I have started reading the ecological foot print of Pope Francis, Laudato si’. It is a huge document and it may take me a while. I recommend reading – at least – the summary of this document, as published by NYT. Since reading it, the sole thought that popped up in my mind, is the title of this blog: Après nous le déluge! The expression means, “I don’t care what happens after I’m gone, I don’t care even if the whole world is destroyed. (Wikipedia)
Laudato si’ blames consumerism, free markets and our throwaway culture (including the poor, the elderly and the unborn). This also explains the negative response from various politicians as Religion is clearly interfering into the traditional domain of Politics. Unfortunately, the “blame game” is seldom useful for finding solutions. However, it’s hard to see where solutions should come from.
Science and Technology are seen by some as the solutions to all of our problems. They disregard that both are also part of the root cause of old and new problems. Science and Technology are now at the frontier of killer robots and designer babies.
Politics has rarely been able to come up with solutions and has become a disappointment to many. As Grouch Marx once said: “Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it everywhere, diagnosing it incorrectly and applying the wrong remedies.”
Religion should offer consoling but is more and more the cause of hurt and grief. For me, it has become difficult to respect and trust “my” Roman Catholic Church after all its scandals. For Muslims, it must be very hard to understand why other Muslims are able to use fear, murder and destruction and still claiming to be true believers. Yet in their core, both Christianity and Islam are about Love. Love for God and others (nature, including humans).
Money can’t buy me Love (Beatles) and is often seen as the root of all evil (Bible). Money is also highly addictive: Dirty Sexy Money (IMDb). Nevertheless, Money is merely a transparent measure of (in)equality rather than anything else.
Probably the solution is somewhere in (a combination of) the 3 other Belief systems, being: Love, Philosophy and the Truth. Accepting that solution may require a miracle – or a disaster. Or both.
I am convinced that many share the above but feel powerless to make a difference. Hence, we look the other way and silently think: Après nous le déluge.
On an individual level, we do have an option: Pay It Forward (IMDb). This movie is about a plan – “Pay It Forward” – which means that the recipient of a favour does a favour for three others rather than paying the favour back. However, it needs to be a major favour that the receiver cannot complete themselves (Wikipedia). There actually may be some Truth in this Philosophy. Love for God and others (nature, including humans) is indeed the key to our survival.
“Ecology studies the relationship between living organisms and the environment in which they develop. This necessarily entails reflection and debate about the conditions required for the life and survival of society, and the honesty needed to question certain models of development, production and consumption. It cannot be emphasized enough how everything is interconnected. Time and space are not independent of one another, and not even atoms or subatomic particles can be considered in isolation. Just as the different aspects of the planet – physical, chemical and biological – are interrelated, so too living species are part of a network which we will never fully explore and understand. A good part of our genetic code is shared by many living beings. It follows that the fragmentation of knowledge and the isolation of bits of information can actually become a form of ignorance, unless they are integrated into a broader vision of reality.”
Pope Francis, Laudato si’, #138.
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