Consumption Junction IV: Everyone

Defend or dissect, you decide!

In the last three Goodness First articles the nemesis that is unmitigated human consumption was pared down into three digestible (urp) chunks. First, a saber was lifted in defense of the environment, the veritable source of all physical matter and energy that the human species draws upon.  Then, in the form of empathy, a heartfelt dagger was armed toward understanding the needs of life, beauty, humans and humanity.  And finally at the ready, the laser edged scalpel that is efficiency was presented to demonstrate how sharpened scientific rigor, technology, and downright common sense can be judicially brought to bear to minimize consumption and maximize comprehensive goodness.

It might go without saying that each of these progressive weapons requires us, human and humanity, to wield.  Yet because of this it is too important not to emphasize loudly that WE hold the handle of each of these allegorical Excaliburs!!!  Each of us!!! Everyone!!! must therefore rise to the challenge to leverage our heartfelt desire for change, tempered with mindful reflection and cooperation.  For if there is one thing that we have the greatest effect upon in life, it is our very own and subsequently collective behavior.

Of course the wielder that is Everyone is itself a double edged sword.  The immense numbers of the human population are by definition proportional to the magnitude of the impacts of human consumption on the world.  Yet, each of us humans also has the capacity to reduce the average world impact by factoring in Earth's environmental impacts, our empathic understanding of the world, and the efficient implementation of our desires and concerns.  Thus, we can turn the tide long term toward goodness.

Human population just might naturally slow and then decline as rational education suffuses civilization.  Nevertheless, if we can leave the mythically sacred human soul behind, our weaponized species can transform its mindset from attack and consume toward protect and conserve.  At that time humans might very well consider themselves to be one part of a healthy world.