The planet is fine. The people are fucked.

“In art, it is hard to say anything as good as saying nothing” noted Ludwig Wittgenstein. True, though I’m beggining to think this maxim could be remixed and expanded upon to refer to the art of living in general: In life, it is hard to do anything as good as doing nothing . . .

I don’t mean that in the leisurely sense or from the perspective of the work shy, layabout (which I currently am) – but in reference to the sustainably wise conclusion made by Alan Watts, who suggests that we need stop our interfering so that the earths natural mechanisms can mend itself:

In this clip, taken from his documentary – ‘A Conversation with Myself’ (1971), Watts concludes that the best form of action we could take in relation to repairing the planets frail ecosystem, would involve the human race learning how to leave itself alone. However, whilst human civilization is still alive and kicking and continually pumping tones of CO2 into the atmosphere – this will remain but an impossible pipe dream, true nonetheless – but impossible. This ‘handing over of nature to nature’ as Watts puts it, would involve sacrificing everything we have come to know — An incomprehensible, dramatically simplistic shift backwards in our lifestyles, if we are to have any hope in moving forward. (Who would want to, and how to even enforce such a ruling is another headache completely, more than likely to involve some form of global communism . . .)

To re-evaluate everything that gives our lives meaning is too much of a culture shock and too much of a demand on ourselves. And that is Watts concluding point:

You can’t transform yourself. You can’t make yourself sane. You can’t make yourself loving.
You can’t make yourself unselfish. And yet it’s absolutely necessary that we be that way. It is absolutely necessary — If we are going to hand over the direction of nature to nature, which is what it comes to . . . It’s absolutely necessary that we let go of ourselves and it can’t be done.

I agree with Watt’s at the end of the documentary when he concludes that the world, individually and socially, has arrived at somewhat of a dead-end (these anxieties were expressed 40 years – how long can we keep referring to this current moment in time as pivotal/now or never?). Yes, this is somewhat pessimistic – but as they say, isn’t the truth often heard to swallow? Interestingly enough, I read here that “people with mild depression are relatively accurate when predicting future events. They see the world as it is. In other words, in the absence of a neural mechanism that generates unrealistic optimism, it is possible all humans would be mildly depressed”. I’m not suggesting that Watts was in anyway depressed (or myself for that matter), only that there is a fine line between the pessimist and realist.

I don’t want to finish on a helpless low note – but I’m going to anyway. Ending with a few words from the celebrated pessimist that is George Carling, who humorously highlights that the “planet is fine, the people are fucked.” (I’ll let you decide whether Carling is suggesting that we are ‘literally fucked’ if we render the planet inhabitable for our future selves; or ‘psychologically fucked’ – too self interested at present to comprehend such a dystopia):