Renewal or Extinction

Every day I see and hear of our inhumanity. It’s in the news, in conversation and on social media.  Animals are abused and neglected, hunted for the thrill of the kill. Children are mistreated, abandoned and even murdered. Women find themselves in the throes of domestic violence or victims of rape, rape by strangers or enemies or even their peers in school or the military. There is constant fighting between this group and that group, between religions; this versus that, us versus them, good versus evil, right versus wrong. I sometimes wonder if the entire world is self-destructing. We are even fighting over the damage we are causing the earth, the very act of killing it.

The earth will probably survive, but it may have to get rid of humankind before it can. Perhaps we are nearing the end times. Maybe it will happen in our lives. Perhaps.

Or could we could now be into the chaos before renewal? It is said that before rebirth there must come a period of cleansing to remove the elements that stand between the now and the new, to tear down the obstacles and clear away the debris. There are many who stand by the belief that we are, right now in the process of the rebirth of humanity and of spirit and I feel that we are. At least sometimes I feel that way and other times I think we are hopelessly circling the drain.

I do know that it wasn’t too many years ago that we turned our heads at most cruelty and neglect of animals. It was fashionable to make fun of the “tree huggers” because “the needs of people were more important than the needs of nature’s creatures.” Now there are groups and rescuers of all sorts and the cruelty is in our face. We have to see it, to recognize it and to condone it or do something about it. I think this is us evolving, realizing we are part of a bigger entity, realizing we have an obligation to stop the pain and begin to learn a new kindness.

Fifty years ago we routinely minded our own business when we suspected or sometimes even witnessed violence within a family setting. Beating a wife or hard punishments for children were, if not absolutely acceptable, sometimes excusable. A little more than seventy years ago the entire world stood quietly by and allowed a whole race of people to be almost annihilated. And of course that was not the first time or the last. But we are looking these atrocities in the face now. We are speaking out against them, even when it is uncomfortable or risky.

 Some of us are even looking to a future time that will allow peace. I hear all the time that it will never be, we have had wars from the beginning of time, but I can’t quite give up this dream. We could all live together on this big round mass in our corner of the universe and if we stopped contaminating the water and poisoning the food and hoarding the necessities there would be plenty for everyone, plenty. There would be no need to steal or pillage or fight or even hate if we weren’t afraid of losing what we have, whether it is what we need or what we want. It may be that this can’t happen until everything has been destroyed and the greedy have no need for their treasure.

And we haven’t really had wars since the beginning of time. We have only had wars since humans became aware of the power of ownership.

What do you think? Are we on the verge of a whole new existence or are we marked for extinction?