Underground cartoonist Dan O’Neill had an amazing comic strip in the late 1960s and early 1970s called Odd Bodkins. It started out as a gag strip, but became one of the most epic comic strip arcs of all time, starting with a magic creature in a tree, going to Mars, ending up in Hell, and other crazy adventures. At one point, they find out that cars and smog are a Martian conspiracy to colonize Earth because Martians breathe gasoline.
Anyway, this comic strip made me think of that.
I couldn’t find an image of the part where they talk about smog being a Martian conspiracy, but this comes from just afterward-
The book that’s collected in is called A Collective Unconscience of Odd Bodkins. It’s long out of print, but I highly recommend a copy. Mine is falling apart.
Oh they make it very clear what a magic cookie is earlier in the strip because it’s used for having hallucinations more than once. At one point, one of the characters eats one and another one crawls into his hallucination.
Meme is kinda off. The earth doesn’t care at all about pollution, or climate change. The biosphere doesn’t care either (over a long enough timespan). Species will thrive or decline, and adapt to whatever happens next on the planet.
It’s humans who are being suffocated by corporations/pollution/climate change.
Why bold? Species thrive or die, the only one who cares is us. (Obviously individual animals wish to continue their natural lives, but only humans worry about global matters)
See that is such an interesting point because… Yeah. The creature simply exists or doesn’t. It doesn’t comprehend or care that their is a decrease in its population or that of it’s prey just that it’s hungry and struggling to find a mate. We hold no requirements towards other species as they aren’t ours and our dedication should be towards our own. But yet we are aware of other species and able to comprehend them on a bigger scale. And see our own influence on them.
So what do we owe to them and our planet? Do we give in to plain narcissism and grandeur of self importance and do anything to keep ourselves around at loss of all things non-essential? Do we limit ourselves in order to push back against that drive and let creatures who will not thank us for our efforts strive, because they lack the ability to be aware?
I think I’m somewhat selfish in that I view a diverse planet a more interesting one, and that life should be protected. But also I don’t think it should be artificially preserved just to be admired in a glass box.
So yeah we owe them nothing but I don’t think I could ever look at life and simply not care if it all went away because of self interest of humanity. But you are right. The only people who will care is us, but there isn’t anyone else too care.
I really think the billionaires causing this shouldn’t be considered as part of ‘us’. They certainly aren’t when it comes to being taxed or being held culpable.
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