Sir Real - Good News

I'm proposing a new theory to explain what's gone wrong.

Here it is: We're experiencing cultural collapse.

The very same collapse that was experienced by the Plains Indians when their way of life was destroyed and they were herded onto reservations.

The very same collapse that was experienced by countless aboriginal peoples overrun by us in Africa, South America, Australia, and elsewhere.

It matters not that the circumstances of the collapse were different for them and for us, the results were the same.

For both of us, in just a few decades, shocking realities invalidated our vision of the world and made nonsense of a destiny that had always seemed self-evident.

For both of us, the song we'd been singing from the beginning of time suddenly died in our throats.

The outcome was the same for both of us: Things fell apart.

It doesn't matter whether you live in tipis or skyscrapers, things fall apart.

Order and purpose are replaced by chaos and bewilderment.

People lose the will to live, become listless, become violent, become suicidal, and take to drink, drugs, and crime.

The matrix that once held all in place is shattered, and laws, customs, and institutions fall into disuse and disrespect, especially among the young.

Circumstances have at last shattered our mad cultural vision, have at last rendered our self-aggrandizing mythology meaningless, have at last strangled our arrogant song.

We've lost our ability to believe that the world was made for Man and that Man was made to conquer and rule it.

We've lost our ability to believe that the world will automatically and inevitably support us in our conquest, will swallow all the poison we can generate without coming to harm.

We've lost our ability to believe that God is unequivocally on our side against the rest of creation.

And so, ladies and gentlemen, we're . . . going to pieces.

At last, good news.

Here is my good news: We are not humanity.

All the intellectual and spiritual foundations of our culture were laid by people who believed absolutely that we are humanity itself.

We forgot that we're only a single culture and came to think of ourselves as humanity itself.

But why would it be such bad news if we were humanity?

If we were humanity itself, then all the terrible things we say about humanity would be true -- and that would be very bad news.

If we were humanity itself, than all our destructiveness would belong not to one misguided culture but to humanity itself -- and that would be very bad news.

If we were humanity itself, then the fact that our culture is doomed would mean that humanity itself is doomed -- and that would be very bad news.

If we were humanity itself, then the fact that our culture is the enemy of life on this planet would mean that humanity itself is the enemy of life on this planet -- and that would be very bad news.

If we were humanity itself, then the fact that our culture is hideous and misshapen -- very bad news indeed.

But we're not humanity, we're just one culture -- one culture out of hundreds of thousands that have lived their vision on this planet and sung their song -- and that's wonderful news, even for us!

If it were humanity that needed changing, then we'd be out of luck.

But it isn't humanity that needs changing, it's just . . . us.

And that's very good news.