Oh, Bother

There are many things that bother us in life -- insects, diseases, money problems, love problems, other people in general and a host of other bothersome things.

I doubt that there will ever be a time when there is nothing to bother us, Perhaps after death, in a peace beyond peaceful, there will be no bother. But then there will be no awareness of it, so it is not helpful. If there is "life after death" then there will always be something to bother us, or torment us, as the case may be. I would imagine that even Heaven would have something bothersome, such as eternal light, or too much singing, whatever.

In this time of our lives, we who have been blessed or cursed with life during these times must endure the effects of overpopulation, of over-reliance on chemical pesticides in our food, of pests that can't be eliminated at all. There are politicians who lie more vehemently than ever, with propaganda more insidious than ever, with more pleas for violence and destruction.

We must endure the financial collapse, the loss of our life savings to perpetual thieves who run the stock markets and banks. We will become slaves for those who love to enslave. We will starve while the thieves gorge themselves. We will die while the thieves restrict all medical services for themselves.

Although this is what is happening, it was once thought that we were the luckiest generations. We live in a world of technological profundity which has never been known before. No emperor or king ever had access to the comforts of life that even the most modest homes provide, with plentiful clean water, communications devices to reach to all points of the globe, cleaning devices that can keep our homes spotless and bugless. Sure, the kings might have had 100 wives or whatever, but that is little different than having 100 girlfriends to wine and dine with our V8 powered golden chariots and splendid silk-like clothing bought for a few dollars in Walmart.

But all that is disappearing -- reserved now for the very rich and powerful. The rest of us will seemingly be disposed of -- the not-so-pretty girls, the not-so-useful old, the not-so-lucky of us all. Our luck has run out, and the seas will become oilier, and deadlier, to the point where, someday, the rich will have to eat food made by machines from bacteria and fungus -- the most resilient lifeforms of the Earth.

Of course that future is not certain. It may be that when the majority of us die that the minority can once again live in the splendor of overabundance. When the value of human life has increased from 1-in-a-billion to 1-in-a-few-thousand, perhaps we will treat each other better. When I say "we" I don't really mean "me" -- I'm certain to be not long for this world. I only mean the survivors -- those of us, and those of the animals and plants, that survive the great dying.

There have been many exterminations of life on this planet. Perhaps only a modest percentage of the total will survive, with some events worse than others. A huge asteroid being worse than a few volcanoes; a sudden heat wave perhaps worse than a sudden cold snap. And life under the sea has less direct exposure to the events that kill most everything on the surface.

Even an event that completely kills everything, and evaporates away all the water, might leave behind spores that could live again should enough water return, even if only under miles of nothing but rock.

It would be unfortunate if such a thing happened because of nature, from the effects of stars and planetary alignments. Eventually the Sun will vaporize all life on this world anyway. But it is very sad that a small congregation of greedy thieves would subject an entire planet to destruction and starvation.

But that is what is happening now. It seems that our duty as citizens and mothers and grandfathers is to do everything and anything to prevent such acts of criminality from ever occurring. If the population must be reduced, so be it -- have less babies. If the food supply must be protected, so be it -- pollute the world less. If the way we power our cars and factories is killing the world, then stop it. Replace those old technologies with new ones -- which are sane and sustainable.

Yet, the criminals always seem to win. Then nuts in Iran, the nuts in our own government, the nuts in North Korea, the nuts that own all the oil, all the coal and all the chemicals. They always seem to win while the rest of us can only make them richer or nuttier.