Are we so intelligent that our civilization has to fall?

 

The present age is supposed to be the age of intelligence. Knowledge has exploded. Reading is the national past time. We are proud of being called intellectuals. And yet we stand on the brink of destruction.

Of what use has been such intelligence? Where have we gone wrong?

We have used our intellect as a weapon. We have used it to further personal interests. We have used it to gather wealth. We have used it to amass arms. We have used it to rape nature. We have used it to establish our egos.

We have not used it to gather wisdom. We have not used it to foster unity. We have not used it to build a community. We have not used it to usher in health and wellness. We have not used it to understand our role in this world. We have not used it to help the poor and downtrodden. We have not used it to protect the living and loving flora and fauna of the earth. We have not used it to leave a better world for our children.

Today we know how to fight and destroy ourselves. We have acquired the power to undo whatever humankind has acquired over aeons of truly rational thinking. All of that knowledge and wisdom that sustained populations and communities and exhorted them to be and do good was trashed to embrace the thinking of marauding brutes.

When a gigantic ball is set rolling it becomes impossible to check its progress. That is what is our position now. We are gripped by the intense desire to kill and rip apart whatever that is good to establish our own personal ambitions without thinking of the consequences and impacts on society and civilization. Love has disappeared from our hearts. It would be better to say that even love has been weaponized as it has become a tool of deception.

Can we fall any further?

Civilization and sanity watch from the sidelines. The wise have fallen silent resigned to fate. The juggernaut rolls, gaining impetus from our intellectual misadventures.

We have forgotten the simple truth that setting one community against another leads to war, not peace. Confrontation is destroying us but like the camel that loves eating thorny bushes we keep on munching and boosting the tempo of hate, hoping one side collapses and victory is ours. We forget that there are no sides in this world. Everything exists in harmony. The exit of one disturbs all.

It is after all the accumulated hate and the weapons amassed are allowed to explode and do their worst shall we realize the value of the wonderful creation that the world is meant to be.

The world we hate so much is waiting and dreading the pain to come so it gets an opportunity to recover, regenerate and place before us another opportunity to discover ourselves.

The earth mother is unlike her son.