E.O. Wilson Talk and Ishmael
"There may be the temptation to treat biosphere holistically and the species that compose it a great flux of identities hardly worth distinguishing one from the other, but each of these species, even the tiniest, are masterpieces of evolution. Each has persisted for thousands, even millions of years. Each has adapted exquisitely to the environment in which to live, interlocked with other species, to form the ecosystems upon which our own lives depend in ways we have not even begun to imagine. We will destroy these ecosystems and the species composing them at the peril of our own existence. And unfortunately, we are destroying them with ingenuity and ceaseless energy."
The connection between Ishmael and E.O. Wilson's TED talk is simply summed up by the excerpt above from Wilson's talk. Humans constantly place ourselves in the center of everything. We believe that the world was made for man, and man was made to conquer it. And so, we set out to conquer. We exterminate everything that we think will threaten our survival. We do not realize that everything plays a role in the world. We do not realize that if we destroy our ecosystem, we will not be able to live. We do not realize this, for maybe it is our nature not to realize. Or perhaps it is Mother Culture whispering in our ear, telling us that the world was made for humans, and humans alone.
We are much too proud to realize that our lives are dependent on things that are not under our control. Take for example, the 500 species of bacteria living symbiotically in each person's mouth and throat. These bacteria are necessary to each person's health as they hold off pathogenic bacteria. In our vanity, we do not explore the vast domain of hidden biodiversity. Why? Because there is no need to. We believe that in no way are these tiny organisms related to us.
Instead, we choose to destroy these species. We believe that man is set out to conquer, and achieve glory. Hobbes believed that the nature of man is comprised of competition, diffidence and glory. We conquer for gain. We conquer for safety. And lastly, we conquer for reputation. Humans are so set on what we believe is our destiny, and our survival, that we will do anything to make sure we achieve our goal and fulfill our destiny. We don't realize the harm we are causing to the world and the other species of the world.
Our ethnosphere is disappearing, our biosphere is disappearing, our world is falling apart. What we do not realize is that man is a part of the world. We exempt ourselves from the laws of life. So we do not see that with the collapse of the world, man will follow. We do not realize that it is "the law that fosters life for all - life for the grasses, life for the grasshopper that feeds on the grasses, life for the quail that feeds on the grasshopper, life for the fox that feeds on the quail, life for the crows that feeds on the dead fox," or that it is the law that has been followed for centuries by all the living organisms.
We need only to look at the concept of the A, B, C society to see interconnectedness. The As depend on the Bs, the Bs depend on the Cs, and the Cs depend on the As. The same can be applied to the human world. Everyone, and everything is interconnected on some level. Humans just don't realize it, and so we set about destroying the Bs and the Cs of the world (Of course humans consider themselves the As, for A comes first) without any thought for the consequences.
We are free-falling, experiencing the thrill of freedom of air, without the realization of what is to come, and, as Wilson said, "flying blind into our environmental future."
Labels: global ethics
