This isn’t an either-or situation.
A better world is possible; and we’re so fucked.
That’s what’s so fucking frustrating about it. It’s not like some meteor is on track to render our planet molten over night - we know exactly the kinds of things we need to be doing. We choose not to. There are warnings of human-induced climate change / global warming that predate any of us posting here. Our response wasn’t to stop the things that are killing ourselves, or even pause or slow those things - we went into a full fucking sprint. Worse than just a sprint… the rate of acceleration is itself accelerating. Even when there’s no actual reason to make it worse, we do it anyway. Look at AI - it’s a fucking blackhole for money and tech resources. We don’t get shit back for that investment, and to the contrary, using it makes ourselves worse on an individual level. All it’s doing is poisoning our air and water, and in exchange we get entry-tier computer parts with enthusiast tier price tags; and lose the ability to think critically. We’re putting effort - like, a LOT of fucking effort - into shooting ourselves in the foot.
A better world is possible. Actually seeing that possibility manifest is being stolen from you.
Don’t worry.
A better world is possible. And going one step further its not just possible, but inevitable.
Unfortunately to get there, about 200-300k years is going to have to pass before the pollutants we’ve dumped into the environment have been sequestered back underground\in the core by whichever plants and microbes manage to survive the next 20-50 years, because even if it’s not looking like we will, some organism will survive us.
Even that isn’t a guarantee. Non-human life is insanely resilient by human standards, but zoom out to literal entire observable universe with its trillions of planets, and so far we have a sample size of exactly 1 that’s capable of supporting life, to include extremophiles. They’ll outlive us for sure, but we have no idea if they’ll outlive whatever downward spiral we’ve set our planet on.
In the context of the universe at large, “life, uh, does NOT find a way!” Life is a statistically insignificant fluke that’s fragile as fuck.
Not only that - but on earth, life has only about a billion years more before the sun renders this planet uninhabitable. Losing hundreds of thousands of years is a really high price even on the cosmic scale.
This is something I struggle with, as I’m an environmental scientist and keenly aware of the state of our environment. Layer increasing resource and food scarcity, and the implacable orphan crushing machine of capitalism, and the picture is bleak.
I am one man, and I can only do so much. The problem is so unfathomably big and complex how can anyone hope to fix it? Any one. That’s the issue. We’re so used to thinking individually and that we are powerless apes in the experiment of our cruel masters. However, apes strong together.
It’s easy to despair; hope takes courage. Hope is stubbornness in the face of adversity. Hope is rebellion.
Even if “we’re so fucked”, we should still let “better the world” power us.
We’re so fucked leaves you on the couch giving up, better the world is a place where creative implementation can flourish. Maybe we can’t save the globe, but we could creatively torment the people who caused it, (I hold no checks or balances against how far that sentiment is taken). We could still take down whole systems or companies, I feel like the world would be better without them, and I know I’m not alone. There’s a million microaggressions to be delt to the self proclaimed elite class whom have gotten us into this mess. They’re all incredibly emotionally immature, they wouldn’t cope well. Making them feel how they’ve caused us to feel, is restorative balance.
I choose fight. Even more so if we’re fucked.
Both are true.
It’s a quantum metronome.
The arc of the moral universe I keep hearing about.
A better world was possible
Dude, the Earth isn’t real. Get off your materialistic ass and learn you some truth of the inner workings of Karma through spiritual work, y’know, skillful intention setting to ensure you perceive and undo the karnic fetters that bind you to the existence-illusion complex. There’s big boy work to do. Bet this dwanky thinks causation is linear. Hey buddy! There are many planes in which will can manifest the progeneration of indubitible cause! The kids like that, rats why I’m a cop.
