Well, maybe not so much.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Part 1 of this monologue took the pessimistic view that I, as an individual, had no relevance beyond my last breath. Furthermore, mankind as a whole, appears to labor under the false arrogance that it will, possibly by virtue of its own design or possibly by divine intervention, persist into eternity. \u00a0By simple reasoning, I decided that, other than a few billion lifeless masses we call planets, circling around immense, but equally lifeless, \u00a0energy forms we call stars, there is nothing. \u00a0And, even on earth, so abundant with biology and intelligence over an astronomically brief sliver of time, very very little of what has gone on before, is evident today.<\/p>\n
This is a fatalistic, very self centered, maybe misanthropic view. \u00a0It expects that ones only lasting value is in the mark they leave behind that is directly, only attributable to and representative of oneself. \u00a0This is the point where the parent in me says \u201cGrow Up!\u201d.<\/p>\n
First, What if mankind is wiped from existence in a smite of God, natural catastrophe of unimaginable dimensions, or a burst of mass self immolation? \u00a0So what. \u00a0What matters is everything that happens between now and then, whether it be a second or a million lifetimes.<\/p>\n
Second, some people will leave great sculptures or wise treatises handed down from generation to generation. \u00a0Others will invent new technologies that contribute to other newer technologies or will be discarded but remembered as a dead end, fully explored. Most others will not produce anything physical at all that is not immediately consumed or wasted. \u00a0Their lives will be just an existence, maybe a model of the extreme\u2019s of fortune or misfortune. \u00a0Yet, all are part of the thing called mankind. \u00a0Just as each individual worker bee in the hive is nearly indistinguishable from another, most humans in society are in many respects, equivalent to the others. \u00a0Yet, if any individual is not there, the end result is slightly different. \u00a0So, our legacy is what it is. \u00a0Maybe it\u2019s the impression we make on our children or a moment of wisdom in front of someone else. \u00a0In the big picture, of which I was in so much angst in Part 1, our legacy is either profound or subtle, but it is still important.<\/p>\n
Separately, We are here, with some capacity to affect the overall paradigm of humanity, but almost no understanding, or at least no consensus, of what to do or how to do it. \u00a0This is the chaotic, unpredictable side of humanity. \u00a0There is a future worth our striving because<\/i> there is so much uncertainty. \u00a0At times our lack of apparent progress, both individually and en mass, becomes frustrating. This is a failing of vision not accomplishment.<\/p>\n
End Part 2<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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