A New Paradigm

Just moments ago I saw a 14-minute synopsis of the tragedies that have struck worldwide all year long causing immense grief, loss and damage. That such a “catalog of horrors” could be summed using video footage and news clippings is, to me, a remarkable footnote upon the technological progress humanity has made. We have instruments today that are far more sensitive than any since the dawn of the Industrial Age. We have access to sources of information that were unthinkable even half-a-century ago. But human psychology and mental assimilation are yet to adapt to this ever-accelerating change.

It is only moments of great personal tragedy that remind us of the life we lived and are possibly going to miss forever. And when the internet and the television make the whole world “personal” and expose you to catastrophic events on a scale that vastly outstrips our own life, it becomes infinitely more difficult not to choke and gasp and psychologically collapse, especially if you are of a tender temperament. Already there are questions being asked about how much “disaster publicity” is actually good for the average person. I think it will require much more than a media poll to determine the answer. It might even take some individual soul searching.

The reason I take this extremely seriously is because I do not shrug away the possibility of a singular sequence of events that will forever alter the way humans live and go about their lives. I am not trying to euphemistically portray a doomsday scenario, only drawing attention to the increasingly probable changed reality that such global phenomena as climate change might create. While this could mean a number of things in terms of evaluating calamitous incidents, the extreme is the survival of pockets of humanity who are forced to rely on the leftovers of modern technology.

On the other hand, there is the technological equation. There is a school of thought whose core belief is that the Earth has forever been unstable, with earthquakes and other similar phenomena occurring very frequently. That we were thus far unaware of this fact is explained by a lack of technology – for measurement, for storing and distributing information. Thus we are now in possession of a highly active “disaster media” transmitting all the details, however grisly, of every single scary event. This particularly line of thought underscore the point about adaptation I made at the beginning.

Thus the position that we need to let our minds absorb the fact that we live in a very fragile ecosystem, one that’s being constantly pushed, pulled, kneaded and stretched by a host of forces whose actions are still at the fringes of our knowledge. Perhaps with even more scientific advances we can understand these better, but until then we need to patiently imbibe the lessons being thrown helter-skelter at us and learn to tailor our existence to the ever-transient world around us. What must most definitely change is the attitude that we can continue a way of life that ignores nature.

It is my belief that we cannot choose to be irreverent about something we have very little knowledge of.  At the same time, we cannot cower in fear either. The only middle course is that of awareness – making the best use of whatever knowledge bases we have to further our understanding of the Earth and the cosmos is our best hope. It is knowledge alone that can help us stay sane and rational when the proverbial hell breaks loose. That and just a little smidgen of fear, that ensures a state of awareness at all times. Stay aware, stay cautious, stay safe, friends.