Death is not something we, as people, like to consider. A horrible, grim face hanging over us through our measly portion of days. But what, I ask, would we do if days were not so scarce in our fleeting lives? Would we live better as a result, or merely worse?
One of mankind's biggest challenges is to smash this idea that we are invincible. We are all well aware of our own mortality, that much is true. Yet we live like this were not the case. We seek advantages to squeeze into our mere three score and ten years. We are conditioned, quite horribly, to strive to provide for our offspring beyond our deaths, despite their being , presumably, more than capable to provide for themselves. We are encouraged to live as much as possible. Sadly, in this world, with this order, that means extracting as much as we can for ourselves and our lineage, much to the detriment of all else. Other people, other beings, other lifeforms, other organisms - they can all go to hell as far as we are told to concern ourselves. What matters is ours and our own.
These divides are always based upon kinship, as they are in nature. But unlike in nature we are made to fight against our better judgment. We do not for the species. We do not for our genetic kin. We do for our enforced kin. Our families, our friends, our fellows in belief, our fellows in nation, our fellows in artificially created society. Ask yourselves what is wrong with this? We are a creature that by statistical significance, is as much chimpanzee as human being. Indeed, by statistical significance we are probably as much sponge as human being. So why, then, do we insist on keeping our advantage within our own sphere?
What is more, has man not reason? Can we not think? I had always assumed we could. The problem is, we are so intelligent that while we can think, so can we be manipulated to think certain ways. Especially so when indoctrination into thinking in those ways begins before our birth and continues well into senescence.
We, human beings, are so blessed with mental capacity that we are as much children of environment as we are of genetics and upbringing. Genes can be switched on and off, and instincts too, by what we are taught, what we experience and what we feel growing up. So here is what I propose to teach.
I propose to teach every human being the utter fleetingness of their life outside the sphere of humanity. To put it into a universal, a planetary, a living, a biological kingdom, a biological phylum, a biological class, a biological order, a biological family, a biological tribe, a biological family and a biological species, order. To teach each and every individual just how truly, incredibly, unbelievably insignificant they are - and to teach them also just how statistically unlikely they are and how this makes them truly special. I propose we teach people the nature of existence and, for all organisms, how short it is in the scale of universal time. To teach every single living person on this planet just how lucky they are to be alive, how unlikely their life is and why, therefore, it is imperative we protect and improve all life, particularly that which is too vulnerable to protect itself.
We are but a brief sneeze in time. A statistical anomaly in space. We are nothing, yet we are everything. From the first moment RNA was somehow fabricated to the evolved, DNA based beings we are now - we are but a footnote in the annals of eternity, and this is what truly makes life so precious. Life is not precious because we have it, it is precious because we all - all living species upon Earth, someday will not. Life is not precious because of the clothes you wear, the music you listen to, the television you enjoy, the company you keep or the moments you spend. Life is precious because, but for statistical chance, none of them could exist - and failing statistical impossibility - all will one day be gone. Maybe some think this is a dreadfully depressing and nihilistic attitude to take. But are not the most short-lived of wonderful moments the most precious? Should we not, as a human race, be aiming to maximise the number of these moments for all, rather than hoarding them for ourselves? Should we not at least try to make the world a better place, so that future generations may gaze upon the legacy we have left them and say "All this was made possible by a few who realised why life was truly sacred...Not because life was, but because it just as easily may not have been, and certainly will not be in the future"?
I don't ask for a huge change in all those living. Choices are easy, enforcing them when the social order is against you is very difficult. But I do ask for a change. I ask for a change in mindset, from one that declares life as sacred - after all, this merely enforces the ego-driven idea that our individual life must be more sacred to us than others - to one that declares life as merely a fleeting random chance. I ask for a change in mindset that says that pursuit of one's own gains should only be taken so as to provide more for those disadvantageous enough not to receive those gains. I ask for a change that sees all human life as TRULY equal, from the richest to the poorest - the healthiest to the sickest - the youngest to the oldest. We are all bonded by life, we will all be unified in death. We are either babes or corpses and nothing more nor less.
Maybe it is egotistical of me to ask this from people who do not think like me. But ego is merely expression of self, and I am a sad and desperate man who is hurt more by others' suffering than by his own. My ego asks that everyone accept this parity and demand change, so that those whose suffering we feel suffer no more. I am, also, the kind of egotist who would put himself on the line to see this happen. Is this a bad ego? You tell me...
I have seen, in my too short a number of days on this Earth, many people living. People getting on with their lives, doing their own thing, without knowingly harming others. This is how life should be. But only in a world where others are not harmed by this ignorance and apathy. Sadly, the comforts we enjoy do come at the cost of the comfort and quality of life of others. This is what I ask we consider. This is what I ask we change. For the good of humanity, and the good of all life on the planet.
Peace and love.
