Beginning of the End?
After discussing the unprecedented, deadly heat waves and fires
sweeping across the US and Europe, my friend, who is normally
an optimist said: “Unbelievable, i’m afraid this might be the
beginning of the end.”
Well no, I thought. It’s more like the middle or the end of the end.
Not the first inning of the end game . . . maybe the seventh.
The beginning of the end, in my reckoning began about five
hundred years ago when European explorers . . . colonizers . . .
conquistadors . . . marauders first sailed into the pristine bays
and harbors of the Americas and began a relentless decimation
of the New World environment.
After decades of war and destruction, barbaric hordes of
conquerers and “crusaders” that swept across Europe and Asia
boarded ships and sailed to the New World seeking new
territories and fortunes for their royal patrons and sponsors.
They discovered the Americas and systematically began the
deconstruction / destabilization of vast, vibrant, habitats on two
continents and the many unsullied islands along their coasts.
Indigenous cultures were slaughtered and converted, natural
habitats annihilated in their rapacious quest for riches . .
plundering resources and acquiring territories. In exchange they
left rats, disease, whiskey and christianity. History books proudly
describe it as an age of discovery.
It never stopped.
The only things that changed were the enormous growth in the number of people involved along with the sophistication and lethal scope of the weapons and tools of
destruction brought to the task. The shot – callers are no longer
kings, queens, popes or emperors. Now they are industrial
giants, huge corporations and of course, their stewards, the
political minions who clear and keep secure their paths. Real
time, live viewing of current episodes can be enjoyed by simply
turning on one’s TV to any news program.
So, here we are. “Beginning of the end?” Hardly. Free – fall is
more like it. How will it play out? Can the momentum of
destabilization on planet earth be broken . . . dialed back by
corrective human action to a level capable of sustaining life or . . .
is it now beyond the point of no return and simply a matter of
evolutionary process . . . nature taking its course, seeking a new
balance?
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Joseph Carlisi – Biography
Born and raised in New York City, he earned BA and MA degrees in Philosophy at Hunter College of the City University of New York and then continued his graduate studies in Philosophy and Artificial Intelligence at Massachusetts Institute of Technology working under the mentorship of Marvin Minsky. Joseph worked as a part time content and copy editor for Harvard University Press (science and medicine) while attending M.I.T.
After ten years as a university lecturer, researcher and administrator, he started and managed an advertising / public relations firm in San Diego, CA that handled a wide range of commercial accounts. On the academic side, he published a series of seven articles on animal behavior for Harvard Magazine and two books: “A Guide to Personal Power” and most recently “Playing God on the Eve of Extinction”.
Joseph Carlisi creates oil on canvas paintings that can be described as vivid, surreal and unexpected. His paintings have been exhibited and sold in: Honolulu, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, New York City, Miami, Tokyo, Yokohama, Amsterdam, Berlin and Salvador Brazil.
Joe’s art is available for purchase.
Contact him at carlisijoseph@yahoo.com.Advertisements