The Most Terrifying Thought. (Part 2)

Well, maybe not so much.

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.  By simple reasoning, I decided that, other than a few billion lifeless masses we call planets, circling around immense, but equally lifeless,  energy forms we call stars, there is nothing.  And, 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.

This is a fatalistic, very self centered, maybe misanthropic view.  It expects that ones only lasting value is in the mark they leave behind that is directly, only attributable to and representative of oneself.  This is the point where the parent in me says “Grow Up!”.

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?  So what.  What matters is everything that happens between now and then, whether it be a second or a million lifetimes.

Second, some people will leave great sculptures or wise treatises handed down from generation to generation.  Others 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.  Their lives will be just an existence, maybe a model of the extreme’s of fortune or misfortune.  Yet, all are part of the thing called mankind.  Just 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.  Yet, if any individual is not there, the end result is slightly different.  So, our legacy is what it is.  Maybe it’s the impression we make on our children or a moment of wisdom in front of someone else.  In 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.

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.  This is the chaotic, unpredictable side of humanity.  There is a future worth our striving because there is so much uncertainty.  At times our lack of apparent progress, both individually and en mass, becomes frustrating. This is a failing of vision not accomplishment.

End Part 2