A strange Utopia.

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Civilisation, Decay, Future, H G Wells, Happiness, Huxley, Society, Thoughts, Utopia

Those looking for Wells’ Utopia, need look no further. The visualisation of social appeasement and sleek structure, have been around us for many years now, and the early 2000’s are strong examples, of the muted development that can occur from this. Take a stroll in your local ‘new’ down-town suburbia on a gloriously Sunny day, when everyone is happy, children are paddling in the fountain, and the middle class are interacting as if life were just about this moment (Life *is* after all, about a series of moments).

This is where Wells description of forethought ended, just short of this realisation. To see a future where at some point the world was enough, that we had accepted our lot, is really a genius seed that entices us to understand the dangers of such balance. As Huxley notes in Island:

…patriotism is not enough but neither is anything else. science is not enough, religion is not enough, art is not enough, politics and economy are not enough, nor is love, nor is duty, nor is action however disinterested, nor, however sublime, is contemplation. Nothing short of everything will really do.

It should never be enough to simply be content with the level of the world; we should always strive to further ourselves, which then progresses future generations. Whether we care or not, we do inflict a lasting impact on the next generation as individuals, even in the smallest ways.

Utopia is at best a static image, a stagnation of survival and creation, and something that shouldn’t conjure up the feeling of warmth and happiness that it currently exudes. Happiness does not have a negative connotation here, but it should be understood as purely a state of mind; it will not be reached with futuristic lives and levels of acquisition, but enlightenment of our own selves. If we strive to reach Utopia, we will become our own dissociative and potentially reach the end of our time out of passive behaviour.

Coma awareness and ethics.

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Coma, Ethics, Euthanasia, Society, Thoughts

I was reading a story last week, about a new method of stimulating the brain of ‘brain dead’ patients, in the hope of verifying whether they can be pulled from the life support or not. The basic principle appears to be that the brain is more active, when two similar words are spoken (such as hear and here), making the brain do more processing and create a measurable spike.

While I think it’s a wonderful way to detect if someone is still alive, it again raised for me my own concerns about a patient who is in a vegetative state. After all, if you are responding to stimulation to a certain level of awareness, can you imagine what a torturous existence that would be? Everything dark, unable to move; this ultimate prison sentence, is something I certainly would never want to endure myself.

I am digressing a little because my main point is, how could you continue someones existence if they requested it all be over? The ability to gesture in a single spike of brainwave, the desire for the torture to stop and we currently cannot do that. Euthanasia has long been argued and fought over but we still restrict the right of a mature person to decide, that their pain and suffering is pointless and the space could be made for a new life. Should we really force someone to live in this way, after knowing that they are conscious, albeit in a small way?

Of course the old comparisons with animals will always come up; you would have your pet put down due to sickness and it’s called ‘an act of kindness’. If we are to continue this practice, then maybe it should be renamed to its human counterpart and be called an act of execution. I am still left wondering where the act of kindness is, in leaving someone sentenced to a life of solitary confinement, within their own mind.

On the subject of laid-back.

Tags

Society, Thoughts, USA

I was having a conversation about how laid-back the West Coast apprears to be thus far (although I can’t speak for LA, not having been there yet). This, is mostly from assumption about the areas I haven’t been to in the US, which of course would happen to be….the East coast (Chicago being the furthest East, that my feet have wandered). So with all that now said, I’ve just reduced my entry to zero merit for the time being. My redeeming quote, I have to say, even I found somewhat amusing; “How can you not be relaxed there though, when the fog is 75% THC content.” I rest my case.