Good advice can frequently be found in the past and
it was a Roman philosopher who knew nought about today’s challenges but to whom
we ought to be listening.
Lucius Annaeus Seneca, known as Seneca the Younger, talked
about how slowly things came into being and yet how quickly they could
dissipate.
He said: "It would be some consolation for the
feebleness of ourselves and our works if
all things should perish as slowly as they come into being; but as it is,
increases are of sluggish growth, but the way to ruin is rapid."
Here in the Goulburn Valley,
we have had our shoulders to the wheel for nearly two centuries creating what
was to become one of Australia’s richest food bowls, seeing off many threats
and being equal to countless challenges, but a largely unseen and misunderstood
difficulty lurks in the shadows.
Seneca the Younger talked of “sluggish growth” and warned of
“rapid ruin” and now after near 200 years of growth driven by energy unleashed
from fossil fuels, we face the latter.
Interestingly, those who built this fertile place, face a
never before encountered nexus with the refuse from
the fossil fuels that has accumulated in
the atmosphere threatening rapid ruin.
A 10 000 year “Goldilocks” era, highlighted by an Industrial Revolution ignited by the liberation of energy from fossil fuels, opened the
door to utopian times which are now quickly becoming dystopian.
Earth, the only planet we have, is more than four billion
years old and if reduced to 24 hours, humans have been here for maybe three seconds
and so in about a tenth of a second we have trashed the place, in that we are
behaving like a bunch of pleasure seekers at an out of control house party.
At this point, it’s
probably worth considering the question asked by Italian professor in Physical
Chemistry at the University of Florence, Ugo Bardi, who wondered if we have
reached the limits of human intelligence?
Now there is a question
and the sentiment it implies that will undoubtedly rile many, but considered
objectively, the professor has grounds for his argument
for even a cursory look around the world illustrates that even the simplest of
things, that cost nothing, such as kindness, friendliness, sharing and
collaboration are in short supply.
Measured on the
aforementioned 24-hour time scale we have only tenths of a second left to make
wholesale changes to our lives, shifting from our energy-rich, accumulative,
individualistic and ego-driven ways epitomized by our existing market-driven
economy.
Modernity, certainly for most
Australians, is attractive, but to lean on a political mantra from the early
70s, “It’s time” to challenge the market myths and in putting people before
profit, willingly forego some of those promised pleasures and work to build
resilience in your community and help slow Seneca’s “rapid ruin”.
