This is http://www.essayz.com/a9109131.htm Previous-Essay <== This-Essay ==> Following-Essay Click HERE on this line to find essays via Your-Key-Words. {Most frequent wordstarts of each essay will be put here.} ========================================================== %DOMINANT ADDICTIVE CIVILIZATION LIMITS SURVIVE 910913 Whether or not human civilization survives on planet earth will depend in large part upon the attitudes which humans develop towards fellow creatures on planet earth. If humans persist in seeking to be the dominant species on planet earth, it is unlikely that humans will survive as a viable species. People of low self esteem who seek to compensate for their low self esteem with resource consumptive technocratic achievements, are likely to create a non-viable environment for themselves; because of their addictive confusion and compulsive preoccupation with trying to be in control of all aspects of their environment. In the absence of a charitable sensitivity to all fellow creatures, addictive technocrats are likely to smash their environment to bits even as a raging alcoholic is likely to smash the home to bits in frustration over not being able to control all that the alcoholic seeks to control in an effort to control the disease. More technology and more science will no more cure the technocrat, than more alcohol or more drugs of other kinds will cure the alcoholic. Technical fixes are of a kind with alcoholic fixes and drug fixes. Technical fixes do not resolve root human dilemmas. The root human dilemma is the dilemma of dealing with human limits. Some of the limits imposed on human have to do with limited resources: energy, minerals, land surface, water, air, soil, temperate climate, etc. Other limits pertain to limited time, information, knowledge, understanding, wisdom, perspective, paradigms, etc. Humans can imagine, desire, expect, and seek to attain more than human limits permit. It is frustrating to have visions which cannot be fulfilled. It is tempting to play games of mutual self deception according to which visions which really cannot be fulfilled are treated as visions which can be fulfilled. So many "impossible dreams" have been fulfilled, why not expect all "impossible dreams" to be possible in spite of all human limitations. Maybe there are no real human limitations! Perhaps all worth-while goals can be achieved! Why not try to achieve each and every worth- while goal which we can envision. What harm could there be in trying? In trying to do more than is humanly possible we become addicted to work and self deceptions; we lose touch with our own deepest being, and lose touch with the depths of our loved ones. We cease to be true to ourselves, and cease to be true to each other. We become participants in collusive games of mutual self deception. We become members of a society which has become an addict. There is great danger in trusting technocrats who deny the reality of human limitations, and pretend that there are no limits. Technocrats are a great danger to the viability of homo sapiens as a dominant species among the countless species on tiny planet earth. Planet earth is but a speck of solid stuff circling a modest gaseous star in but one typical gaseous galactic neighborhood of the immense gaseous universe. The universe is not dedicated to the survival of the dominant human species with its addictive disposition to attempt to control more than can be controlled. The universe is friendly, but it is not a codependent supporter/rescuer of addictive humans. It is time for humans to sober up and take loving care of their home with due respect for their true limits. (c) 2005 by Paul A. Smith in (On Being Yourself, Whole and Healthy) ==========================================================