Koyaanisqatsi – Life Out of Balance
The title of today’s post is based on a Hopi word loosely meaning Life Out of Balance. It seems to me if there was ever a time during my life that this word had relevance, it would be the past several years. It is also the title of a 1982 experimental film with a haunting score by Philip Glass.
Every day it seems as if we are living in some kind of crazy dream. We ask our friends, our family, and ourselves: How did we come to this moment in human existence where madmen rule our country and we appear, potentially, headed towards extinction. We shake our heads in collective disbelief at the news each morning. We feel sick to our stomachs when we hear about the antics of a buffoon who pretends to be a person of substance leading our nation.
But we have all heard these statements before. Talking heads and Op-Ed pieces abound with this same disbelief, with formulas for mitigating the effects, and for analyses of how we came to be here in the first place. Psychologists and physicians diagnose the root causes of the president’s behavior. Former friends of his tell tales of a dysfunctional childhood. Even family members give us insights into his erratic bumblings.
Ultimately, none of these traits, quirks, or mental disorders matter. Nothing changes even though we might check the news feed on our phones to see if he’s dead yet, but again, it doesn’t matter if he is dead or alive. The true problem is that there is a sickness, a malaise that has permeated our society. Trump is just a symptom. And it’s not just our nation. Other cultures around the world have embraced lunatics, elevating them to their highest positions of power. Here in the United States this maniac was elected twice, so it is the people who are at the very heart of this insanity. The election of this bloated, self-important, sorry excuse for a human was a choice based on the inability of a segment of our population to see beyond their own sense of what they falsely believe works best for them.
This blindness crippled their judgement. All they could see was the immature taunts and blatant disregard for human dignity that they mistook for strength. Again, that’s what they wanted, a mean-spirited reality TV star who would promise them the moon, but who would never have the mental acuity to follow through. And yet tens of millions of these people continue to idolize him and hold him up as a savior of mankind, regardless of the true nature of this creature.
So when I suggest that life is out of balance, I do so knowing that if our species is going to survive, we cannot afford this momentary glitch in our march towards the future. Humanity was already at a tipping point prior to Trump’s ascension and now we may have stepped too far over the line to come back. So why is this? Why have so many embraced a path that seems to clearly lead towards a tragedy of epic and monumental proportions? Is it mass ignorance? Is it the echo chamber of the internet? Are they just steeped in a visceral fear of anything that is unfamiliar?
Or, is it something deeper? Something that is buried so deeply in our unconscious minds that we cannot see it, feel it, or even be remotely aware of it. Is it some kind of genetically triggered timebomb planted by natural selection millions of years ago? Perhaps this is a crazy theory (would not be my first) that suggests our pending demise is just another step in the evolutionary process. That what we are experiencing is actually not life out of balance, but life and nature doing their best to bring the planet back into balance, to scratch off the tick that is humanity and press the reset button.
If I were to imbue nature with a consciousness, I would think that eradicating us from the stage of existence would be a very positive move. Again, suggesting the possibility the earth has a sense of forethought, since our ancient ancestors first set foot on earth, we have been given a chance to prove we were worthy of living among the other life forms with which we share this planet. And we have failed, miserably. Wouldn’t it make sense for the earth to call for a Mulligan thereby forcing us into punching our own ticket to self-annihilation?
This is most likely just conjectural nonsense on my part, but as much as I try and try to understand why we are doing what we’re doing to our environment and hence to ourselves, it is next to impossible to make sense of the “why” of our behavior. All of this is particularly disheartening in the light of what our species has achieved. The extraordinary scientific discoveries, the art, the music, the literature, the brilliance of our brightest minds and what they have achieved over thousands of years, exists in juxtaposition to the dystopian nightmare of ignorance we find ourselves mired in at this moment.
I cannot see the years yet to come though there are some fairly basic and salient observations we can make about our direction. Then again, maybe we’ll figure our way through this mess and emerge into a new era of understanding, kindness, and respect for each other and for nature.
That utopian vision is not very likely, but we can always continue to work towards it, to do our very best to make it happen, and to hope for a better future.
[Next week’s post will be my 75th weekly offering. I am also approaching the end of my 75th trip around the sun and then I’m off to Africa for a volunteer project. So next week will be my final post for the foreseeable future. I will tell you more then. Perhaps after several months I will resurface and pretend it’s the second coming of Tobin’s essays. Time will tell.]
Yes, I believe you are correct in your summation of our fate, however bleak it seems. I had an epiphany a year or two ago. I was in my garage, fiddling about, when I suddenly had an overwhelming feeling of true emptiness or void, a feeling that there was no future for mankind, that our fate had been sealed and the dark side of man would prevail, eventually leading to our demise as a race. This feeling came to me out of the blue, but it did not bring me down as one might think.
I suppose I could relate this feeling to one who has been diagnosed with untreatable terminal cancer, creating inside of us an eventual acceptance that all we can do is live our lives as best we can with the time we have left, knowing the end is around the corner, except on a shorter scale.
The only true sadness I feel is for those, like my grandchildren, who will probably never know the world for what it could have been if the inherent dark side of man’s nature had been kept at bay. I believe technology in itself is not a bad thing, but it brings with it the greed, commercialism, and misuse of our natural world that eventually breaks the balance of things. Whether you believe in it or not, nature always has and always will find a way to balance out that which is unnatural, to create symmetry no matter how brutal.
As my brother has said, we all see it coming, but there is no stopping it. It is our manifest destiny to destroy ourselves and our environment. I am what many call a prepper, which basically means I plan for any type of worst case scenario, but in the end, it does not really matter.
When human culture fails, leaving behind people in a society who are perhaps not as smart or as lucky as others, those who remain are eventually left to fend for themselves, fighting over the scraps left by those in power. At this point, the worst of mankind will prevail, and it will not be a world worth living in. Even if a degree of society remains, it will be comprised of the few haves and the many have nots. There is only so much to go around, and as we can see, the rich are growing richer. Greed has entered their hearts and our mutual survival is no longer factored in, only the survival of those with money and power. But the question does arise, if you were or are one of those that have wealth and prominence, would you give it up and put yourself and your family in harms way to help those less fortunate or simply cast them aside. One cannot save the world, but through our actions we make it what it is.
Carl – Wonderful (though disheartening) response. As I noted in this week’s post, it is a blindness many people have with regard to the consequences of their actions. They don’t want to think about what happens if they do “X” and end up with “Y”. All that is of importance is how something “feels” and if they believe the actions of a Trump-like character will either alleviate some unfounded fear or make them believe they have power over others.
Those of us who find joy in collaborating with others or learning or understanding that our perception might be off base are, for the most part, those without power. We don’t seek authority because at heart we know that power and greed are of little value. But again, I go back to how something feels, how there is an ethereal sense of power that fulfills some vacancy in a person’s mind. It’s all illusion, but it takes a strength of character to see this in oneself and to avoid it as folly.
I don’t want to believe humanity is doomed, but I don’t see any other path emerging, unfortunately.
“Life out of balance” is a timely phrase. Immediately I am reminded that a racing engine (drag racing) instantly self destructs when any part imbalances the machine. Living organisms are constantly maintaining equilibrium; expiration comes when that fails. And so with societies too. It isn’t as if we have no proof of this from history.
We are silly mammals are we not? There are examples of the Buddha laughing. Laughter is not a bad alternative to despair, staring into a dark pit, convinced that humanity and much of life on the earth is doomed.
I am glad that you are embarking on “business” in Africa. My gut tells me that surviving and thriving for us will entail making common cause with others in many other places. So, make friends at every opportunity in Africa. No doubt the change of scene will elevate your spirit. There’s a great deal of goodness about, certainly in nature, and also in others of our kind. Laying aside the day to day routine for awhile allows us to more readily take note.
I am not in a position to assess humanities future. Is anyone? I am aware that nearly all of the media available to us is directly or indirectly by algorithm purposed to provoke emotional reaction. So, I try to allow first person experience to inform my attitudes and reason. I know that you will do the same while in Africa.
It is a real boon to take a break from America’s day to day “food fight”.
Jerry – You appear to have been in a fairly decent mood when you wrote your reply. That’s a good thing. We all need to take a break from the tsunami of negativity that overwhelms us on a daily basis. For me, as noted, perhaps a trip to Africa will be not be just a distraction but uplifting in some ways as well.
Our future is not as opaque as we think it might be at times. Our crystal ball shows us the impact of climate change and when we have an administration that is in favor of removing restrictions on coal and other fossil fuels that exacerbate this problem, we can clearly see where we’re headed. When a train is barreling forward at full speed towards a car stuck on the tracks, it doesn’t take the oracle of Delphi to foresee an outcome. I agree that the media in general is geared towards sensationalism since that’s what sells. But we don’t need the nightly news to gain an understanding of what is happening to our planet. We are living in this closed ecosystem on a daily basis.
Volunteering in Africa! Certainly sounds exciting — and it carries the possibility of actual, tangible positive results. Rather gives the lie to your cover of helpless hopelessness. Of course we did all along know there was true caring and a heart of compassionate action underneath.
Bravo, Tobin!! We’ll wait for your return with your tales to tell.
Verna, Thanks for your note. I personally believe we humans have swallowed the hemlock and are now just waiting for the effects to take place. That doesn’t mean that I won’t or even can’t stop trying to make a difference. I’m not sure where hope ends and hopelessness begins. I guess I don’t want to think about it. If you want I can add your email address to my travelogue from Africa.
Moods change like weather. Perhaps not dissimilar to climate warming and weather. Actions far upstream have magnified effects the further down, when the creek becomes the river. Actions are cumulative. I work at associating with individuals who have lives and thoughts that I can learn from because that makes me happy. As we’ve both noted, there’s a great deal to be unhappy about.
Agreed as a general thing we know the outlines of the future. Even now we experiencing weather extremes that a consensus of specialists agree are caused by warming atmosphere and oceans. The oracle at Delphi dispensed the prognosis of the gods on Olympus as an open-ended riddle. the language was left open for movement, the words were bent, in indefinite form. It is also productive for us to confess that our best forecasts of effects of a warming earth have already proven inexact because we are unable to capture all of the variables.
So, I intend to press on, convinced that we ought to care for the earth, care being the very antithesis of the capitalist ethos. I am confident that you will as well. No doubt you’ll encounter individuals, and new ideas that will lend inspiration to the fight.
Finally I hope humankind is at last learning a bitter lesson. Spite, hatred, overweening attempts to control/enslave others entails deadly blowback. What we call nature is dispassionately about to settle up with our species. If so, this has been well earned. Will humanity be able to haul Trump, Putin, and their homies before an international tribunal for the crimes they have committed? It must happen if anything is to change.