The Innocence of Dogs/The State of Our World
As I sit in slow-moving, bumper-to-bumper traffic en route from New York to Boston by way of the Chinatown bus (despite my earlier-expressed convictions against the journey on the Chinatown bus, I still put myself through the misery to achieve the desired fantasy: New York to Boston in four hours for only $15), I start to take into account all the world's problems. Beginning with traffic, I think about how many cars are on the road right now, which leads me to think about global warming, gas prices, the economy, the war, etc.
We live in a puzzling time, and it is interesting that all these things come crashing down all at once. I am one to believe in fate, and the possibility of the human race truly entering into an apocalypse of sorts, but I also believe in a very distinct cause and effect relationship synopsis of our problems.
The constant struggle of man vs. man in the realm of economics and business very much leads into the argument of man vs. nature. Competition feeds itself, and business is no different: it thrives on itself. When money is to be had, what force of nature is going to stop it? And so over the course of the last hundred years or so, we've witnessed the tentative rape of the natural world. Oil spills, the depletion of rain forests/animal species, air pollution, cell phones, fast food, modern health care, and the isolation one feels when listening to an iPod are all unprecedented advancements of society and/or nature and can all be attributed to mankind's trying to make better for himself and his society. Whether it is positive or not is up for debate.
"It's so convenient!" "It's so easy!" "It's so cheap!" they say. "If we all just do it this way, we can all achieve the desired results in this amount of time, and it only costs this much!"
But how many repetitions can we perform before the machine begins to break down? And how long will it take us to realize the system we've all grown accustomed to, the system we all know and love, can no longer sustain us the way it is supposed to and the way we need it to? We are collectively finding out, rather quickly, it seems.
The system of creating, buying, consuming, destroying ends up depleting our resources much faster than we can replenish them. At the same time, the population of our world is ever growing, creating more and more mouths to feed, more and more eyes to look at screens, more and more hands to reach for things, and more and more brains left unfulfilled.
Overpopulation could be a huge problem.
In traffic, for example, the questions remains that if less cars were on the road, if less people thought they needed cars, wouldn't there be less pollution? and more fuel to go around? and better bus service? Just sitting here, this bus is crowded to the point where I can't even sit comfortably the way I'd like to; I wouldn't be able to stretch out without bumping into somebody and probably really offending them. I'd really like to distend my limbs to take up their maximum amount of space, but I'm cramped in this seat, sitting with my legs on top of my bookbag, and giving the girl next to me as much room as I can. I keep giving myself charlie horses during this bus ride that is going to last greater than or equal to four hours long (a quick gripe about the Chinese bus: they have a schedule, sure, they have to, but I think it must be completely arbitrary. It's written in English for pity's sake, can the bus drivers even read it? They certainly can't speak it. The bus is supposed to leave at 3:30pm...or whenever it gets full of passengers. There is supposed to be a "10-minute" break at some point on the journey, usually whenever the bus driver needs a cigarette. The bus arrives...eventually...whenever it gets there. This bus ride, which is supposed to take four hours, has once taken up to nine hours for me personally. Most of it is the traffic, so it is not the bus driver or the bus company's fault, but I still must gripe.)
It brings me back to the argument that overpopulation might be part of the problems of the state of our world right now. Certainly nobody can argue that there have never been as many people living on the planet as are currently. Overpopulation could be a problem, but that's the wrong way to look at it. And furthermore, it seems that while the world is so overpopulated, people are also dying at an alarming rate. The numbers we have witnessed in the last few years is staggering.
America, itself, has been engaged in a war that has killed thousands of people. Mass shootings are commonplace, and genocides are rampant. The population of the world has taken a serious dent in the wake of natural disasters, which seem to front the news day in and day out. People are dying, we can be sure of that. Even as we check our blogs and our sports pages and read the latest on Britney's custody battle, people are dying. People who you know and I know, who have connections and relationships and similar interests to us are still dying.
Even though these people are dying, though, the world still seems overcrowded. Not knowing any of the statistics, I would argue that people are being born and living longer exponentially more than people are dying. Even though people are dying, I'm still rubbing elbows with everybody, strangers and celebrities alike, because they literally have no place else to go.
Overpopulation is not the problem, though. To the question, "what is our problem?" it could be an answer, an easy one at that, but it's not the answer, not the only one anyway. Overpopulation is not the problem, but it is a problem when multiplied by the lifestyle we all want to lead: Supply. Demand. Supply. Demand. Demand, demand, demand. Supply, supply, supply. Demand. Shortage. Period of waiting. Lack of natural resources. Poor economy. Lots of people dying. Supply (possibly from alternative sources). Eternal happiness?
The numbers don't lie. $4.19 may be too much to pay for a gallon of gasoline, but the numbers aren't what need a drastic overhaul, the lifestyle is. Just because you can afford gasoline at the current and rising price, doesn't mean you are at a better place in the world than those who can't. Other people can't afford to lose what you can afford to waste, and sooner or later that truth is going to be evident in all walks of life.
It's going to be a while before we reach the solution to our rising problems. It's going to take a period of trial and error before reaching efficiency and sustainability of that efficiency. It will take a few tries to get to the point when we can satisfy our wants, our needs, our fantasies, while not shorting any other person or thing what it needs to survive or have the chance to succeed itself, and that includes Mother Nature, as well as, dare I say it, big business.
There is room on this earth for big business. And small business. And especially non-profit/volunteer help. There is room for entertainment. There is room for health, maturation, and growth. There is room for depletion and mistakes, but not much more. There is room for expensive coffee, maybe not as much room as we originally thought, but there is room, no doubt.
Life is not going to be figured out by watching a movie, not one movie at least. It's not going to be figured out by listening to a record over and over. You'll figure out somethings, but not everything. You're going to figure it out little by little, by watching movies and listening to records, but also by never ceasing to learn, by going places, and meeting people. We're going to figure it out by looking into our neighbor's eyes and asking, "what is it that you want? what do you need?"
In the meantime, more people are going to die. More time is going to be wasted. It's going to be painful to watch, to listen to, and to experience. In the end, though, we will find the answers in each other.
Not everybody will have everything. Some people will be slighted and treated unfairly and some will be hurt, while others will seem to get by unscathed and appear to have life handed to them on easy street.
We will develop balance, equilibrium, sustainability, and happiness. We may not get what we want, and we may not get what we need, and if that be the case, we will change. As humans, we are able to change, we are allowed to change, and, most fittingly, we will change if we have to.
People cite the innocence of a child as being the epitome of untainted purity, but I feel that children are getting less and less innocent as our times change. The innocence of dogs is much more relevant, I feel. Dogs always have been and will continue to be obliviously happy.
It so happens that as I sit here, desperately frustrated in this traffic jam, a pair of dogs sit in the back of an SUV and ride by. With their pleasant expressions, their tongues hanging out, and their eyes taking in all the world has to offer, these dogs float by with no comprehension of the the problems of the world I just mentioned. They do not have an understanding of economics or war, at least not to the complex level of capacity that we do as humans. They just sit and go for the ride, and they enjoy it.
They are happy with the slightest bit of attention given to them. They may not know how or how much, but they know they are loved, they know they are taken care of. And when their lives come to a painful demise, we humanely put them out of their misery, taking care of them still, and sending them off to a better place (as you recall, all dogs go to heaven).
It's funny though, that I see a lot more stray humans than I do stray dogs, and maybe it is for different reasons entirely, but imagine if we showed that same slight attention to each other as we do to dogs. Imagine how happy we could be.
We live in a puzzling time, and it is interesting that all these things come crashing down all at once. I am one to believe in fate, and the possibility of the human race truly entering into an apocalypse of sorts, but I also believe in a very distinct cause and effect relationship synopsis of our problems.
The constant struggle of man vs. man in the realm of economics and business very much leads into the argument of man vs. nature. Competition feeds itself, and business is no different: it thrives on itself. When money is to be had, what force of nature is going to stop it? And so over the course of the last hundred years or so, we've witnessed the tentative rape of the natural world. Oil spills, the depletion of rain forests/animal species, air pollution, cell phones, fast food, modern health care, and the isolation one feels when listening to an iPod are all unprecedented advancements of society and/or nature and can all be attributed to mankind's trying to make better for himself and his society. Whether it is positive or not is up for debate.
"It's so convenient!" "It's so easy!" "It's so cheap!" they say. "If we all just do it this way, we can all achieve the desired results in this amount of time, and it only costs this much!"
But how many repetitions can we perform before the machine begins to break down? And how long will it take us to realize the system we've all grown accustomed to, the system we all know and love, can no longer sustain us the way it is supposed to and the way we need it to? We are collectively finding out, rather quickly, it seems.
The system of creating, buying, consuming, destroying ends up depleting our resources much faster than we can replenish them. At the same time, the population of our world is ever growing, creating more and more mouths to feed, more and more eyes to look at screens, more and more hands to reach for things, and more and more brains left unfulfilled.
Overpopulation could be a huge problem.
In traffic, for example, the questions remains that if less cars were on the road, if less people thought they needed cars, wouldn't there be less pollution? and more fuel to go around? and better bus service? Just sitting here, this bus is crowded to the point where I can't even sit comfortably the way I'd like to; I wouldn't be able to stretch out without bumping into somebody and probably really offending them. I'd really like to distend my limbs to take up their maximum amount of space, but I'm cramped in this seat, sitting with my legs on top of my bookbag, and giving the girl next to me as much room as I can. I keep giving myself charlie horses during this bus ride that is going to last greater than or equal to four hours long (a quick gripe about the Chinese bus: they have a schedule, sure, they have to, but I think it must be completely arbitrary. It's written in English for pity's sake, can the bus drivers even read it? They certainly can't speak it. The bus is supposed to leave at 3:30pm...or whenever it gets full of passengers. There is supposed to be a "10-minute" break at some point on the journey, usually whenever the bus driver needs a cigarette. The bus arrives...eventually...whenever it gets there. This bus ride, which is supposed to take four hours, has once taken up to nine hours for me personally. Most of it is the traffic, so it is not the bus driver or the bus company's fault, but I still must gripe.)
It brings me back to the argument that overpopulation might be part of the problems of the state of our world right now. Certainly nobody can argue that there have never been as many people living on the planet as are currently. Overpopulation could be a problem, but that's the wrong way to look at it. And furthermore, it seems that while the world is so overpopulated, people are also dying at an alarming rate. The numbers we have witnessed in the last few years is staggering.
America, itself, has been engaged in a war that has killed thousands of people. Mass shootings are commonplace, and genocides are rampant. The population of the world has taken a serious dent in the wake of natural disasters, which seem to front the news day in and day out. People are dying, we can be sure of that. Even as we check our blogs and our sports pages and read the latest on Britney's custody battle, people are dying. People who you know and I know, who have connections and relationships and similar interests to us are still dying.
Even though these people are dying, though, the world still seems overcrowded. Not knowing any of the statistics, I would argue that people are being born and living longer exponentially more than people are dying. Even though people are dying, I'm still rubbing elbows with everybody, strangers and celebrities alike, because they literally have no place else to go.
Overpopulation is not the problem, though. To the question, "what is our problem?" it could be an answer, an easy one at that, but it's not the answer, not the only one anyway. Overpopulation is not the problem, but it is a problem when multiplied by the lifestyle we all want to lead: Supply. Demand. Supply. Demand. Demand, demand, demand. Supply, supply, supply. Demand. Shortage. Period of waiting. Lack of natural resources. Poor economy. Lots of people dying. Supply (possibly from alternative sources). Eternal happiness?
The numbers don't lie. $4.19 may be too much to pay for a gallon of gasoline, but the numbers aren't what need a drastic overhaul, the lifestyle is. Just because you can afford gasoline at the current and rising price, doesn't mean you are at a better place in the world than those who can't. Other people can't afford to lose what you can afford to waste, and sooner or later that truth is going to be evident in all walks of life.
It's going to be a while before we reach the solution to our rising problems. It's going to take a period of trial and error before reaching efficiency and sustainability of that efficiency. It will take a few tries to get to the point when we can satisfy our wants, our needs, our fantasies, while not shorting any other person or thing what it needs to survive or have the chance to succeed itself, and that includes Mother Nature, as well as, dare I say it, big business.
There is room on this earth for big business. And small business. And especially non-profit/volunteer help. There is room for entertainment. There is room for health, maturation, and growth. There is room for depletion and mistakes, but not much more. There is room for expensive coffee, maybe not as much room as we originally thought, but there is room, no doubt.
Life is not going to be figured out by watching a movie, not one movie at least. It's not going to be figured out by listening to a record over and over. You'll figure out somethings, but not everything. You're going to figure it out little by little, by watching movies and listening to records, but also by never ceasing to learn, by going places, and meeting people. We're going to figure it out by looking into our neighbor's eyes and asking, "what is it that you want? what do you need?"
In the meantime, more people are going to die. More time is going to be wasted. It's going to be painful to watch, to listen to, and to experience. In the end, though, we will find the answers in each other.
Not everybody will have everything. Some people will be slighted and treated unfairly and some will be hurt, while others will seem to get by unscathed and appear to have life handed to them on easy street.
We will develop balance, equilibrium, sustainability, and happiness. We may not get what we want, and we may not get what we need, and if that be the case, we will change. As humans, we are able to change, we are allowed to change, and, most fittingly, we will change if we have to.
People cite the innocence of a child as being the epitome of untainted purity, but I feel that children are getting less and less innocent as our times change. The innocence of dogs is much more relevant, I feel. Dogs always have been and will continue to be obliviously happy.
It so happens that as I sit here, desperately frustrated in this traffic jam, a pair of dogs sit in the back of an SUV and ride by. With their pleasant expressions, their tongues hanging out, and their eyes taking in all the world has to offer, these dogs float by with no comprehension of the the problems of the world I just mentioned. They do not have an understanding of economics or war, at least not to the complex level of capacity that we do as humans. They just sit and go for the ride, and they enjoy it.
They are happy with the slightest bit of attention given to them. They may not know how or how much, but they know they are loved, they know they are taken care of. And when their lives come to a painful demise, we humanely put them out of their misery, taking care of them still, and sending them off to a better place (as you recall, all dogs go to heaven).
It's funny though, that I see a lot more stray humans than I do stray dogs, and maybe it is for different reasons entirely, but imagine if we showed that same slight attention to each other as we do to dogs. Imagine how happy we could be.
posted by Leland J. Fischer at 2:06 AM
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