Chapter 57: Improvement or Degradation?

We say that our fellow humankind have improved throughout the years.

I suppose it does seem like it, does it not? Looking at the tall skyscrapers and towers erected, and at the marvels of steel and concrete that we achieved, as well as the great monuments and sophisticated equipment and processes we created, this seems hard to deny.

But that is only on the surface.

Looking beyond that, destruction seems to come before creation, does it not?

Take an origami crane for example. We destroy the potential time we had for other activites and the multiple future options, as well as the durability and usefulness of the paper we once had, in order to create such a work of art.

And how about the paper itself? To create it, did we not have to crush and mash wood pulp from trees into such necessities? And even through recycling, we use electricity and power in order to do so.

So, in a way, I suppose, some things are improved, but for the sake of doing so, we have to degrade something else. Just like the science of energy. It can only be transferred and transformed into something else, but by doing so, we erase it's present form.

For the sake of new cities and homes, we took away the potential alternate uses of the land targetted.

For the sake of learning and preservation, we locked animals within cages, but in that sense, we also made sure that they had a safe environment. And credit has to be given to our ensuring that the environment thet live in is as similar to their natural habitats as possible.

Whether we have improved, or degraded, it really is up to how you see it, in light of what you want to achieve.

Life is simple, huh? I can never see it that way. I see it as complicated.