The issue of survival now is not only for man. It is for nature on one hand, and God on the other. The techno-man is emerging as the villain who is proving a threat to the existence of nature, and God, and finally to his own existence. Can the fight for survival take such a dastardly turn that man ultimately launches an attack on himself, and becomes fodder for the techno-machine, to be finally gobbled up by the machine itself which is shorn of all sensitivity. A bullet can never say No if it is aimed at the man who owns it. Man too has acquired the neo-avatar of a Manster, whose most likely target is he, himself.
Survival is a game of power. Those who possess the fighting power, finally survive. Man has proved his superiority over other forms of life. We have tamed waters, from which, we get electricity which is performing millions of our tasks. The distance between life and death is not sixty or seventy years, but just a switch which if pushed carelessly can take us on the limitless flight into the unknown.
Technology has made man the super power that he is today, and technology will turn the techno-empire into a mass graveyard too, bringing everything to a screeching halt. Men who are growing into mountains mentally, are being reduced in physical resistance, so that the times are not far, when they might lose the will as well as the power to move, because everything will be available by sitting before a laptop and running an app.
Survival: A Paradox
Survival is a strange paradox involving our capability to stand up to the destructive instinct of life. The very things that feed life, are also the ones which defeat it. Waters, when enraged, kill millions. Winds when they lose their calm, cause widespread destruction.
Animals have survived man’s assault on them which trees are still facing. Birds, animals in millions are cut into pieces, and fed to the eager masses. There are international bodies which take up the case of animal rights. But, how many animals can be saved from torture?
Survival is a question which confuses easy solutions. We, who wield power, in our arrogant pride, do not allow any dignity, any grace, and any space to lesser creatures. I don’t know when God told man that the entire nature has been created to serve him. And when was man mandated to create an empire in which he had the freedom to enslave them. I wonder if gods could issue such diktats. There is only one possibility. Gods might have used it only as a temptation for man to go to Earth, after he was driven out of Eden.
But man took the offer seriously, went about the business of securing everything for himself, while all other forms of life were reduced to fodder for his galloping pride. Men who have won the struggle for survival over other forms of life, need to tell themselves: Are they living with dignity? Is there any value addition to their survival? Is only surviving enough for mankind? How can we make life a lifetime joy for man?
Live and Let Live
No doubt, after the prime mover [God], man is the secondary mover of this world. He may not have created, but he has certainly discovered the grand creation of God in its spectacular transcendence. And thrilled by the joy of creativity, he could not resist the temptation of creating a parallel multi-verse of technology. If this exploration goes on, man can very easily throw the angels off their superior positions, and enter the Celestial HQ, which are already under siege. Now, the question of survival has shifted to the gods, because man is on the rampage. After subjugating nature, he is now headed towards the heart of creation. He has acquired powers over secret and sacred realms of ‘how the nature thinks, and works’. And further research augurs ill for the gods, who might lose the secrets of creation to man. However, it will be a bad day, not only for God, but also for man, who will feel there is no secret left to be unrevealed. So, where is the need for further explorations? However, gods will not tolerate such an occasion, when man challenges them openly, and finally takes over the control of the Operation Life and Death.
Looking at the idea of struggle and survival from an even point of view, man, nature and God must maintain a dignified balance. Knowing too much is self-destruction for man. The best way to lead a happier life is to grant space to each realm of the creation. The villain in this entire phenomenon is technology and behind it, man. Man must shun pride, and put a halt to further exploration of the cosmos, because, it can ring in his own extinction. The three world powers must come into a single line. The nature, the man and the God. No trespassing into the realms of nature, and of God. Just living his own life with dignity and grace. Live and let live is the only pattern which needs to be followed now, rather than considering survival a war strategy. We have to survive together with love and affection.
And man must learn to maintain respectable relations with Nature and Godly powers, even if it means self-imposed sanctions not to cross the bridge, even when it comes in front of us.
The author is President of the International Academy of Ethics, and winner of Serbian award Charter of Morava. His name is engraved on the Poets’ Rock in Serbia.
