too bad most people don't appreciate it. I cannot tell you how many times I've seen a large moon rising over distant mountains, or the way the pine trees look against the bluest sky and showed someone and had them just give me a funny look.
I'm hoping that the standard liberal answer of "Educate!" and a few generational revolutions will correct this problem before we screw ourselves over too badly. Like a god who gave autonomy to his creation, I know disappointment awaits.
I was going to keep this short, but the rant started coming, and I couldn't make it stop.
The human aesthetic is important. The desire for a Hummer is not something to be squelched, as it's reflective of genuine, human desire. The path to "enlightenment" isn't ascetism.
What is important is to have your aesthetic informed by your rational mind. What do you value in this world? How does human behavior affect what you value? If 1) Your rationale refuses to entertain contradictions. 2) You genuinely value the environment in any form. 3) You are willing to accept, even on a tentative basis, the conclusions of the scientific community about human impact on this world. Then your aesthetic desire for a Hummer will be trumped by your aesthetic desire to see the environment thrive.
There are also tainting influences on the human aesthetic of society that need to be mitigated or done away with (nominally through education). Without proper training, the human mind is highly impressionable. Many free market advocates will say that the commercial environment only reacts to what the people want, but they fail to point out that the relationship is synergistic. We should only see the content we explicitly pull, even if that means an end to advertisement in favor of subscription-based models.
More and more, I am convinced of the need to eradicate ignorance about the notion of God as an absolute center of certainty invisibly accessible though the human brain. This, more than anything else IMO, is responsible for the devastating level of unwarranted certainty, which in turn is responsible for extreme polarizations of issues, radical behavior, and a general dismissal of new ideas.
Can all this be achieved with education? I hope so. I have no stomach for the draconian measures that would otherwise be required, nor do I have faith in their efficacy.
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DAGGERS! YOU'RE STARING DAGGERS INTO MY EYES! OW! OW! OW!
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The human aesthetic is important. The desire for a Hummer is not something to be squelched, as it's reflective of genuine, human desire. The path to "enlightenment" isn't ascetism.
What is important is to have your aesthetic informed by your rational mind. What do you value in this world? How does human behavior affect what you value?
If
1) Your rationale refuses to entertain contradictions.
2) You genuinely value the environment in any form.
3) You are willing to accept, even on a tentative basis, the conclusions of the scientific community about human impact on this world.
Then your aesthetic desire for a Hummer will be trumped by your aesthetic desire to see the environment thrive.
There are also tainting influences on the human aesthetic of society that need to be mitigated or done away with (nominally through education). Without proper training, the human mind is highly impressionable. Many free market advocates will say that the commercial environment only reacts to what the people want, but they fail to point out that the relationship is synergistic. We should only see the content we explicitly pull, even if that means an end to advertisement in favor of subscription-based models.
More and more, I am convinced of the need to eradicate ignorance about the notion of God as an absolute center of certainty invisibly accessible though the human brain. This, more than anything else IMO, is responsible for the devastating level of unwarranted certainty, which in turn is responsible for extreme polarizations of issues, radical behavior, and a general dismissal of new ideas.
Can all this be achieved with education? I hope so. I have no stomach for the draconian measures that would otherwise be required, nor do I have faith in their efficacy.