Opinion

Humanity is a just a global disease

The earth needs more war, famine, pestilence and death

By Jesse Davis

Posted on Sept. 26, 2005, at 12:00 a.m.

Hurricanes, disease and natural disasters of every shape and size: Every day, someone is left asking “why?” Why me? Why them? Why here? Why there? Sometimes it seems as though we are surrounded by tragedy. Some blame the government. Some blame God. Everyone blames something. The truth of the matter, however, may lie much closer to home than many would like to admit.

For centuries, the human race has flourished, slowly spreading across the globe. We have built societies and cities: Everlasting monuments to our own achievements. Yet less than six years after the turn of the millennium, we have become so overpopulated that it is no simple task to find a landscape not yet touched by human hands. We have become the enemy.

Thankfully, we live on a wonderfully resilient planet. A planet so well balanced that it has developed its own mechanisms to ensure that no one species maintains a stranglehold over the rest. Fires, floods, earthquakes, tropical storms. Each one serves a purpose – even disease.

Many would argue that these are merely stumbling blocks. Obstacles in our way that we must overcome and dominate. What happens, however, when we succeed? What have we really succeeded in but thwarting the earth’s attempt to right itself? We as a human race have completely given in to our own greed, tipping the scales squarely in our own direction with one big, fat, dirty finger.

At the same time, it is still important to remember the human emotional aspect. No one likes to lose a loved one, and the grieving process is a painful one. Despite this, we must also remember that death is a part of life. Society, it seems, has forgotten this. We spend so much time trying to lengthen the human lifespan, constantly struggling in our search for immortality. We are fighting the natural order of things, and in such a fight there can be no real victory.

The more we combat nature, the more we will tear our own world apart. By focusing so much of our attention on the length of our own lives, we have totally forgotten about their quality. We have become a nation of morons and savages who can spend hours at a time watching other people live their “lives” on so-called “reality” television, but have no lives and no experiences of our own. It is because of this that so many people fear death. People will fear death if they have never truly lived.

So how do we, as a modern society, reconcile these issues without turning our world upside down? We don’t. Sometimes drastic changes are necessary in order for improvements to occur. American society, in particular, has grown far too used to being comfortable, and it has made us lazy.

It is time for all of us to sit down, take a deep breath, and think. Think about the poverty, disease, famine, and natural disasters that are taking human lives every day. Think about them and wonder if they would be so difficult to handle if there weren’t seven billion of us running rampant, trying to turn every angle of nature to our advantage. Do you really think it would?

Jesse Davis had two children, but he recycled them for the good of the earth.

This entry was posted on Monday, September 26th, 2005, 12:00 am. You can follow any responses to this article through the RSS feed.