Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Armageddon, Anyone?

It is increasingly obvious that people are trying to annihilate themselves. Since the earliest times, populations have been threatened or even destroyed by natural catastrophes. Plagues, volcanic eruptions, tidal waves and earthquakes have been recorded or found to have occurred in areas where they have eliminated huge numbers of people. It is the modern age that has brought about the ingenious inventions that can cause comparable destruction. Of course, the human fascination with death is at the root of this. There is an ongoing demonstration that people can kill anything that lives, be it environmental or civilian. Incessant warring around the world has provided a convenient outlet for people's homicidal urges, which is a well-known source of study in social analysis. The populace must justify the existence of nuclear weapons, gas attacks or engineering of incurable killer viruses.

However, it is similar technology that often backfires and destroys the makers. In a similar fashion, industry is a threat to those that are developing and using it, as may be readily observed in the production and transportation of oil. The cancer rate climbs steadily due to the constant use of fossil fuels and nuclear power. Some say that these disasters are accidental, but what does one say about the tendency for it to happen repeatedly, in the same way? It seems that there is an overwhelming desire in human beings to bring about cataclysm, even if it causes their own demise. A suicidal nature in people has driven society for the past few centuries, either as a result of anti-personnel technology, or the uncontrolled quest for wealth. National leaders and corporate heads are willing to risk the welfare of an entire population for the sake of nominal success, and even when operations fail, there is always a pile of corpses to take responsibility. In fact it is beginning to look like the propagation of death and destruction is one of the main goals in human advancement.

One day dinosaurs will rule the Earth