Humans Were Always a Wild Card and It Didn’t Work
A Surface Nuisance That Is About to Get the Boot
The Dream
“I have fought against white domination, and I have fought against black domination. I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunities…But if needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die.” — Nelson Mandela
In the spirit of President Mandela’s vision, is it possible for us to mend our ways, learn from each other’s differences, and devise a better plan? Aren’t we all getting a little tired of hate and prejudice? It’s exhausting!
Just Imagine!
Alfred Hitchcock’s North by Northwest is undoubtedly one of my favourite classic movies. I particularly like the scene when Roger Thornhill (Cary Grant) visits the United Nations Building in New York.
The year is 1959. I swing wide the glass front doors of the UN building and am transcended into a cosmopolitan world of my imagination. The expansive main floor and reception area are lined with banks of elevators and escalators, moving people — visitors, speakers, and attendees — to important meetings and conferences. It is a melting pot of humanity — people dressed in freshly pressed suits and silk ties, colourful flowing robes and tunics, faces as black as midnight and others as startling white as freshly washed hotel sheets. I find myself eavesdropping on conversations in languages and sing-song accents beyond my comprehension, and cultural mannerisms that make me smile to myself.
It reminds me of an aviary full of different species of exquisite butterflies and exotic birds. A whole world within the confines of a tower of glass reflecting its beauty under a bright blue sky, not one creature more important than another!
The Prognosis Isn’t Good
But that was 1958, and somewhere along the way, the United Nations lost its principles and values. Is the concept now outdated, an unattainable ideal that no one cares about anymore?
Every year, approximately one million guests from around the world visit the United Nations Headquarters in New York City. Technically, it is not even on United States soil; it is considered international territory. Will any of its visitors carry Nelson Mandela’s passion and words in their hearts as they return to their own countries?
We are a mere speck in the universe on a planet that should be a paradise. President Mandela’s mandate is not a difficult one. But alas, it appears mankind’s obsession with wealth, power, and domination is in our DNA.
According to the Smithsonian Institute, Homo sapiens have been wandering around for 550,000 to 750,000 years and have been fighting with each other for most of it (okay, I added that last part.) But with all that conflict behind us, what makes us think we will change in the future? We are Mother Nature’s failed experiment in what is otherwise a world working in perfect harmony. Humans were the wild card and it didn’t work.
When the earth gets fed up with our destructive nature, and it will, in the words of George Carlin, “The planet will shake us off like a bad case of the fleas. A surface nuisance.”
We are teetering on the brink, and Mother Nature is indifferent to your colour, religion, or nationality. If the world tips, we all slide off.
