OUR HISTORY and THE LAST WHY

from incredible conception to credible collapse

Apparently before the beginning there was a void. About 14 billion years ago we think there was a “big bang” that somehow created from something, the material of the universe. From it some time later Nature began conceiving and filling the earth with life. We don’t know how or why. One conception became the ‘fetus’ of humanity; and our history began.

Like all conceptions our predecessors were inspired and ordered by Nature to reach out to the limits of their capacities, to others and to Nature’s God. Being under Nature’s authoritarian rule they had no choice but to continue this natural activity exclusively. With it they created our present physical form, acquired natural knowledge and by about 200,000 years ago they realized the level of mental capacity that, according to one bit of creative nonfiction, enabled ‘Eve’ to ask “Why am I?”, the question of meaning that gave birth to humanity. Since by Nature we have unique capacities our predecessors reached out to their limits and to each other on parallel paths so until our ‘birth’ our history was characterized by peace.

Adam’ didn’t know there is no answer to “Why am I?” nor of course that the first why would therefore also be “the last why”. Fearing the unknown he instinctively reacted by making up a response with which he tried to fill the void. It didn’t, but by trying, ‘Adam’ changed the course of our history. Because his try to fill the void failed, the fear of it remained, but not unchanged. When ‘Adam’ discovered it, the void was the size of, and in evoking fear, had the effect of a pinhole. But by nature his successors continued to question. As facts diminished the number of physical unknowns around the void, this metaphysical unknown seemed to increase in size and effect from a pinhole to a black hole. Hence, fear of it and trying to fill the void increased accordingly. Since the void is within us, trying to fill it is opposed to “reaching out” and is therefore unnatural activity. Being opposed, our natural and unnatural activity conflict. In addition, being directed toward the void within uw our tries to fill itare opposed to and so conflict with the tries of others. So the past 200,000 years of our history has been characterized by increasing conflict.

For most of our history since the birth of humanity, ‘Adam’s’ successors continued trying to fill the void. But rather than starting with the first why, each succeeding generation inherited the ways their parents’ tried to give meaning to their lives. They lived by them without question until, if ever, they lost a way and unwittingly discovered what they lost was part of a try to fill the void. When they felt the “hole in their life” they mostly reacted by renovating old responses. If they sensed that still wasn’t enough they also made up new beliefs and unnatural activities or converted to the beliefs and unnatural activities of others they thought might be enough. But they eventually discovered when trying to fill the void more is never enough so more recently and to a lesser extent one of our ancestors decided “giving up”, which is unnatural inactivity, could be a second reaction to the void. Each increase in unnatural activity or unnatural inactivity added to life, decreased by that amount inherited natural activity. Accordingly, peace diminished and conflict increased over the course of our history.

Figuratively, our natural activity is ‘white’. It discovers natural knowledge, generates inspiration, is self-creative, apparently ideal, and essential. It is our common, natural human right. Being its opposite, unnatural activity is ‘black’, creates artificial knowledge, suppresses inspiration, is actively self-destructive, the antithesis of ideal and optional. It is an individual, unnatural human right, or in other words a human wrong. Though also opposite to natural activity, unnatural inactivity is colourless, creates nothing, drains inspiration is passively self-destructive, the antithesis of ideal and optional. It too is an individual, unnatural human right and so also a human wrong. Since natural activity requires “reaching out to others…” one of us can’t engage in entirely natural activity unless we all engage in natural activity so in our existence we see no ‘white’ activity. Nor can we see ‘black’ activity since unnatural activity and inactivity cause death. We do however see blends of black and white that are some measure of essential natural activity with a complementary measure of either the optional unnatural activity or inactivity, meaning the more white the less black and conversely.

Our individual blends of activity can be imagined on a vertical spectrum of activity that ranges from a blend of almost completely natural activity and its unnatural complement at the top, to a blend of almost no natural activity and its unnatural complement at the bottom. Since our natural activities are ‘white’, our unnatural activities are ‘black’ and our unnatural inactivity is ‘colourless’, our blends of natural and unnatural activity can range in colour from just off white at the top of the spectrum through shades of grey to almost completely black at the bottom; or our blends of natural activity and unnatural inactivity can range in colour from just off white at the top to colourless at the bottom

If we could engage in exclusively natural activity there would be complete peace within us. Since as noted our capacities are unique, with natural activity we “reach out to our limits” along parallel lines, so there would be peace between us. And when engaging in natural activity we’d be at peace with Nature’s God. Unnatural activities conflict, and both unnatural activity and inactivity conflict with natural activity. So to the extent we replace the natural activity in our blend with either unnatural activity or inactivity we create conflict within us, between us and with Nature’s God; we change their colour from white to black or from white to colourless, and their location on the spectrum from top to bottom.                

Our individual blends of activities combine to form the resultant blend of humanity and place it on the same vertical spectrum. Since inactivity is colourless, by our choices and addition, the resultant activity of humanity can only be any shade of grey between the ‘white’ of self-creation and life at the top, and the ‘black’ of total self-destruction and death at the bottom. At the birth of humanity the resultant blend of activities was figuratively white. Judging by all levels of conflict between us, the complementary scarcity of peace that now characterizes our existence, and our increasing conflict with Nature that is changing Her life sustaining climate, the ‘colour’ of humanity has clearly become an extremely dark shade of grey that is getting darker every day. 

Our situation is obviously grim. The good news is it’s not black yet. Though we can't quit asking why, for wondering is natural activity, we can realize the mental capacity needed to accept the fact the void can't be filled and thus the first why will be “the last why.” With this second expansion of realized mental capacity we can empty the void of, our preceived need to breed; money and the life it buys; all religious/philosophical responses; drugs, sex, games, food and other anesthetics; information overload; make-believe love and family; artificial jobs; preeminence; all combinations and in general all beliefs in the unnatural ways we think make life meaningful since they motivate the unnatural activity that causes conflict. When freed from all our unnatural activity we will be left following Nature’s order to “reach out to the limits of our capacities, to others and to Nature’s God” we might find is the ideal response to “Why am I?”, the third and ideal reaction to the void. 

The bad news is we’re quickly running out of time. A growing resource deficit; an increasing, unsustainable population; a degrading environment; a fatally changing climate; conflicts of all degrees and definitions, and the rest of the existential risks we have created with our unnatural activity, are closing in on us at an accelerating rate. To diminish the risks we have to change the course of our history a second time by ending our self-destructive, unnatural activity and inactivity and replacing our disorder with Nature’s order. There won’t be anyone to care if we don’t change directions and soon complete what will be our self-destruction. Until then however, it will be the measure of our artificial intelligence that we let our unnatural reaction to nothing destroy everything.

OUR LIFE LINE (reasoned prose)
TRUMP ‘16, BIDEN ‘20, NATURE ‘24 (rhymed reason)
ABORTION (rhymed reason)
AGE of ASININITY (rhymed reason)
ANALYZING CONFLICT (rhymed reason)
NATURE’S NUTRITIONAL IDEAL (reasoned prose)
RACISM (rhymed reason)
COVID-19 vie er US (rhymed reason)
ARRESTING CLIMATE CHANGE (rhymed reason)
KNOWLEDGE and ESSENTIAL FACTS (rhymed reason)
CLIMATE BREAKDOWN (rhymed reason)
LIFE: a reaction to the void (rhymed reason)
DEMOCRACY: the death of us (rhymed reason)
ECONOMY (rhymed reason)
THE LAST WHY: the poem (rhymed reason)
DEMOCRACY: a debacle (rhymed reason)
AGE of ENTERTAINMENT (rhymed reason)
MY POETRY (rhymed reason)
TOGETHER (rhymed reason)
LAW of HUMAN NATURE (rhymed reason)
ALCOHOL, DRUGS, SEX and other anesthetics (rhymed reason)
RELIGION (rhymed reason)
SEX (rhymed reason)
AFTERLIFE (rhymed reason)
HAPPINESS (rhymed reason)
ALONE: an anthem for humanity (rhymed reason)
WAR on PEACE (rhymed reason)
SOLDIER’S LAMENT (rhymed reason)
LOVE (rhymed reason)
JESUS’ SONG (rhymed reason)