I am tired

I am seventy nine. So my body is tired. My heart finds it more difficult to pump blood through aged arteries and veins. The same consequence of aging applies to my kidneys and other materialistic processes in my body. But it does not apply to my thoughts. I continue to learn what is going wrong in how civilization operates due to the unwise, anthropocentric decisions of our species.

I am tired of the widespread rhetoric that civilization can continue to grow, despite the fact that the operation of civilization entails the irreversible consumption of limited natural resources.

I am tired of the many forms of marketing of the fallacious benefits of consumption as landfills, ground waters and the oceans fill up with toxic wastes as the stuff is thrown away.

I am tired of the rhetoric that fosters working hard to manufacture bits and pieces so the businesses can make money to enhance the ability to devastate the environment.

I am tired of the claims that science is advancing the frontiers of knowledge  when the reality is that science has not provided understanding of the fundamentals. Climate change is but one example of the lack of understanding by scientists of the physical reality that civilization irreversibly devastates its life support system.

I am tired of the promotion of technology as a means of improving our standard of living when it is really improving the ability to use up the remaining natural resources, destroy biodiversity, hasten species extinction and pollute land, sea. air and us.

I am tired of the claims of progress by our leaders when I know that the operation of civilization is unsustainable.

So I am very tired of the hallucinations that society has. I now realize that my generation enjoyed a free lunch. So I am sorry that future generations will have to pay for it.

Denis Frith