Dear Mr. Bukowski,
You're quite the pessimist, my good sir. Do you have any faith in humanity, or do you believe the only reason we have existed for so long is our inability to completely eradicate ourselves from the earth? I feel like humanity will prevail, though it will have incredibly hard trials to face, such as dealing with North Korea and Iran (third-world-istan). There are already mass efforts of deweaponizing the nations with the most nuclear stockpiles. Were you hurt as a child? I find that one's outlook on the world greatly has something to do with one's early developmental years, which i think end at the ripe age of fifteen, which I am yet to acquire. I feel that once we have had a nuclear war, we cannot forget it. We have attempted to do this with the Holocaust, but we don't preoccupy ourselves with it. We can never allow ourselves to not think about nuclear war. The Holocaust was one of the great blunders of humanity to this day, but nuclear war would be exponentially worse. Genocide is awful, however human eradication is a step up from that. I think that humanity has more intellectual power than you credit it for having. I mean this very respectfully.
Sincerely, Sohrob.
P.S. Humanity is fin-to be hella strong, G.
(Haha. Is it bad that I kinda laughed at some of your post? Funny~)
ReplyDeleteWhile having faith in your own race is something we should all technically do, I don't think humanity offers a lot to hope for. I'm with the latter choice: we were simply lucky enough to not wipe ourself off the face of the planet.
I think your thinking might be a little narrower than others' when talking about humans bringing about a virtual apocalypse. I mean, don't limit the catalysts of destruction to nuclear war. What about a failure of government or breakdown of society, or global warming (also our fault) killing off almost all life?
The thing about humanity is that we try to cover up our faults with new technological advances. These seem good at first but may turn into a detriment for us. In the end they drive us apart and become problems and add to our faults. Like the nuclear weapons you mentioned. We made them to cover up our fear and to beat out other countries in terms of military strength, but now that so many nations have nuclear weaponry it's just an impending doom looming over our heads like an anvil. A nuclear war-result of our brilliant creation of nuclear weapons- would be the end of us. But they started as a good idea right?
Regarding Bukowski and his views, hey, to each his own. I'm kinda right there with him. That part where you said that one's earlier years in life have an impact on one's view of the world has a lot of truth to it. But those years don't necessarily stop at 15, do they? I'm fifteen, and honestly, with all this chaos and economic crap going on in the world around me, my view of the world isn't getting any better. I think that one's view often depends on experience. And with my knowledge and experience, the intelligence mankind is blessed with isn't used very well.
If humankind is so smart, why is the US in +$10 trillion in debt, and getting worse? Why'd it take so long to get out of Iraq? And why does our economy suck so bad, if you excuse me for saying?
Sorry for ranting…I really did enjoy your post though, and the fact that you got me to write so much means you make a valid point. :)