When Viewed from a Cosmic Perspective, Earth is a Tiny, Unimportant Planet
A large object collided with Jupiter a couple of weeks ago
(pictured here), and had the relatively huge planet not been there, it may have hit our home here in the Milky Way.
It’s worthwhile to reflect occasionally on the Earth’s insignificance in the universe. All this hysteria is happening on a minuscule dot in one of many billions of galaxies.
Here’s the definitive video on this subject. Warning: have a box of tissues near you when you click on it.
On a tiny blue dot overwhelmed by the infinity surrounding it, a fraction of a boundless universe reflects inward, into the thought process of humans reflecting on the infinity in which they are contained. It may seem accidental. We may seem insignificant. Nevertheless, our self-awareness reflects that exact universe seeking to know itself and we are its best chance at so doing, if we can only keep from self-destructing through greed and selfishness.
I’m proud to know you, Rafael.
It is quite easy to be overwhelmed by the vastness of space and probability theory that suggests that the complete works of Shakespeare could be duplicated by unintelligent tapping.
I am not entirely convinced. There are also theories that discuss why one “infinity” is bigger than another “infinity” We are not also saying that 95% of the universe is composed of something that we can’t see.
So why can’t I also imagine that our world is composed of forces and directions of which we are 95% unaware with our present observations and senses. Probability theory predicts a result. But if actual results are 20 times as large we might need a bigger universe to explain our insignificance.
And if rather than an insignificant spec of sand we are fundamental to some portion of the universe then this may require us to be more responsible rather than more caviler with what some like to refer to as the gift of our world.
A couple of things Bukowski said rather apply here, i think:
“We’re all going to die, all of us, what a circus! That alone should make us love each other but it doesn’t. We are terrorized and flattened by trivialities; we are eaten up by nothing.”
“Sometimes you climb out of bed in the morning and you think, I’m not going to make it, but you laugh inside — remembering all the times you’ve felt that way.”
I’m also reminded of Chris Hedges assertion, “I don’t fight fascists because I think I will win. I fight fascists because they are fascists.”
At the same time, I think of some things Martin Luther King told us:
“Never forget that everything Hitler did in Germany was legal.”
“Power without love is reckless and abusive, and love without power is sentimental and anemic. Power at its best is love implementing the demands of justice, and justice at its best is power correcting everything that stands against love.”
“Returning hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that. Hate multiplies hate, violence multiplies violence, and toughness multiplies toughness in a descending spiral of destruction.”
“But there is another side which we must never overlook. Hate is just as injurious to the person who hates. Like an unchecked cancer, hate corrodes the personality and eats away its vital unity. Hate destroys a man’s sense of values and his objectivity.”
Nice, Cameron, very much enjoyed all that!
Yep, Cameron’s the man.
And what I coincidence: I had just written a comment to a reader who mentioned how many “assholes” there are. I noted: Kind and civil people should not hate them, but understand them and back them down from their horrible situations. (Do you think they’re happy? No. They desperately want, whether overtly or subconsciously, to be led into another direction.)
Thank you both. 🙂
Yes, Craig – I’ve met more than a few people of whom might be said, “Like most folks, he’s got two sides two him, but one side’s a dick and the other’s an asshole. He should go screw himself.”
We might gain considerable satisfaction from that observation, and the universe is arranged so that a person who screws over enough people likely will be screwed over eventually. The problem with karma is that it’s not a hermetically sealed process.
The very function of an asshole is to be full of crap, and to spew crap when they get too full of it. Just a single one of them (not to mention large mutually reinforcing groups) can make quite a mess of things for everyone else.
It’s rather like the misconception that ignorance is bliss. Ignorance is actually quite painful. The pain is merely separated from the ignorance by time or by transference. A person’s ignorance causes that same person pain much later on, and/or causes another person’s pain at a distance.
The key, I think, is to narrow the separation between the ignorance and the pain, but to accomplish that as humbly and compassionately as possible.