Nature is always beautiful, especially so today ...
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People always seem to respond positively to manatees. It is easy to understand why, too, since they are wonderful, peaceful and delightful.
The living world doesn't engage in any economic activity and according to the principles of classical economics it has no intrinsic value whatsoever (except to the extent to which humans can destroy it) ... it only serves the maintain the planet in a condition hospitable to human life.
There is something profoundly wrong with humankind's relationship with Nature and the every other living thing on the planet just as there is something profoundly wrong in the manner in which humans behave toward each other.
I watched The Dark Knight yesterday and it was an entertaining movie. How entertaining ...
According to IMDb:
39 vehicles are crashed, shot, blown up, bumped, or otherwise involved in some sort of violence in this film.
SPOILER: Body count: 36
Humans love violence. The dark, disturbing soul of humankind is revealed in the movies just as it is revealed in the newspaper. News of Iran's troubles has provoked the usual amount of warmongering, violence-wishing, revolution-dreaming, bloodshed-anticipating from the public.
Everyone loves peace and everyone loves war. Is it any wonder that human history has been one long nearly unbroken chain of warfare? I turn to the local newspaper and every new day brings a new body count from yesterday's violence.
If it was possible to actually list all of the humans lost to violence worldwide on a daily basis the number would be truly staggering. There's nothing whatsoever entertaining about fictional violence when this world is filled with real violence.
I really must wonder what humans would do if our species were ever to actually attain peace. If humans were not fed violence twenty four hours a day and humans did not commit acts of violence and there was no warfare ... exactly how would humans live?
Not that there is any need to worry about what would happen should that ideal world ever occur. It won't. Violence and destructiveness are intrinsic to human nature and therefore inescapable. Humans will remain violent until our species goes extinct.
Since humankind's violence includes the wholesale destruction of the planet and the ecosystems vital to the survival of our species ... the extinction of the Homo sapiens is inevitable.
No matter how many warmings humankind receives about the consequences of humankind's violent, destructive behavior there is no cure for the illness afflicting the species.
So the newspapers and movies and television and music and our religions and our past and our present and our future are filled with violence.
It is a tragedy of immense, cosmic proportions.
Who will teach peace to humankind?
David Mathews
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