Between hot and frozen
We don’t burn ourselves to keep ourselves warm in winter, now, do we? Setting up a bonfire or switching on the heater sounds like a better alternative for rationality’s sake. Even a child, consumed by an aura of curiosity, might burn her finger in the candle but it won’t be long before she realizes the distance required for safety. With time, almost all human beings learn quite a lot of inalienable truths necessary to keep us alive and sane.
Besides, as our days pass by, we become more and more acquainted with that balancing act called life. Nothing is what it seems to be. Nothing is simple either; complexity remains embedded in the DNA of our world. In the animal kingdom, decisions appear to be binary. If a deer doesn’t sprint fast enough, he will immediately turn into lunch. There is no hatred involved there. Only pure hunger and instincts. In human civilizations, things are a bit different. We claim to keep it real but not without spreading the canvas of fakeness as far as possible. Since we are on the topic of consumption, while having our meal, we understand that the farmers responsible for the produce might be suffering in poverty. We don’t know what to do thanks to our cheap divorce from knowledge so we shrug before serving ourselves a plateful. While digging in on meat, we know for sure that our butcher is a superhero as he can deal with blood and scream with necessary coldness — something we can’t even if our life depended on it. After all, the slaughterhouse is not exactly Disneyland for chickens, pigs, etc. Science today tells us that our great ancestors — the speechless fish — are fully capable of feeling pain and distress. But we do what we think we’ve got to do because tasty food rules our consciousness.
Pretty fucked up, isn’t it? But then, we aren’t arguing about food here. Something much deeper is on trial here. Maybe our conscience itself. Maybe it’s our failure at striking a balance.
No wonder our balancing act seldom falls in others’ — those more unfortunate than us, be it humans or non-humans — favour. We try to lead a life of comfort at the expense of several faceless creatures. Just to exist. Which is still alright when you consider the jungle law already rampant. The problem arises when we pretend to place too much significance on our share of oxygen. Or conveniently stay ignorant of all the underlying facets. The answer doesn’t lie in killing ourselves to lessen the burden on our planet. That’s not going to serve any purpose. If we can, we should step beyond our bubble of luxury and ask thorny questions. Acknowledgement could be our first step towards altering the canvas. It’s never too late to knock on the doors of enlightenment.
And the question of the day is, when exactly do we plan to accept the role we’ve been gleefully playing in the ongoing catastrophe? If the answer isn’t soon, then it explains why we are literally oblivious to the despair we gift others on a daily basis. If the answer is never, then it’s just a matter of time before we’ll let the great impending fire consume us whole.
