Schwarzenegger would go back in time to eliminate fossil fuels?
Wow, this is both corny and, in my opinion, foolish.
I agree 100% that we need to deal with our dependence on fossil fuels. The human race is addicted for several reasons upon an unsustainable resource, which we have good reason to believe will lead to our destruction.
So why do I think it foolish to stop us from discovering fossil fuels?
We don't seem to understand the value of "regret". I don't regret anything. That doesn't mean that I didn't make terrible choices in my life, or good choices which had terrible results, nor even necessarily that I don't have cases where I wonder/fantasize about my life having taken another course. But, I value my mistakes more than the unknown. And definitely more than being ignorant of what they taught me. What I mean is; I'm only aware that my choices or their impacts were terrible... because they happened.
You can't regret something that didn't happen. Which, in turn means, you won't learn from it.
A lot of regret in people's lives for instance revolves around careers or love. And I can't help think when people say that they regret a certain thing that happened, how much longer they may have been a much worse person if it hadn't happened then. Would the ignorance last a day? A week? A month?
"I wish I hadn't skipped that day of work to go golfing with my buddies. I lost the best job ever". When people say stuff like that, they are generally no longer the kind of person who skip days at work to do frivolous things. Sure, they may have lost a good job. But, they gained an even more valuable experience. And, if they hadn't been fired that day... how much longer would they have lasted? They didn't lose the job because they skipped a day of work. They lost the job because they were the type of person who skips a day of work. Losing the job teaches them the lesson they couldn't learn on their own.
Humanity deserves whatever it gets. I mean, after all, we are literally doing this to ourselves. Not to mention everything else on the planet. But, if we can actually learn from it before it destroys us... wouldn't that make the whole ordeal worth while? I mean, let's look at the alternative. If we never found fossil fuels, does that guarantee that we wouldn't find some other way to destroy ourselves? I mean, carbon emissions aren't exactly the ONLY way we're destroying the planet even now. They just happen to be the most expedient way we're doing it.
And, if the other ways were less perceptible. Less easy to measure and prove (and it isn't exactly like we're even doing a good job of measuring and proving climate change) how much closer might we drive ourselves to extinction before noticing we are the architects? Would we even know?
Mistakes are a human beings most valuable asset. At least, they are if you can realize them, and accept them, and act upon what you've learned.
And, just about every time someone says that they regret something, or wish to go back in time to change something, it is exactly that sort of mistake which they are talking about. I mean, you can't regret something you never realized happened. Nor, would you want to change it had you not accepted that it was a mistake. And, you likely wouldn't have the nerve the claim to want to erase that moment had it not, in some meaningful way driven you to change yourself.
Yes, sometimes our mistakes destroy us. But, it is always the mistakes which we embrace to better ourselves which define who we are.
The same goes for our species as a whole. We don't need to forget, or undo our past. We need to accept it. See it for the mistake it was. And learn from it in a way which we can apply not only to this, but to the other ways in which we are currently or may in the future jeopardize our survival.
I agree 100% that we need to deal with our dependence on fossil fuels. The human race is addicted for several reasons upon an unsustainable resource, which we have good reason to believe will lead to our destruction.
So why do I think it foolish to stop us from discovering fossil fuels?
We don't seem to understand the value of "regret". I don't regret anything. That doesn't mean that I didn't make terrible choices in my life, or good choices which had terrible results, nor even necessarily that I don't have cases where I wonder/fantasize about my life having taken another course. But, I value my mistakes more than the unknown. And definitely more than being ignorant of what they taught me. What I mean is; I'm only aware that my choices or their impacts were terrible... because they happened.
You can't regret something that didn't happen. Which, in turn means, you won't learn from it.
A lot of regret in people's lives for instance revolves around careers or love. And I can't help think when people say that they regret a certain thing that happened, how much longer they may have been a much worse person if it hadn't happened then. Would the ignorance last a day? A week? A month?
"I wish I hadn't skipped that day of work to go golfing with my buddies. I lost the best job ever". When people say stuff like that, they are generally no longer the kind of person who skip days at work to do frivolous things. Sure, they may have lost a good job. But, they gained an even more valuable experience. And, if they hadn't been fired that day... how much longer would they have lasted? They didn't lose the job because they skipped a day of work. They lost the job because they were the type of person who skips a day of work. Losing the job teaches them the lesson they couldn't learn on their own.
Humanity deserves whatever it gets. I mean, after all, we are literally doing this to ourselves. Not to mention everything else on the planet. But, if we can actually learn from it before it destroys us... wouldn't that make the whole ordeal worth while? I mean, let's look at the alternative. If we never found fossil fuels, does that guarantee that we wouldn't find some other way to destroy ourselves? I mean, carbon emissions aren't exactly the ONLY way we're destroying the planet even now. They just happen to be the most expedient way we're doing it.
And, if the other ways were less perceptible. Less easy to measure and prove (and it isn't exactly like we're even doing a good job of measuring and proving climate change) how much closer might we drive ourselves to extinction before noticing we are the architects? Would we even know?
Mistakes are a human beings most valuable asset. At least, they are if you can realize them, and accept them, and act upon what you've learned.
And, just about every time someone says that they regret something, or wish to go back in time to change something, it is exactly that sort of mistake which they are talking about. I mean, you can't regret something you never realized happened. Nor, would you want to change it had you not accepted that it was a mistake. And, you likely wouldn't have the nerve the claim to want to erase that moment had it not, in some meaningful way driven you to change yourself.
Yes, sometimes our mistakes destroy us. But, it is always the mistakes which we embrace to better ourselves which define who we are.
The same goes for our species as a whole. We don't need to forget, or undo our past. We need to accept it. See it for the mistake it was. And learn from it in a way which we can apply not only to this, but to the other ways in which we are currently or may in the future jeopardize our survival.
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