Thinking/Fire and the End of Man

I think it was the poet, Charles Olson, who made the comment, "Man learns a little thing, puffs out his chest, crows about it and then goes happily about his day." I'll go this observation one further, "Man acquires knowledge like a circus ape learning a new trick. He jumps up and down, does a few somersaults then goes back to playing with his own shit."

For the most part Western Man ignores cohesive knowledge. We tend to be single minded, goal oriented and straight lined in our thinking. Our base of knowledge is a collection of parts. Specialization is the word of the day and we are taught the dangers of being a 'know it all.'

I once had a kindly philosophy professor who was thoroughly berated by a student's angry mother, "He was such a happy boy before you made him think."

We live in one world, fragile and failing, and it is the whole that must be understood, not any fragment of it. - Paul Theroux

Global warming is a moot point. The earth warms up, the earth cools down; this we know. Species come and go. There is little we can do in our short time on the planet. The earth will survive, man most assuredly will not. The story of the planet takes eons to tell. When our ancestral monkey's uncle took his first steps away from the cradle of civilization and began to wander, propagate, proliferate and adapt to the world this was at once the beginning and end of the age of man. The history of our decisions reflects the desire to survive for a short while longer. True to our natural propensity toward intellectual and physical laziness, desire for comfort and satiation our choices have not always been beneficial to the health and well being of our home, the species homo sapiens and the other living guests aboard this orb.

Over one million years ago some monkey looking dude lit a fire. Since then combustion has been mankind's energy policy. Be it wood from the forest, gunk from the ground or corn from the field, if it will hold a flame we will harness the power.

Even the most primitive man also saw the other powers of nature. The awesome authority of wind, the brilliant supremacy of sun and the rule of Vulcan for centuries provided small service because fire proved easiest to control and lazy man thought 'there is plenty to burn'. Now we see that there are consequences to our simplemindedness. We have over oxidized the earth, the atmosphere is becoming exhausted and man is melting his world at both ends.

The answer lies within the circle of life of Indian lore. All that remains to be seen is if man can renounce his indolent ways and douse the flame.

Even if we do put an end to combustion it will only allow us to survive a little longer. With man gone the green of the forest and the jungle will rise up through the concrete and asphalt and will cover every man made thing and begin to do the work of reclamation. The power of nature is a hand of god and the moment we decided we had control over earth we sealed our fate.