Self Destruction in Human Beings

"Self destruction's got me again"

We can think in big or small terms with regards to this topic, since we can destroy ourselves as a species through the actions of a few, or destroy ourselves individually.  Many people argue that the whole of the human race is guilty of causing climatic change that will kill off the entire species, not to mention other species.  Each and every one of us is guilty because we all benefit from the industry and use of resources that cause the accumulation of gases and chemicals that create changes in temperature and ph balance in the air and water.  Well, those of us in industrialized societies benefit anyway.  It may be that those human societies that have remained isolated and "primitive" will survive and continue, adapting to the new conditions with their lesser dependence on complex technology.  Some outstanding members of the species have developed weapons which, when used in quantity, could devastate the environment enough to cause our extinction in a matter of months.  While only a privileged few have been able to achieve this remarkable feat, we are all to blame for aiding and abetting their achievement by supporting the cultural conditions necessary for the research to be done and the artifacts to be finished.

Somehow, we can face this generalized destruction with some calm, perhaps we can point to only a few as the "real culprits" while the rest of us are just victims, trying to get along in the society we were born to.  Personal self-destruction seems to bring out much stronger emotions, oddly more personal offense, even though the way one person destroys herself affects very few other individuals in any appreciable way.  For some reason, other people's choices - e.g. drug taking, suicide, or euthanasia - provoke heated responses as if the decisions were made purely as a form of insult.  In order to promote peace and respect for ourselves, we demonstrate peaceful treatment of others, relying on a form of social contract to protect us from harmful behavior by others.  When one individual acts to harm herself, it can feel like an attack on us, because of the idea that we humans, and living beings, are somehow sacred.  An attack on a sacred object is an attack on our beliefs, and by extension on our person.  Nobody can be permitted to show disdain for the human body or life by damaging or extinguishing it without there being some other crime committed by the target to justify this violence.  If we allow an attack on one individual, even if it comes from that same individual, what would stop us from attacking one another?

A Sometime Visitor was not in total agreement with the argument for generalized guilt when it comes to climate change, saying that the people who make the pertinent decisions are very few and very high on the social ladder.  The driving force behind those decisions is none other than greed.  In fact, most people are not aware of the truth behind any big news story, be it war or crime, or even the findings of a new study.  We human beings have a certain amount of natural aggression and it often gets swept under the rug in favor of a more pacifistic narrative to encourage the populace not to react with violence to things it does not like.  We are constantly manipulated by the press to develop opinions that are beneficial to whoever is pulling the strings, and even when we are aware of the manipulation there is only so much we can do to work around it.  We all have many obligations on our time and effort.  It all comes down to our being told what to think by a media controlled by people whose greatest concern is not the good of any one person besides themselves, the country, or the world, but rather their bank accounts, wherever they may be.

The Actress marveled over a perceived heartlessness among people who decide they cannot solve global problems, and therefore try not to think about them at all.  The least we can do, in her opinion, is think about the problems in the world, and worry.  The act of deliberately forgetting problems seems cold-hearted and cruel.  We should at least send some positive "energy".

The Leader was not altogether happy with the individual side of self-destruction, preferring to spend his thinking time on the manipulation by authority to its own benefit as well.  His view was that an individual has more psychological than philosophical problems, although I would argue that we are not focusing on the destruction of the individual but the reaction of others to that destruction.  When large groups are allowed to cause wanton destruction that results in illness and death of humans, the Leader can find toxic philosophies.  Some industries take advantage of loopholes in pollution laws to pollute as much as they like, such as the California paper industry buying up dry cleaners to cannibalize their more lenient allowances, which is the hallmark of lack of care about pollution to begin with.  If we do not want a thing to happen, we do not allow it to happen under any circumstances.  He agreed with the Visitor's conclusion that money was really the most important factor, saying that the pharmaceutical industry, one of her examples of modern corporate greed, could save its reputation by publishing the negative outcomes of experiments, so nobody has to waste time and money doing them again, and furthermore, an extension of patent protection could give the companies some cushion of income so that they felt more motivated to research less Western diseases with less wealthy victims.

An Infrequent Guest seemed to be obsessed with eating.  He began by talking about the self-imposed isolation and self-destruction of the successful and later spoke for some time on potatoes.  As an anecdote, I would add his story of offending an English woman by telling her she would be his aperatif and being mystified that she refused to meet with him after that.  The man is obsessed with things to stick in the mouth.  He did bring up the problem of addiction to tobacco, which is a subject related to manipulation, self-destruction, and corruption, without any doubt.  Even knowing the dangers, many people choose to smoke or refuse to quit.  The same might be said for alcohol.  With regard to authority, he let us know that the problems that keep government officials awake, even in Spain, are never reported on in the media; we hear about only the most banal and ridiculous problems the government has to deal with.  He felt the need to reassure us that the friend who did the interview that gave this information was a "lady".  I do not know if he was afraid we doubted his ability to make lady friends or if we doubted the existence of lady journalists.  Like so many other factors that lead to destruction, or not, it probably only matters to a select few.