority of mankind is marching noisy into the disaster; the minority is resigning in an appropriate mixture of perplexity and wisdom. It is too late, still creating force from the despair. With big eyes, we are looking into the emptiness of the universe. We are lost between billions of kilometres and billions of years. This is the state of affairs.

            Manfred Wöhlcke: The End of Civilization (Das Ende der Zivilization), 1996