Tomorrow is another day

Submitted by Lindsay
Melbourne Australia!

So long, and thanks for all the laughs
Tho this be madness, yet there is method in’t. - Hamlet, act 2

(12/2019) There’s well over seven billion of us humans now, working, consuming and creating. We have colonised most parts of the globe, transformed it to our needs, increased our standards of living, travelled most places enjoyed ourselves immensely. We have created social structures that generally promote peace and cooperation, and it makes life worth living, which is something we cling to at all costs.

It’d hard to deny we are a success, an animal that took life by the scruff of its neck and shook it into the future. Life that grew from nothing to something that became so addictive that no one ever wanted to give it up, (apart from a few who are overcome by the ephemeral attraction of what might lie beyond.) Life is something we can’t do without, to coin a phrase, and its continuity is the first commandment.

That kind of imperative comes with it’s built in rewards and dangers. It created religion, ethics, education and family, as well as the belief that we, as a race, could do anything we liked, being king of the heap. It became the driving force of society, the ultimate challenge to our future. It has taken us into space with the universe to follow.

Successful reproduction has been the key to all this, and nature ensured it by building rewards so powerful that they would never be denied. Survive and procreate are the two imperatives that all life is subject to, and no amount of learning, regulation or punishments will inhibit it. We are programmed to produce offspring come what may, and the consequences of overdoing it have seemed inconsequential. We simply cannot stop doing what is built into our genetic survival structure.

This is true for all life, but mankind went way beyond these simple demands ages ago. Our brains grew, the ability to satisfy our needs went far beyond the basics, and our need for novelty overcame any thought of restriction. The reward system made us ignore any consequences. There was always a way out; science, town planning, social reform, and that worked, although it didn’t prevent nature taking things into its own hands. We can now see the unexpected and terrifying results.

These are affecting everyone of earth, and reactions can be divided into the doomsayers who are doing their headless chook routine, the cynics who are giving the two-fingered salute, sure of their own disbelief, politicians who are promising action but doing nothing, and politicians who are doing all they can, some actually funding bold schemes that just might allow more humans to survive into the next epoch.

What does not help anyone are those who point fingers and scream ‘It is you’, meaning whoever is not them; coal, oil, animals, and so on, forgetting that the greatest contributors are humans, seven plus billion burning carbon. No one can be blamed for this, yet everyone is guilty. Guilty of following the biological imperatives, of simply being human.

Does this mean we just give up, eat drink and be merry as the guillotine descends?

Absolutely not. We are also fighters who face challenges with bravery and strength, even against what seem to be impossible odds. It is not just climate change, the most touted threat, but lack of resources, especially water. We can exist without food for a while, but not without the liquid gold of H2O. Such threats are leading to severe disquiet and will escalate to outright warfare in probably a few decades.

So, what’s the answer? I have no idea, but I aim to go down fighting and laughing. Do you have a better plan? Don’t tell me to trust in God, science or politics, as they have no way of countering the imperatives of existence. Unfortunately, they also have no way of getting us out of this mess – yet.

And that’s the operative word: Tomorrow is another day; it is where hope lives, where sanity is hiding, where the downward spiral is hidden in darkness.

So I want to thank an unlikely person. No matter what your politics are, you have to agree that President Trump has done something that no other president has managed: Given us lots of laughs. Not those of a stand up comedian, a New Yorker cartoonist or a joke teller, but those of a circus clown with his hooter, funny nose and big feet. The big bad world has gone away for a few moments; we are diverted, the veil of anxiety is lifted, psychiatrists have a holiday, and we are left shaking our heads in admiration.

Not bad for someone who has no idea of what a genuine smile means, has never experienced hilarity, is deaf to subtlety, and appears to have no self-doubt. Who doesn’t realise how humorous he is, and would be upset if he thought we were laughing, because he would assume we were doing it at him, not with him, (and he’s be right, of course). Lots of leaders have caught onto this; our own Scott Morrison in Pentecostal zeal; Putin stuck in past glory, China dreaming of one world with them running it, every despot, crook and conman with blinkers firmly in place.

Like the cafe at the end of the universe we are adrift in the unknown. Some will survive, and that is the imperative: Not that you or I will, but that the race will.

Maybe one we could not recognize today, but as human as us. Different, carrying on, cursing their ancestors, still unable to resist the reproduction imperative.

That is no comfort for anyone today, but hey – we all have to go sometime. Let’s give our descendants a wave, tell them to keep laughing. How you break this to your grand kids is a real problem, but in the meantime we can eat the icing on the cake, play Instagram and Facebook games, stay connected, and pretend all is well with the world.

Never before has there been a better time to say, ‘Have a Merry Little Christmas.’

Lindsay, looking at the brandy bottle, in Melbourne, Australia