THB Talking Jellyfish: We are getting a signal from a tiny, insignificant planet in a solar system in a remote galaxy. If you understand this machine generated text, improvised to aid your comprehension, could you make a sign - reply, in other words.
Earth Prof Broadcaster: Yes, we can understand you. We are indeed on a planet from a solar system, which we are sufficiently ignorant and proud to refer to as THE Solar System, although we are well aware that there are others out there.
THB: Don't worry about it. We understand your propensity to imagine you are unique, though we can tell you, you are most definitely not! Never mind, let's get on. We would like to know something about your predicament.
EPB: Which predicament would that be? We have many?
THB: The most important one, of course, the trouble you are having warming up your atmosphere, which, I am sorry to tell you, will soon have catastrophic consequences for you and anyone living on your planet.
EPB: Oh, that one. I thought you might be referring to the global economic recession that is currently underway, with many major national economies experiencing zero economic growth.
THB: Let me quickly inform you that in the bigger picture, the one you need to recognize and quick, your so called global economic recession is actually doing your ecosystems no harm at all. Zero growth means fewer pollutants being manufactured, with less damage done to the environment.
EPB: That may be so, but to us, it's a major problem.
THB: Please clarify who you mean by the word 'us'.
EPB: When I say 'us', I mean all of us - the population of the planet Earth - that 'us'!
THB: Right away, you need to understand that your obsession with continued increases in economic growth is what is harming you. You support a system that is wholly at variance with the well being of all on Earth.
EPB: Who do you mean when you say 'all'?
THB: All - every living thing on Earth - flora and fauna, everything - that 'all'!
EPB: But we, the people that inhabit this blue planet of ours, are the masters, the bosses, the ones who make everything work.
THB: That's what you think. Actually, that is your biggest problem, the root and branch of all your problems.
EPB: How so?
THB: Because you have habitually come to view your species as the ultimate in terms of importance to the planet, and all other forms of life as infinitely inferior. Why, you have even imagined - still imagine - that within your own species, there are some that are more worthy than others.
EPB: Whatever do you mean? A human being is a human being.
THB: Tell that to a simpleton, not to me. Theoretically, a human being is indeed a human being. Unfortunately, some of your species tend to think they are superior to other members of the species; it's a geographical thing and a psychological one too, I'm afraid.
EPB: How is it geographical? What do you mean?
THB: Look at yourselves - more closely. Do you not look upon the people who dwell in the more remote regions of your planet as inferior, preferring to think urban populations superior to rural ones?
EPB: Can you be more specific?
THB: I can. Look at a tribe dwelling in the jungles of the Amazon, Congo or Ganges - how do you view those people, may I ask?
EPB: Generally, as more primitive than the rest of us, those of us living specifically in what we call Western nations, though that term is not actually geographical. It is true, we do think our way of living superior to life lived at variance with Nature.
THB: There you go; two big mistakes right there. One, you use the word 'primitive' as a synonym for 'bad', 'ignorant' - 'poor', when those you term 'primitive' are not living at variance with Nature, whereas you Western nations are doing just that? No people of the Amazonian jungles ever put the whole planet at risk, except in cases where they attempt to emulate Western styles of living.
EPB: What are you talking about?
THB: Those who view money as more important than anything else - who cut down the forests that support them - that have supported them since way back - who cop down forests for money - those people, as I have said, who try to emulate you.
EPB: But what is wrong with making money? We all have to live - to earn a living, don't we?
THB: Yes, you do, but it is in the making of amounts of money so vast that you could never spend it in ten lifetime - ten thousand lifetimes that you err. You are allied to a system that is responsible for your downfall as a species, as a planet, as an entire ecosystem, yet you persist in keeping it sacrosanct - almost sacred, if I may say such a thing. You will not question the supposed wisdom you imagine it has, and instead demean and demonize those of you who do dare to criticize it. That is your downfall. You are locked into a mindset that does not allow reality in!
EPB: But it has served us well, this system of ours. It has been responsible for the biggest increase in living standards ever. We have the means to live life to the full, which means we no longer die or even suffer from ailments that would decimate even fifty years ago. Is that not progress?
THB: Indeed it is, but, as you well know, it has produced various other malaises unknown in earlier, less prosperous times.
EPB: Such as?
THB: Where to begin? Let me start by talking about the despair of living an artificial life - unconnected to one's fellow human beings in any real and meaningful way - the connection to others only in relationships that are exploitive in nature - the social and societal ills of your system. Then, let me talk about those so called 'coping mechanisms' by which many survive and live, if living like that may still be termed 'living' - addiction to substances and to habits that are deleterious to health.
You create a system that accords rewards to those who are fortunate enough to take advantage of the system whilst according, if that is the right word, punishment and suffering, even retribution, to those less fortunate enough not to be able to take advantage of the system.
EPB: But that is the beauty of our system; that in theory, anyone has the chance to succeed in any field they excel in.
THB: But not everyone is able to excel, you know.
EPB: Precisely, and so we say our system is the best we can have, for the very reason that it is fair, entry is free and fair and anyone can take advantage of it to enter, work and succeed.
THB: And yet it is well known, is it not, that a child from the slums of Rio, Mumbai, or Mexico City, to name but three of thousands, is destined to be poor, whereas a child born to a family in other parts of the world is much more likely to succeed in this narrow sense you use the word.
EPB: Success is success. What other way can it be measured except in terms of wealth - financial wealth?
THB: And there we have it, my friend, the root of all your troubles - that you use but one yardstick to measure success, and it is that yardstick, used, ironically, as carrot and stick to control your people, leaving the system perpetrated by it to go unchanged.
For more reviews please see the section “Bank Mandiri Bank Terbaik di Indonesia (Bank Mandiri, Best Bank In Indonesia)” by Arif Poetra Yunar
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