Re: RE: If it isn
bogie said:
Haggis McBagpipe said:
It makes me wonder, though: Since we, as a species, are destined to be wiped out, why do we worry about the things we worry about?
Because we live for "our" lifetime. And, heaven knows, there might not even be "mankind" when the collision eventually happens. Our "human" existence, here on this planet, is only a blink in the timeline since life on Earth began, so we might just be a miniscule part of cosmic history when this minor event of the universe occurs.
Yes, I believe we are just a blink in time, but until the twentieth century or so, mankind has always lived with the assumption that, one way or another, we would continue forever. I think mankind lived a certain way as a result... they lived for their own lifetime, sure, but there was also a view to the 'bigger picture'. I think a mankind always worked for the future as well as the here and now.
I suggest that the utter and absolute knowledge that we are finite must affecf us at a deeper level than we realize. No matter how hard we work at peace or saving the earth or whatever, it is all for naught. We can build a better future for our children, and our children's children, but we cannot give a future to our species.
People frequently talk of the destructive way we have become, could this be, in part, why? We are, after all, probably the first generation to know, even as kids, that everything will end one day for mankind.
So, I am wondering, does the futility of it all affect how we are? I wonder, has it changed our way of being in some unconscious unrecognizable way?