Illusions of Power

Nothing puts more in perspective for me than nature documentaries. I'm an avid fan of national geographic and I have been for most of my life. Perhaps I've always had a few screws loose, but I remember finding the ones on natural disasters a bit funny at times. I know it sounds a bit sadistic, but it's actually not as bad as you'd think. Surely people losing their homes and families are terrible, but I think I find the humor in the fact that those kinds of situations tend to lay bare the true nature of people. They calmly lived their lives day to day in the false assumption that they had some control over what happens on this planet. I remember watching a clip on the news several years ago that featured footage of a man in his underwear clinging to a tree in the midst of a massive flood. Now I know that flood victims usually don't have much notice, but this dude obviously didn't get the memo until the last minute. I thought it hilarious that this fellow finally got his few seconds of fame wearing only a pair of soaked tighty whiteys.

Nature seems the earth's equalizer, shuffling uppity creatures back into their place. Humans can get pushed down a few notches in a matter of seconds. Somewhere in the midst of our growth as a species, we developed a rather nasty case of arrogance. I'm not saying that we have achieved nothing nor that it is unimportant. The point I mean to make is that it is only important to us. Somewhere in our twisted monkey logic, we equated our adaptability and ability to create, with superiority. However, what defines superiority depends on the competition. A human is a tool user. We are essentially the batman of the animal kingdom. We are Indiana Jones. Take away all the tools and all that's left is one's mental capacity which differs from person to person. You take your average person and they aren't going to be as smart as the fictional characters I mentioned. In essence they'd be done for.

Our fatal flaw is that all it takes is some really bad weather to kill human progress. Our mutant monkey species is nothing without it's tools. We create things that are only important to us, and we are misguided enough to sometimes view ourselves as the planet's guardians. We've got people trying to save species that won't mate and people feeling that we've royally screwed over a planet that is still strong enough to squash us like bugs. We build civilizations and governments, then forget what the purpose was behind it. Humans trapped in a vicious cycle, unknowing as to why they feel like something isn't quite right.

The only thing we truly have power over, is ourselves. The rest are things we make up. Things like money, and government and religion. They all serve as tools of humanity to deny the inescapable truth that there isn't much between us and every other animal. You knock out government and it'll be pretty easy to see the resemblance. I have nothing against government. I only think that people have come to a point where they feel they lack the power to control anything in their lives when it comes to obtaining certain rights. Government is supposed to help us. Originally people banded together to make certain they were all taken care of. We give elected officials the ability to make decisions on our behalf. We give away some of our freedoms to have better lives. If a government doesn't benefit the people, then it should be fixed. The power those people have relies solely on our cooperation. We are the cities, the towns, the government. These seemingly unstoppable forces are made up of many individual people. The idea that there is some invisible control over us is a fallacy. When all is said and done, nature is our equalizer and no one is truly ever above it.