The beginning of the end…
- Martyn Foster
- 3 days ago
- 3 min read
…or the end of the beginning.
As Iran and Israel (with the help of America) continue to knock seven bells out of one another, I found myself mulling over the drive we have as humans to annihilate ourselves. This drive, thankfully, is superseded by our humanity and “the better angels of our nature” as President Lincoln once uttered and Professor Steven Pinker utilised for his 2011 book on declining violence. Still, I can understand and empathise why the layperson – and even someone like me – may feel we are losing the war with ourselves.
It's in our nature to destroy ourselves
It's in our nature to kill ourselves
It's in our nature to kill each other
It's in our nature to kill, kill, kill
- Blood Brothers, Papa Roach.
It’s the age-old battle between good and evil, except it’s more than that. I’d like to move beyond good and evil – well done those who understood the reference. In a sense it does feel more like a will to power nowadays than based on any ultimate truth, which is essentially what Nietzsche was getting at. Things are being done because they can rather than because they should be.
Why do we continue to do this to ourselves? I would imagine it is because of a combination of factors starting with instinct, conditioning, cultural and social reinforcement, politics and grievances that refuse to die. As I alluded to last week, we’re moving into an increasingly tech-based future with AI which will almost certainly be used to facilitate and maintain this mode of being and possibly accelerate it.
In my home country of Australia, we’re having a bit of a non-crisis fuel crisis at the moment with the associated effects now becoming more apparent e.g. freight, food (both price and supply). Regional areas are worse affected, especially famers in need of diesel, although people in the city cry the loudest – a metaphor for life, really (sorry I couldn’t resist). The push away from internal combustion and a reliance on fossil fuels towards hybrid and electric vehicles has received an added boost given the current circumstances, but it’s more about Australia’s dependence on the Middle East for oil and the current war disrupting supply than necessarily a fault of the type of engine – I might elaborate on this topic in a future article, but back to the subject at hand.
“What is better? To be born good or overcome our evil nature through great effort?” – Paarthurnax, Skyrim.
Death Stranding is a video game series by Hideo Kojima which focuses on dealing with the possible extinction of the human species, amongst a number of other existential themes. Having just completed the recent sequel, it is somewhat symbolic of our current state as a species; some people want to bring about the end of existence (and fast), but thankfully more people want to see the continuation. Also, it brings about questions of if the end of existence is upon us, how do we want to go out? Categorically, the game is very much in favour of staving off the end on our own terms. It’s very much apparent that even if there’s only a chance of success, we humans still don’t like that choice taking away from us. The triumph of our spirit is what has served as well in adapting across the period of evolution, steeling within us the will to overcome challenges for the greater good and more specifically, those we love. Against the odds. Against immense suffering. Life will go on, we will prevail.
Keep on keeping on, my fellow brothers and sisters. We have to keep making the right choices even if we feel we are the only ones making them. We have to make our own decisions or run the risk of having someone else make our decisions for us – which may seem appealing, but ultimately leads to a worse outcome.
“In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth…”, and mankind took the ball and ran with it. It’s time to reclaim the ball.
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