Santa Ynez Valley Senior Citizens Foundation

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Difficult Times (cont.)
by R.E. Darby


Self Interest?


There are some indications that one of the problems with the Human species is that we are too obsessed with our own self interests, a condition called egocentrism, even to the exclusion of all else. This sounds a little crazy because I would think that awareness of our environment, and it's condition, would be in our self interest. But that brings us back to mindsets and how broad or narrow our perception of self is. Do we see ourselves as a species or just me myself and I? And what about the caring part? Do we care about our children and grandchildren and all the future Humans of the world? Or is our mantra, 'I've got mine'. We seem to be a spoiled consumer civilization that for some reason havn't been able to develop beyond the adolescent stage of growth and awareness.

Growup Or Disappear?


I know, it sounds flippant and oversimplified, but it might come to just that (and may already have come to it). We either grow up and face reality and deal with it, or become one of nature's failed experiments. Even a bunch of lizards lived on this planet for 180 million years, while we, the so called intelligent species, might not make it to 3 million. What's wrong with this picture? How long do we plan to hide from the truth inside our self induced ego based comas? This description of our current condition may be slightly brutal, but can we afford to keep on as we have been, knowing that this course has produced the results we see and are experiencing today? So, if we change our basic mindset regarding our place in the scheme of things in such a way as to allow for a broader perception of our responsibilities to our environment, perhaps it will result in us turning off the shower water while we soap up and other obvious resource management strategies.