Why Bother?

Why does it matter?  Any of it. Why should we even bother worrying about how societies should interact, be governed or how we treat the planet or even the universe?  Our time of conscious existence is extremely limited.  Our planet is a little over 4 billion years old.  The Big Bang appears to have happened about 13 billion years ago.  We hope to live for about 100 years.  What can we possibly do in our lifetime that would make an appreciable difference to anything?  We are really nothing more than a compilation of elements that have been formed during the process of dying stars.  Does it even matter what happens to these elements that we are temporarily impacting?

This is a serious question.  It probably deserves a serious answer, so here goes my two cents worth.

I think the bottom line is that everything that exists is actually better off to exist with others.  Not only is existence better off with others, but it’s really better off when it exists with a diversity of others.  This diversity and interaction can be seen on the communal, biological and chemical levels.  Let’s take a look…

Communally, we have decided, time and time again, that there is great benefit if we work together towards some end.  Humans have some great examples of joint effort.  We have built pyramids, canals, aqueducts, modern societies with a whole myriad of functions to help make this a more secure environment in which we live. I am thankful that I do not have to build a train in order to ride one across the continent.  Running water in the home is another awesome cooperation.  I’m really glad that I don’t have to dig my own well or walk to a river every time I’m thirsty.  I’m even more thankful that I do not have to learn heart surgery or any other complicated skill in order to benefit from these advances.  As a society, we have figured out some basic principles of sharing in order to create a more secure existence.  Knowing that we have competent health professionals reduces my worries about my personal health in my time of need.  Access to these professionals is another debate for another time (i.e. universal health care).   

Nevertheless, I think we have shown that diversity and cooperation in skill sets lead to a much healthier and happier existence for individuals as well as the whole.  By caring about the welfare of others in the community, I am actually caring for myself.  By establishing a community that interacts with the best interests of the whole in mind, we are actually creating an environment that is safe and secure for ourselves.  By the way, humans don’t own the monopoly on this principle.  Birds flock together and take turns at different roles in migratory flights.  Wolves pack up to increase their hunting capabilities.  Fish school together to avoid being singled out by a predator.  It doesn’t take much looking to see this principle being applied throughout many species in the plant and animal kingdoms.  Working together and working for the whole is often the best strategy to assure individual success.

This idea of working together also works for inter mingling species.  Take a look at all the symbiotic relationships.  How about plants and bees?  The plant gets pollen distribution and the bees get a great meal.  How about fruit trees and mammals?  Plants get the seed distributed and the animals get a continued resource of food.  That sure makes sense.  How about humans and cultivated plants?  Seems like a no brainer.  We need to fully recognize that we are only alive due to the interaction of several species and environments working together.  Just think about the water cycle for a minute.  Think about where our water travels.  Why would we pollute our lakes, streams, and ground water when this is arguably the most important resource for our well-being?  Working together isn’t only important for intra-species security, but it must occur throughout all things that exist if we are to build ourselves a secure place to live.

Cooperation can be seen if we look at any complex organism.  There is a reason we have several different organs and systems in our bodies.  Nervous, circulatory, respiratory, etc…they all play key roles, cooperatively, in order to create a secure, healthy and happy existence for us.  What a great gift we have been given by this cooperation.  The conscious mind has been given life, only because our cells have found more efficient ways to transfer energy.  Without this cooperation, we would be stuck in a one celled existence.  Not bad, but I sure like being able to think, experience and remember all the great things in life.  I am thankful that organisms figured out this cooperation principle to help me enjoy this brief time of consciousness.

Dead stars are pretty helpful too.  Without them, it’s very probable that no life would exist.  All of the “heavy” elements that exist were once in a hydrogen burning star.  Upon its decay, explosion and crashing into its core due to great gravitational pull, we have elements like Iron, Potassium, etc.  This great diversity of elements leads to the ability of many more chemical reactions to occur.  Throughout all of these reactions and bonding, life was found.  That’s pretty cool.  This life that we have today is due in large part to the ability of the diversity of elements to share bonds and interact in such a way that organisms developed and here we are today.  Pretty simple, yet pretty awesome. 

Not only is life as we know it a result of cooperation, but also due to diversity.  Greater diversity, in elements, organs, organisms, etc. leads us to more variation.  Greater variation allows different compounds, organisms, ecosystems, etc.  In order to have life, we must be able to cooperate with a great diversity of matter. 

We have developed, not because of the survival of the fittest, but rather despite survival of the fittest.  We need elements to cooperate to create compounds.  We need cells to cooperate to create organs.  We need organisms to cooperate to create ecosystems.  We need people to cooperate to create societies.  We need to strive to interact with the whole in mind in order to be successful individually. 

Let’s look at another illustration...

Life has been developing in Africa for a “long time” now.  Several different mammals have tried different approaches to establish security in life.  The lion is often considered to be king.  The lion is an example of the fittest ruler in the animal kingdom.  By being king, the lion enjoys the spoils of war.  They get fed.  The problem is there is still one main king in each pride of lions.  There is constant intra-pride fighting to establish the hierarchy as well as inter-pride fighting over territories.  The life of a lion king is one of constant stress.  There is always some lion to be concerned with, let alone the packs of hyenas that often have the same goals.  Even if you have tamed the other lions in your own pride and the prides of the area, you still have to worry about successful hyena challenges.  You may be fed, but it takes and immense amount of energy to ward off all these other pressures and your demise will be very unpleasant. 

Our ancestors reacted to this reality of life (consciously or not) while striving to survive.   Like many animals, we decided that it was beneficial to cooperate and even take advantage of adaptability.  We adapted to life on the ground.  We adapted to life along water ways.  We adapted to life in the mountains.  Wherever we go, we adapt to the diverse surroundings and cooperate to forge out an existence.  We are able to do these things, not because we are trying to be better than others, but because we are trying to find a safe, secure and low stress environment.  We didn’t try to beat the lions; we tried to find a way to exist with less stress and more security.  We tried to find a way to exist that was more sustainable.

I may finally be getting to my point.  Greater variation, from the elements to species, has led to a greater diversity of existence.  This greater diversity can only work if things cooperate and work interdependently.  It’s taken some time for these things to come to fruition, but basic hominids have only been around for a couple million years.  Basic humans, like we think of today, have only been around for about 200,000 years.  For a little perspective, the Jurassic period was about 200 million years ago.  We’re still pretty new at figuring these things out.   We’re still learning when it comes to living in societies and why some things work better than others.  However, if we realize that cooperation and diversity are at the core of more complex existence, then perhaps we can answer the original question.

Why should we even bother?  I think the answer is that it’s the only way to sustain complex life.  We are a part of complex life and if we want this way of existence to continue, then we need to care about how we interact with the rest of this planet.  If we want the opportunity of life, then we need to maintain a cooperative philosophy and maintain diversity so that we can adapt to survive as climates change, resources change and the world as we know it changes.  Without these principles, cooperation and diversity, we cannot expect to live very long. 

If we don’t live in harmony with humans, flora, fauna, ecosystems, etc., then we eventually have a world that is not habitable by complex life.  If we release excess carbon dioxide into the fragile balance of atmosphere, if we consume more at the expense of other living things, if we do any of these things that we know do more harm than good, then we are making the statement that they don’t matter.  We are saying that the only thing that matters is my individual desires and convenience.  Well, my friend, your whole concept of individuality, harnessed by the amazing conscious mind, would never exist if it weren’t for the cooperation and diversity of elements.  Our thinking and desiring mind would never exist if it weren’t for the diversity of life that helps sustain and fuel our entire beings.  Selfish interests for self-perseverance cannot happen at the expense of others (living or non-living).  The only way to secure individual life is if we secure the whole.   

I care about the whole because I care about myself, but I also care about the whole because I am thankful for myself.  Life is an awesome gift.  I breathe, share experiences, enjoy relationships and have a conscious mind due to cooperation and diversity.  I can exist, happily and securely, without doing harm to other members of planet earth.  So why should I take from another organisms opportunity at life?  Why is my temporary convenience, attained by cutting down forests and polluting everything I see, worth more than all of complex life?  My answer is... it’s not.  I gain more joy out of knowing that I can mean not to do harm than any potential temporary joy I may receive when I burn extra oil, consume extra resources or take more than my share.  Why bother?  Because it’s the right thing to do… and that’s all I need to keep going.