This selection process ensures that only the fit18th century, the cure for our haemorrhage,
and healthy prosper to pass their genes on tothey say, is to prize open even wider the
their offspring. It is a finely tuned balancingsevered arteries of life. Allow those with the
act which has existed for millions of years.power greater licence to continue producing
ever more and a cure will be found for
Into this fine web of existence came humanoverproduction. Its claim is so ludicrously
beings. In evolutionary terms we have beenthreadbare that it only survives because most
here for little more than a twinkling of lightof us are just too busy coping with life.
but already we have begun to tear and break
the individual strands which go to make upAnd so the nonsense continues – assurances
the web of life. that only the marketplace and the profits it
generates can produce the cures to
Our teaching, both political and religious,international problems. This is now the global
places us above and beyond the rules by penicillin that can only prosper with constant
which all other animals live, as though theygrowth. The most disturbing aspect of this
simply do not apply to us, as though we arephilosophy is that the voracious appetite it
not animals. But the smartest Porsche car, thehas created can never be satisfied because
best stereo system or quilted lavatory paperonce consumerism (or capitalism) ceases to
can’t alter the fact that we are animals andg r o w, the whole edifice collapses like a house
are governed by the same rules that governof cards. The more it gets, the more it wants,
all other animals. To ignore them is to courtand the more it must have to survive.
disaster. And that is what we are doing –
ignoring the rules. The UN is adamant that we are already using
our finite resources at a rate that would
As a species, we have looked at the worldrequire two additional planet Earths to
and said that nothing
matters but us. All the
The very philosophy
glories and wonders are
there to be exploited and if which has brought
they can’t be exploited
then they count for very
the planet teetering
little. We cannot create life
to the edge of
yet destroy it efficiently and
callously without knowing
destruction is, we
or caring about the long-
are told, the same
term effects of such actions.
And even when we do
philosophy that will
k n o w, we continue to
destroy because today is
save us
much more important than tomorrow. It is bysustain us. Even as the science accumulates
t o d a y ’s achievements, today’s profit margins,and the huge financial temples of this
t o d a y ’s boasts that we are judged.consumerist faith collapse like dominoes,
there are no alternatives on offer.
The very philosophy which has brought the
planet teetering to the edge of destructionIn pursuit of growth, humans and other
is, we are told, the same philosophy that willanimals are exploited and ever more is
save us. Like the practice of bleeding in thedemanded of them. Knowledge, truth and
7
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