Wednesday, April 30, 2003

Getting the Big Picture

The word big is not a big enough word to describe how I view our fate as a species. So I'm going to try and explain the underlying concept I use on life, the very thing that motivates most of my decisions and opinions I harbor.

"[Life] is a tale told by an idiot -- full of sound and fury, signifying nothing." -Macbeth

That's the quote I probably can identify with the most. It means we can easily get caught up in our piddly lives but in the end, it really means nothing. It's an attitude that causes me to always try and look at the bigger picture of life, our reason for existence, why we do the things we do and the conclusion I keep seeing is our survival as a species as the main reason for our lives. We are here to give birth to the next generation and to keep an environment that will support them, hopefully forever.

Because of these views, I won't have many opinions on the everyday activities in life. Sure I have a few, you can read through my posts to see them, but it's just a hobby, a reason to babble. I'm passing the time while still completing my obligation. Far too often it is mistaken for apathy. It's not that I'm apathetic, it's that I just don't care. Actually, I'm not apathetic, there is just something more important to care about then which political party I am affiliated with, or who owes me five dollars, or what my view is on the homeless.

Initially, I didn't have a big opinion on the war between the United States and Iraq. Wars are just as meaningless as a trip to the store (keep in mind the focus is on the bigger picture here). Ultimately though, there is a good cause for this particular war and perhaps others, and that is to try and civilize the world and put a stop to personas whose ideals promote extinction. It is my hope that with the world civilized, we can concentrate on more important things such as technology, medicine, philosophy, culture - subjects that will work towards the extension of our lives:

Technology to develop the means for space travel, to get off of one planet that at some point will no longer be able to sustain life. How far was Iraq from starting its space age?

Medicine to extend the lifespan by ridding the ailments that causes death or weakness in the species.

Philosophy to know there is more to life than work and a need to expand our ideas, our image of ourselves so that we don't become stagnant which will lead to extinction.

Culture to keep many variables in the species so that we don't become one breed which would cause stagnation which would lead to extinction. I do want to be clear that although I support certain conflicts that seemingly may want to support the American or western or protestant way of life, I don't want to see everyone Christian, Muslim, Jewish, white, black, brown, democratic, socialist, liberal, conservative - whatever. It doesn't matter! I am in support of quite the opposite, the more individual the identities the better.

Also, we must continue to challenge ourselves so that we don't fall into repetition which leads to stagnation which leads to extinction. We must try new things for our species, we must take many risks, we must accept the temporary losses such boldness causes, rack it up to experience and move on, better off as a species with the new knowledge.

These are harsh words but it is our lives, our very existence we are dealing with and nothing is more important. We must support the factors that keep us going.

It is because of my views that I support an anarchy type of government. The ultimate challenge of our people is to not be ruled, not be governed by laws which tell us how to live which leads to stagnation. It encourages us to be more aware and very much motivated to survive if we have no laws. It is survival of the fittest and natural selection will promote the stronger who can keep our species alive. Any dependency on anything long term leads to stagnation (ergo extinction). But the Catch-22 on an anarchy form of (no)government is that we would probably have a tough time advancing our technology and medicine, which is two of the crucial ingredients for our survival. The other two factors, philosophy and culture would grow wildly, but it's not enough to keep us alive one million years from now.

Everyone feels the need to keep our species going. We reproduce to extend ourselves as an instinctive need for immortality. We do this to keep our civilization alive, to give meaning to the actions we took in our life. So everyone has this need, it's just that some of us get caught up in the oh-so-insignificant details of life, useless goals such as social status, power, money that we can't hear what our survival instincts are telling us. The motivation behind power (for men anyway) is the need to reproduce with every female on the planet. We have been implanted with the need to spread our seed with as many subjects as possible to insure offspring. But we can't have one man mating with all of the women, that would lead to certain stagnation.

I feel like I'm rushing through my ideology here and am only scratching the surface. I have so much to say about this that I'm sure I could write chapters on it. And maybe I will. To me, what I have said here is just a table of contents, but for now I think this is a good stopping point.