03/08/2023: Reflections After a Mind Blowing Book
Are we so self important that we can’t accept the hard truth that we are meant to die? I picture the end of the world, however it may come, the events that set the inevitable catastrophe in motion. The widespread panic, the survival instinct of the masses kicking in. There will be those who accept their fate and go quietly. There will be countless others who will fight to the bitter end, even when it is a complete and utter waste of time. But their frantic minds convince them that they are worthy of being saved, that they would do anything to make it out of the end of the world alive. But what will be left to live for?
Even if we were to be selected among the lucky few that would be transported to a new life away from here, what would we sacrifice to do it? Can we hinge our last remaining hopes on the illusion of chancing upon a new world that could sustain us, a place we can actually rebuild? The painful truth is, we brought upon the destruction of the world we know, driven by our own selfish impulses and devilish desires. We will escape to a new land full of promise; we will swarm the thriving planet like parasites, and slowly we will suck the life out of this promised land as well.
Is it worth living like packed rats, on a magical space craft, surviving until we can find a new land to destroy when we touch it? It would end in a slow slip into madness, mutinies of the masses, just for food, water, oxygen. Fighting to live just one more day, the future just as bleak and uncertain as it has always been. What is the driving force behind the human race’s lack of willingness to sacrifice themselves, to die? We can’t accept that there is a possibility that we have made the world far worse as a result of our persistence, our foolish beliefs that we should leave a legacy behind in our children. Can we not understand what kind of world we’re leaving behind for the next generation?
There will be nothing left once the sun burns out. And all those who believed they were chosen, spared because of their evolutionary promise, they can’t see that they are just like everyone else: selfish, ignorant, meant to die. Nothing makes any of us more deserving than the next person; we would all do unspeakable things just to live. We have to ask ourselves what for.
Realizing there is no logical answer to this question, it is more simple to accept our fate, as individuals, as the human race. We will always bring the end of the world, no matter what world we live in or on, no matter how far we run. It’s in our nature to bring destruction, desolation. It’s better to accept this and let go.
Note: If you’re concerned for my wellbeing after this post, don’t be LOL. I was sucked in and inspired by The Gone World by Tom Sweterlitsch when I wrote this, trying to cope with the post binge reading depression and existential crisis that always comes when I’m sucked back out of the fictional world back into the real one. If you like true crime and sci-fi, I highly recommend! Even if you don’t it’s an amazing suspense/thriller.