Are we responsible? - Part 2

“[God] is the greatest democrat the world knows, for he leaves us “unfettered” to make our own choice between evil and good, he is the greatest tyrant ever known, for he often dashes the cup from our lips and under cover of freewill leaves us a margin so wholly inadequate as to provide only mirth for himself at our expense…”- Mahatma Gandhi

In my last post I came to an abrupt ending about how God is responsible for everything and we couldn’t hold anybody accountable for their actions as they were pawns in a bigger and grander plan. The theory seemed plausible as it appealed to your abstract mind and it also went along with the delusions which we have come to accept, until I mentioned the serial killer and the paedophile. Suddenly, a Pandora’s Box opened, filled with emotions that engulfed the abstract mind refuting to qualify it.

Let’s revisit the issue again. We established the actual absence of freewill as our decisions would be based on our prejudices, genes, upbringing and many other variables, moreover, the options we choose from, is also not controlled by us leading us to believe there is some higher power that has authority over it.

Is that entirely true? If we look closer at each decision, we realise that the decision to choose between right or wrong still lies with us. If we can decide between right and wrong aren’t we then, partially responsible for our actions? I also talked about how each decision inadvertently becomes a factor for a future decision. Zooming out into a more macro view we can conclude that an eco-system then becomes responsible for its own actions.

Recent research has pointed out that religion and its offshoots were evolved as a necessity for the human race to survive because it set the rules for distinguishing right and wrong and also encouraged to work for the common good rather than for the ‘self’. The common good often included the good of the ecology too. Many civilizations have long perished (ecocide) as a punishment for ignoring the common good.

The question of God’s existence still remains unanswered. Everybody has to have delusions to keep them going, the more deluded they are, they more happier they seem to be, but don’t be deluded by our apparent inability to control the future

“Choose to believe never inherit it”

Adbusters

A suggestion from a friend introduced me to ‘Adbusters’. The tagline ‘journal of the mental environment’ best describes the magazines intentions. This particular issue talked about Ecopsychology, on how the world is coping with the bitter truth of our increasing footprint on nature, laying the contents according to the Kübler-Ross model or the more familiar, ‘Five stages of grief’- Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression and Acceptance.

The description for bargaining was what caught my eye. It’s more relevant as the world powers realise their addiction to oil and need for drastic change, case in point- Copenhagen. Freedom and abundance gave birth to generations with bottomless want of consumption, so any restrain would be cutting into freedom- a basic right. Restraints brought about by depleting resources are now more in the form of monetary measures ensuring the ‘poor man’ still struggles in the pit of economic degeneracy.

Bargaining

“In an effort to protect what matters most- we sacrifice our pawns. We lower the thermostat and ease of the gas, surrendering small degrees of comfort and time. We change the colour of our consumption, adopting a greener model of consumerism and transforming each purchase into an act of environmental defence. We pull back, surveying the board and waiting patiently for the technological salvation that will surely be delivered from distant labs and ivory towers. And when all seems lost we pray. We’ll do anything- well, almost anything- to stave off planetary death and protect our role as kings”