by Stanley W. Shura

Created on: June 25, 2008   Last Updated: February 25, 2009

Humanity's struggle with the nature of (his) own power and consequence in this world has been a point of pause for almost as long as his existence outright. I think it must be the bane and, ahem, nature of any and all sentient creatures to ponder whether or not his intellect, so awesome and superior to the other creatures with whom he cohabitates (or he would like to believe!), as to have such consequences and impact that our own creations have the power, bestowed upon them by humanities engenuity of course, to overtake us and the entire natural world.

Maybe it's a guilty conscience. We feel that we have, and maybe we have indeed, exerted such selfish control and commandeering of all of Earth's natural and unnatural resources, and overtaken so many habitats of creatures whose homes are getting smaller and smaller - or indeed whose homes we've destroyed - sometimes along with the species itself!, that karma has no choice but to render us to surrender OUR control!

I think it's a bit like the liar who suspects everyone else of being just as base and dishonest as he. Or the adulterer who can't help but suspect that maybe that "hang up" was his own partner's illicit lover. So then aren't we so compelled to ponder if perhaps karma is gonna come bite humanity in its collective ass? And what more compelling and interesting manifestation than for our own unnatural products of human engineering to then acquire power over nature - with humanity included once and for all?

Well, whatever motivates the question, I can say with complete confidence that borders on rolled eyes, that, no, society/humanity is not controlled by the appliances and other manifestions of technology connoted in the question itself. From the slings and arrows suffered by a young Charlton Heston in his now classic portrayel of human victimization by simian domination in Planet of the Apes, to the very real consequences that face literally the entire planet today as a result of global warming, man has had to contend with the issue of maintaining a balance that is self-sustaining - and with which he, and the rest of nature!, can co-exist with some sense of symbiosis - or at LEAST without mutual destruction!

We still have the power of choice. We can still put down the cell phone and look our conversational counterpart in the EYES and share some real communication - a real human relationship. We can still keep the car in the garage and walk the block to the convenience store to get that gallon of milk and loaf of bread. We still have the autonomy to stop ourselves. We do still have the power and ability to THINK!

It is not technology that has the power to destroy the world and humanity along with it. It is humanity itself!

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