As Americans joyfully look forward to getting back to normal, I find myself feeling very sad as the rest of the world is not in a normal state at all. India, millions of people literally dying in the streets, South American countries in a state unacceptable health conditions which will lead to northward immigration to our Country. I call this state of our collective mindset Oblivion. These thoughts have led to a new series of images, The one above is O no. 3
Oblivion
Noun: the act or process of dying out; complete annihilation or extinction: If we don't preserve their habitat, the entire species will pass into oblivion. A state marked by lack of awareness or consciousness.
For Me, the state of the human species is one of Oblivion. Our Planet Earth is a living entity. Looking at images of our human rampantly overpopulated cities, I see that our human species is like a virus eating away the resources of planet Earth. I am not a scientist, only an old artist who has seen the difference between what was and what is not in our Environment.
Born in 1935, I as a child was used to self reliance and subsisting on a need basis. We were happy with our lives being able to see the clear blue sky, the water so pure you could drink from any spring or creek, using our bodily energy to walk and bike when we could and a car when only necessary. Reading was the most basic form of entertainment. The Library was our place for brain adventures and it was the only place which was free for everyone to better ourselves in achieving our aspirations.
Our once pristine world is now a garbage dump from our human wants and as a collective life form, we are in a state of Oblivion. Human rights, needs are conflated with our human wants and this will be the end of our existence as a species...
Can we innovate our way out of our present state of wants driving human consumption of resources ? I'm not too optimistic. If our greatest achievement of the 20th Century was the creation of the Atom Bomb, it does not bode well for something to be invented to change the mindset of 7.9 billion humans that believe we have the right to do whatever we wish when ever we want just because we can. Going to Mars is such a waste of treasure and time when we have the perfect planet right under our feet, but are oblivious to what we should be doing to give our Earth the care and replenishment that is needed for all living species to survive. In reading Kim Stanley Robinson's book 'Aurora', he came to pretty much the same conclusion.
The inventions of medical cures for disease will not save our species as new and more virulent viruses will continue to emerge form the garbage soup we have saturated our planet with and will give the new virus life forms the diet that they need to emerge from, and the only thing we can do is rely on hope when we see our human lives die in the streets from lack of new medicines. The distribution of vaccines to 7.9 billion people in time for saving a life is not attainable.
In America, we disassociate ourselves from the 3rd world countries and continue our lives in a daily wants state of being. Meanwhile, the elements in the organic soup of our garbage will continue to thrive and beget new and uncontrollable disease and destruction of our Planets life forms ( forests, fishes, insects) which we need to survive into the Future. Thus, we, here, in America are in a complete state of Oblivion.
the song Oblivion is the muse for new images in my world of art.
R J
