I was asked the question by my Serendipity what I thought about the end of the world during one of our chats. I replied pithily “Haven't we had so many of them?” She laughed or rather the emicon did. But strangely enough this subject came up again when I was told that there were many emails circulating around in Colombo about this by a very good friend of mine when we met for lunch last Sunday. Yesterday this question was posed by the former and asking me to write about it in my blog. Hence this posting.
I wasn't really planning to do so today but I heard a very interesting discourse about the subject this morning on national television by a Buddhist prelate for the full moon Poya Day sermon. His perspective which reflects that of the Buddha based on his teachings set me off to think about this in more detail.
The first I heard about the end of world was a prediction about how a nuclear war would annihilate the whole population of the world. This was during the hey day of the cold war period. I was very young at that time and I could barely remember the details of the Cuban missile crisis. It was in 1962 and I was 14 and more interested in matters of sex rather than a stand off between the USA and USSR. The other that comes to my mind is the 1979 Three Mile Island Nuclear Accident in Pennsylvania, USA. I was 21 years old then and had been sailing over three years.
But there was no connection of these events in the context of the end of the world. I mean I had heard about how if their was a reactor melt down the whole darn thingamijig would end up at the other side of the world probably in the middle of China and the absurdity of any object let alone nuclear would survive the heat at the Earths core was hilarious. But I remember a debate at that time about whether spent fuel rods were being dumped in the Oceans. The average life span of these things according to Scientific American's definition is a “Trash heap deadly for 250,000 years!”
The first time I started thinking about the end of the world was after I had seen a movie about what a global Nuclear disaster would mean to humanity. It was a documentary, unfortunately I can't remember the name now, and the conclusion was humanity would be wiped out and the insects, especially cockroaches would reign supreme on the planet. Not a very bright prospect for a young boy to contemplate on a Sunday afternoon. The second time was also after watching another movie, again I can't remember the name and it concluded that God will ensure that only the maimed, deformed and sick will be the chosen as his children when the world ends. That left me rather confused about God's whole business of justice and fair play. The third was a song by the Rock Band Rush from their Album 2112 (1976),the opening track ending thus;”and the meek shall inherit the Earth!” These were all the thoughts that I had when this when this subject arose.
The sermon I heard this morning was on a totally different line and I have taken the liberty to use it and interpret it to conform to what my views are about the end of the world. According to the teachings of the Buddha, and I am no expert I am just repeating the gist of what the prelate preached. Human beings are now at a stage where life expectancy is at its 100's. That is some achievement considering what it was a couple of centuries ago. What has been happening of late, and this does make sense, is the isolated natural disasters that have been occurring at alarming frequency and at greater intensity in the last 10 odd years. Take Sri Lanka for instance, the Boxing Day Tsunami of 2006, The unheard of floods last year, a crack on the earth surface in Trincomalee. Look at the world Haiti and now Japan. Japan is really frightening as I was told that the Earths orbital position had shifted! The havoc this may play on the weather this year is to be seen. The solution was to come to terms with living life properly now as opposed to finding hiding places from these events. At the end of the day you can't cheat death. Then of course the discourse became boring and irrelevant to me. But I do concur there is no way one can really prepare for Mother Natures wrath. It is horrific, unexpected and devastating when it happens. If you are caught in it all you can hope for is a quick and merciful death unless you are a sadomasochist and want to live on after an agonizing wait for rescue and survive minus vital parts of your body. I don't but I don't hold a grudge against anybody who does. I prefer dying fast and as painlessly as possible because I don't want to live minus anything and I doubt my personality is built of that kind of heroic efforts to survive and live to tell the tale!
If at all there will be an end of the world it would probably be a change in our global environment. We are more likely to face frequent natural disasters,severe climate change and probably a short supply of water and food. What would it mean ? Survival of the fittest! The only thing that would make this equitable is, as I don't believe money would be able to buy anything at that time and being powerful wouldn't even come into the equation, is a level playing field. The alliances we form and how we play by new rules will be the only guarantee of the collective survival of the species. And maybe at last we will learn to protect our planet and respect not only Mother Nature but each other.
