The Feeling
It is often pondered upon and stated, with as much pride as poise, that the distinguishing capacity of a human being from other creatures is not the brain, but the conscience and emotions that we possess. Countless people, by way of books, talks or films, have depicted this phenomenon of human uniqueness. Mostly by employing aliens on the verge of some form of destruction, who are captivated by an exasperating bond that humans share. And are goaded to leave and give humans on earth another chance.
These incidents are very contemplating and of a fairy tale nature. They have a happy ending, a moral for everyone to ponder upon and are marginally successful. However, when one looks deep into the psyche of human ‘uniqueness‘, one finds that the differentiating factor is not the conscience or the emotions but our ability to bifurcate a divine path. Every creature ever known, studied or theorized upon has to follow a divine path – Survival.
Survival or existence which also means endurance, subsistence and persistence, is the ability to survive. It becomes avoid argument, if one considers the absolute survival of a being at any costs. It is marred by the fact that we fail to look at the complete picture. Survival is being part of a whole. Being promoted to a new generation. Without beingextinct.
The pattern of mankind has been a very rare, but not unique one. We share our behavioral traits with viruses and other virulent forms. In the fact that we find, reproduce and search. We label these creatures as boon or bane, depending on their use or usefulness to us. Those that plague us are a disease. Those that help are virtuous. When we look at Earth from an outer space perspective, we might be driven to think humans are a more potent form of thisdisease; that is not only much more powerful, but also more effective.
A creature is defined as a mortal or an organism that has ‘life‘; i.e. it follows the basic capacity to feed and reproduce . Every creature has a fixed pattern of behavior that is ensued out of its species and kind. Cases of deviation from this behavior are extremely small and isolated. As such, somewhere along our evolutionary assembly line, we acquired the capacity to successfully deviate from the divine path.
Earlier scriptures and sayings emphasize on nature being the mother goddess. No other superior being existed apartfrom those found in nature. It arose from the fact that nature had great control over life – to create and to erase. No creature in its capacity could circumvent nature. Hence the god-like attribution. However, mankind soon changed from being a nature-abiding species to a nature-corrupting one.
A famous line says – “With great power comes great responsibilities“. I think someone missed the part “and a choice“. We (as humans) are, today, way beyond that choice. Yet we are sitting up and beginning to take notice. “All is not lost” seems to become an echo in the raped mountains of today. No human can defy all that humankind hasachieved, by way of lifestyle, convenience or survival. And this is exactly why none of us of can return back to nature again. Because, simply put, we have changed nature.
In this new nature, we are much more in control than we were ever permitted to be in. And yet we were caught unaware when the poisons began bleeding out and into our lives, where we could see them, and hence think about actions. Today we may not do much, but a little feeling helps. Imagine a world tomorrow, where all your fairy tales would be called a lie, because those animals didn’t exist. The seas would be empty. Insects would dominate over other species. And mankind would be a repenting bystander.
Plant trees, save electricity, reduce pollution – be it air, water, soil or noise. These are agonizing slogans shouted across to hollow minds. They plead us to sit up, notice, act. But we don’t. Somewhere down, a little deep inside, it doesn’t stir up things the way it’s supposed to. The kind of stirring a mother has when her baby is crying. The kind a kid has when his toy is crushed. The kind when a famished has his food stolen. Somehow it lacks a tipping point.
We have had all kinds of revolutions. We might be in a eco revolution right now, seeing the environmental awareness that’s tried to be created. There was renaissance. There was computers. Shares. Communications. Today we have social networking. All these things clicked something in humans for them to be successful. Maybe that’s what we are missing.
A simple analytic (even you, perhaps, by now) will know that I am talking about a feeling. We all lack a feeling. Maybe that’s what prevents us from acting. The wood, plastic, rubber, concrete, glass all have a story to tell. We don’t have the feeling to hear them. Maybe that’s why we can walk the street. Cross a drain. Toss over the garbage. Stand freely in the rain. Does living today mean abetting this anti-nature witlessness? Do winds of change have to become storms? Start small, End big – many success orators have promoted this. Why not in this case? There is no point in telling what to do, like a tasklist.
Once you have the feeling, you will find your own way…