Saturday, April 18, 2015

Humanity is Dead. Long Live Humanity!

There is nothing wrong with our species. Let me repeat that, there is nothing wrong with our species. We are not flawed, inherently selfish, greedy, or malignant. We are animals, in the same way that whales,  sparrows, and mice are animals. A baby born in 2015 is the same kind Paleolithic animal as a baby born in 6,000 BCE.
Misanthropy is a cop out that reeks of lazy analysis and a dismissive attitude. It is the shadow cast by Abrahamic religion onto modern secular thought. We did not fall from grace, grace is present in every facet of life on this planet that we are so very lucky to live on.
Do you believe that the species is flawed inherently? Can you say this of your lover, your parents, your children? Can you say this of indigenous peoples who have lived since time immorial without driving themselves to extinction?
I think not.

Tuesday, April 14, 2015

To save our species, impossible. To save our spirits, fight!



There is little that disgusts me more than those who would retreat into a narcissistic spirituality when confronted with the news of human extinction. As if the endless self reflection and quasi-therapeutic trappings of this new spiritual movement will do anything to alleviate the despair and anger of the 7.5 billion people who face certain annihilation. As if the young people of this world, having seen our future dashed upon the rocks of this civilization's hubris, want to hear about accepting despair, and working through anger. We have a right to this anger, we need this despair.
The goal of this spiritual movement is to prepare it's adherents to die peacefully. If humans are to go extinct, they say, then what is left but to turn inward. This will never work, and probably cause more harm to it's adherents.
I find this movement despicable in it's retreat from any notion of actually doing anything, in a very real and terrifying sense it is the graveyard of environmentalism. I'm very sorry, but many young people will not accept that, and even if they know that all hope is lost, they will still want to fight. They will want to fight for spiritual redemption, for emotional healing,and to exact a kind of justice on the classes of people who have condemned them to death.
The appropriate  spiritual response to human extinction is not self reflection, but outward rage and playful destruction. This rage acted out on the edifice of civilization will not save our species, but it can save our spirituality now.