There Can Be Only One
This morning I heard the news that Amazon is purchasing Whole Foods. Jeff Bezos acquires another weapon in his quest to slay the Wal-Mart behemoth. At least that is what the analysts are saying. The prime principle of 21st century greed-is-good Capitalism is “There Can Be Only One.” This mantra comes from the Highlander story, where individuals who are immortal, continue to cheat death by locating and killing one another. The weapon of choice is the broad sword and the opponents head must be taken. The immortals battle one another by ritual single combat. The contest between Bezo’s Amazon and Wal-Mart is a Gathering of sorts, where the remaining immortals face one another for “The Prize.”
The blood letting continues apace with thousands relieved of their livelihoods, replaced by technology month by month. We are told this is creative destruction, and that we ought to applaud, and love the spectacle. Things are getting better every day in every way. But we are the ones beheaded.
These are my thoughts on this Saturday morning. Here are some thoughts from Henry Beston written in 1948
Mechanized conveniences of modern life
robbing us of the essential inconveniences
that make us human.
Fantastically unnatural passivity, slave mechanisms
doing practically everything—this sluggish paradise.
A human being protected from all normal and natural
hardship simply is not alive.
From our first breath to our last
we inhabit insecurely a world
which must of its transitory nature be insecure.
Any security we do achieve is but an illusion.
A fine line………………………….Fruitful pursuit of knowledge
Foolish eradication of life’s inherent mystery
There is mutuality between our tools
and our intentions
Tools are the product of our intentions
and also shape our intentions in turn.
The tyranny of mindless technology.PARADOX
A machine civilization increasingly difficult to manage
and the wheel and the knife.
It is well to use the wheel.
But it is fatal to be bound to it.We are trapped
in a perpetually unrewarding hamster
wheel of productivity.–taken from Henry Beston’s 1948 manifesto
for reclaiming our humanity by breaking the tyranny of technology
and relearning to be nurtured by nature
