Human beings have a lot of unique aspects to them as an organism that others that share their space on this planet do not possess. It makes us regard ourselves as the pinnacle of evolution. That is simply our arrogance, which, ironically, is one of the key things that separates us from the animals.
I do not debate the fact that we indeed are the pinnacle of the process of evolution. We are, truly, that. What I find arrogant is our implicit assumption that that is a good thing. The unspoken understanding that evolution is an upward process, a process of progress and that being at its forefront means that we're leading the race and not coming in last.
A while ago, I was sitting in class, bound to my desk, compelled to agree with the wisdom of a presumptuous lady whose faith in her own intellect was unshakeable. This lady was here to teach us an important part of the course I had signed up for. Although I sat there with a glum face and an indignant demeanour, I also was telling myself that I am not truly unhappy. In fact, I am happy. I was sitting in the classroom of my country's best college, learning to acquire a masters degree in a field that was on the brink of exploding into ubiquity such that I would be well-placed to become one of the earliest members of a soon-to-be respected fraternity, and doing something that also called upon, for a change, creative abilities of my mind rather than just the logical ones. I was here by choice. Nay, I had fought, worked to be here. It was my privilege.
And yet, here I was, glum and indignant, thinking how incredibly unnecessary this waste of time was. I genuinely wished to be able to simply get up, walk out and go somewhere else. Anywhere. I only knew to the core of my heart that I did not want to be there and yet.. There. I. Was.
It was in this moment of helplessness, in this moment of captivity and hopelessness that I happened to glance out the window where the branches of a massive tree spread themselves across the opening. A monkey scurried onto the branch as I looked on. This furry little guy suddenly paused on the branch in front of the window. He sat back, looked to his left and then looked to his right. He took only a moment to consider before he had made his choice and he darted away to the right.
The moment he was gone, I was hit with the realisation: Who is really captive? Who is really free among us? Who is more privileged? The fact that I fought to be here, that I had certain promise of success later, what do these count for? Perhaps evolution is not an upward process at all. It is, perhaps, a downward process. It is damage-control. The universe realised its mistake in creating life and has ever since, been working to undo it. We, the proud, arrogant human beings, are the final, refined outcome of that process. Evolution is the Earth shutting down.
Worse still, I think the process is over. The day we were created, the universe sat back and heaved a sigh of relief because the process of shut-down had concluded. All it needed to do was simply wait for a brief, insignificant period of millions of years and watch its human poison do its work. The next time you're in an airplane, just peer out the window when you have a clear sky and you can see the world below you. You will find that the spread of human civilisation disturbingly similar to the spread of a fungus, of weed, of a contamination that is taking over the planet. We're not here for a purpose. We're here because the purpose was taken away. We are what got left behind.
No comments:
Post a Comment