Safety Harbor's wildlife, including a family group of manatees ...
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This is the sort of world which is alive & free and therefore either invisible or worthless to the economists. The manatees have lived for millions of years without needing to have jobs, credit cards, shopping malls, fast food, newspapers, industry or a military.
For whatever reasons, humans imagine that we're better than the animals. Perhaps humans are more foolish or more proud or more self-deluded or more destructive than the animals, but we're certainly not better.
Do you know where you are? Here is your home:
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/...
Look at all those stars. Every single one of them is brighter than the sun. The Earth doesn't amount to much within this scale.
The Universe is extremely large but the human mind is extraordinarily small. Needless to say, the Universe doesn't belong to us.
Why are we here? Have you ever wondered what purpose humankind serves in the great scheme of things?
I'll tell you: None whatsoever.
There is no goal, no purpose, and no real progress for humankind. What has occurred over the last several centuries amounts to nothing much more than an illusion of progress as humankind has chased a mirage.
Humans aren't going anywhere. Humans belong to the Earth. The Earth doesn't belong to humankind. Humans aren't going to climb on rockets and conquer space nor are humans going to spend eternity with the gods.
Everything that humankind has gained will be lost in the centuries ahead. All of science, all of technology and all of civilization will pass away. You can verify this easily enough though you already know that this is true intuitively even if your conscious mind seeks to run away from the conclusion.
Nothing lasts forever. The United States, Technological Civilization and humankind are all temporary things. Perhaps the gods are immortal but even that is a doubtful proposition.
I encourage humankind to live differently even though I know it is impossible. Given the futility of the effort it is no small consolation to live on a planet and in a Universe filled with a near-infinite supply of beauty.
David Mathews
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