Designed to Fail

"The art of design is to make complicated things simple."

--source unknown

The problem with our society is that we're trying to design our world--to manipulate it into simplicity--when it is (or was) already as simple as nature can and should be. Eventually, all of these manipulations boil down to one thing: we're trying to cheat death. We are collectively so afraid of pain and death that we are willing to strip ourselves of the very essence of what makes us human. Nature can't touch me. I have dismantled her and enslaved the many fragments that are left behind. Slowly, I lop away at her until I reach her core. And when I reach it I find that I have scraped away my humanity, my sensuality, my vitality in the process.

I think of Emily in Faulkner's "A Rose for Emily." One of my favorite parts of the story is how Emily matches her house in her brutal decay. Each step into the house is a metaphor for getting to know the inner Emily.

Our planet and our treatment of it could be seen as a metaphor for the inside of each of us as well. As we tear down our natural environment to build yet another parking lot, highrise, subdivision, we lose a little bit of who we are. Humanity is replaced with laws and processes. Sensuality is replaced with hard core porn. Vitality is replaced with hours of mindless television or internet surfing. So, as the sleek new building is erected (with an energy efficient heating system!), and we watch the biodiversity become fragmented and eventually die, we watch it happen in ourselves as well.

Of course, we managed to sever our collective conscience years ago, so I guess it doesn't really matter anyway.