The Allegory of the Christmas Tree – Application Four
Human Population Dynamics and the Laws of Nature
Introduction
Over the course of his twenty-five-year involvement in Canadian education, Dennis Lakusta has used – often and effectively – the model of a simple Christmas tree or a string of colourful Christmas lights to explain (1) how the Great Spirit ‘works’, (2) how seemingly separate and independent entities are all inter-related and ‘tapped in’ to one universal energy source or field and (3) how the wisdom and ethics of our distant, distant ancestors are passed down to us through our genes (cellular memory). There is yet another application of the Christmas tree model which can be used to explain the general mismanagement of population dynamics by the advanced modern human sub-species.
(Note: The model of a typical Christmas tree is not presented or viewed in a religious or Christian context. The concept of a lighted, decorated tree in the middle of a dark wintry night predates Christianity by at least a thousand years…going back to the early Celtic and Druid cultures).
This explanation begins with a simple scenario. It’s two weeks before Christmas and folks in the big city are scurrying around looking for the ‘perfect’ tree. Like many other shoppers, Bob and Edna think they have found just the right tree for their modest two bedroom bungalow in the burbs. They stuff the tree into the back of their station wagon and head for home… hoping to have the tree up and decorated before the kids arrive home from school. On the way Bob and his wife stop at the local Walmart to pick up some Christmas lights. They both try to figure out how many strings of Christmas lights they will need for the size of tree they purchased. Each string of lights is sold separately and contains fifteen multi-coloured lights. So Bob and Edna figure three packages should do it… forty-five lights in total.
They have planned the afternoon perfectly because the tree is up and completely decorated just as their two children come tumbling into the living room from school. Of course everyone is awe-struck by the beauty of the glowing Christmas tree in the late dark December afternoon and it is obvious to Bob and Edna that the three strings of lights was the right choice.
A New Wrinkle
But here let’s introduce a new twist, a new wrinkle into this somewhat boring and all too familiar scenario. When Bob and Edna arrive home and unload the tree and lights, Bob makes a bee-line for the basement to try and find the green metal tree stand and last year’s decorations. In his haste, he doesn’t see that low hanging beam at the bottom of the stairs and, sure enough, he bashes his forehead square into it. Ouch!! He sees stars…he has to reach and grab on to the door frame to keep from keeling over. After a few minutes Bob regains his composure (and balance) and continues looking for the tree stand and decorations. But the severity of the bash to his forehead has caused a mild-to-medium concussion and the sensible thing, one would think, would be to seek medical attention. But poor, hapless Bob sloughs it off because it’s not the first time he has bashed his head into that beam. And besides, all he wants to do right now is decorate the tree.
Bob is still a bit woozie but he and Edna somehow manage to decorate the tree by the time the kids come home from school. It’s at this point that things begin to go sideways. The bash on the head has caused a short-circuit in Bob’s pre-frontal cortex (where our senses of establishing priorities, logic, balance and proportion are centred) and in his irrational state of mind he blurts out that the tree needs more lights. Edna and the two kids disagree. Of course Edna and the two kids aren’t aware that Bob is suffering from a concussion and isn’t thinking straight.
So Bob jumps into the station wagon and rushes back to Walmart and buys three more stings of lights and, returning home, connects the three new strings to the original three making six strings of lights, doubling the original forty-five to ninety. A casual observer might comment…well, hmmmm, my goodness…certainly is a well-lit tree you’ve got there Bob, but don’t you think you’re overdoing it? Not Bob…remember, he’s not thinking straight. He rushes back and buys up every string of lights Walmart has in stock…that’s ten more strings which add up to one-hundred-and-fifty lights plus the ninety on the tree equals two-hundred and forty. Now there are so many lights on the tree and such a tangled mess of green cords that it’s difficult to see the baubles, candy canes and tinsel. Even the branches and boughs have disappeared… overwhelmed by the glut of Christmas lights and the tangle of electrical cords.
By this time Edna and the kids (out of frustration) have piled into the family car and escaped to her parents place in the country.
I think you can see where this is going. In his mentally-unbalanced state of mind Bob is convinced the tree still needs more lights. He calls a taxi and they tear around the county buying up all the stock from all the Walmarts in all the malls and heads home with a trunk-full of additional Christmas lights. The hundreds of lights and twisted wires already on the tree are now beginning to look quite grotesque and the tree itself is completely obliterated. And yet Bob continues plugging in more and more and more electrical cords creating layers and layers of new lights on top of the older ones.
All of a sudden there’s a flash of light from the electrical outlet behind the tree and the Christmas tree mercifully catches fire and burns the house to the ground.
And a very merry Christmas to you too, Tiny Tim.
The above scenario is admittedly ‘way over the top’ and extreme but for the purposes of this allegory, it is no more extreme than how we advanced modern humans have mismanaged our global population numbers. The similarities between the disastrous over-decoration of the Christmas tree and the equally-disastrous over-population of us humans are striking. In both cases the initial cause of the respective meltdowns was some form of mental derangement. In Bob’s case it was the bump on the forehead and the resulting concussion…in the super-human sub-species’ case it was the aberrant and explosive growth of the human brain which led to the inventions of agriculture and animal husbandry (raising livestock).
(Note: Nature, in its infinite wisdom, is the only qualified and rightful manager when it comes to species populations. Modern advanced super-humans have come to rue the day they began to meddle in things that should have been left well enough alone).
Striking and Maintaining a Natural Balance
The key takeaway from the above allegory has to do with balance. Striking and maintaining a workable balance among species populations has always been a central tenet of natural law. The simple Christmas tree allegory can be relied on once more to explain how balance and order are both essential elements to a planet’s health and well being.
One would be hard-pressed to find a symbol or icon more beautiful, dazzling or joyful than that of a Christmas tree glowing in the darkness of a long and chilly winters night. Children and adults alike can gaze in awe, mesmerized by the wonder of the first decorated tree of the season. But that amazement, awe and wonder depends entirely on striking the right balance between the size of the tree and the number of multi-coloured lights strung among its boughs. Too few and the tree appears sparse and wanting, too many and the tree begins to overwhelm the senses.
The individual Christmas light was invented and designed with only one purpose in mind… to dazzle, amaze and inspire. So, whether the tree is sparsely under-decorated or over-decorated to the point of absurdity, the individual Christmas light continues to do its job perfectly…as it was designed to do. If the tree is decorated to the point of absurdity, it is not the fault of the individual light… it is the fault of the whoever has taken on the role of managing of the tree’s decoration.
With the right balance the Christmas tree is a wonder and a joy to behold. But if – as in the case of Bob and Edna’s disaster above – the tree is grossly over-decorated, the Christmas tree and the individual lights can quickly become an unsightly (and dangerous) abomination.
(Note: The following is a short excerpt from a recent and related essay – based upon strong science and irrefutable history – which helps to support the simple reasoning behind the allegory).
“The five previous extinction events were caused by either geological cataclysms or extraterrestrial incursions. This is the first time a planet has been brought down by an idea.”
The combined and respected fields of anthropology and archeology have estimated the global population of human hunter-gatherers – just prior to the invention of agriculture – to be in the range of five to six million. And, according to these reliable sources, those numbers remained fairly consistent for twenty-five thousand years leading up to agriculture. Nature was in control of species population management during that period and it (nature) certainly appeared to know what it was doing. But with the explosive (aberrant) growth of genus homo’s brain (post Homo habilis), we super-humans somehow acquired the uncanny ability (perhaps disability) to arbitrarily manufacture (synthesize) ideas and this singular and seminal event unceremoniously ushered in the ‘ideological epoch’… the age of ideas.
The word ‘idea’ is made up of only four simple letters and seems like a somewhat nondescript and harmless term when used in common, everyday English but ideas also have the potential to be quite destructive especially when they attempt to interfere and meddle with things that should be left well enough alone. For example, nature manages the planet, the biosphere, the flora and fauna according to a strict set of rules, laws and principles… which are universal and fundamental. These rules, laws and principles have existed and survived since the beginning of time. If anyone or anything attempts to interfere or meddle with these ancient systems, they do so at their own peril.
CBC News Item (Feb 28/23) : The Japanese government is offering cash incentives of up to $50,000 to citizens of Tokyo (current population…37 million) if they will promise to leave the city and not come back (for at least five years).
The global population of advanced modern industrial/technological super-humans is currently sitting at 8 billion and expected to reach 10-11 billion (UN figures) by the end of the twenty-first century. Remember the 5-6 million estimate of human hunter-gatherers for the 25 thousand years leading up to the invention of agriculture. Well, the projected population of 10-11 billion by the end of the 21st century represents an increase factor of 2000 times the pre-agriculture figures. That’s T-W-O T-H-O-U-S-A-N-D T-I-M-E-S the population in only 7-8 thousand years (since agriculture became a dominant practice in the eastern hemisphere). When comparing these two periods in history – 25 thousand years before agriculture and 8 thousands years after – it quickly becomes clear that some ominous, earth-shattering event occurred on the planet which violently transformed a world existing in a relative state of harmony and balance (pre-agriculture) into an apocalyptic meltdown… in only a few thousand years. That ominous, earth-shattering event was the genesis of a being with the unprecedented ability to arbitrarily synthesize ideas.
Arbitrarily synthesized ideas may sound rather innocuous and benign at first glance but remember, those ideas were synthesized within a closed cerebral (synaptic) vacuum functioning completely independent of, and disassociated from the fundamental laws of nature, the laws that govern the unfolding of the universe. What this essentially means is; those ideas did not need to align with or abide by any higher laws or principles. That’s what makes them so utterly dangerous.
“It’s like the planet woke up one day and discovered a creature running around on the loose who was capable of arbitrarily synthesizing its own ideas, its own laws, its own ethics and its own morals independently and disassociated from the higher laws of nature. And being arbitrary, those ideas, laws, ethics and morals could be anything the creature wanted them to be. Ouch!”
Conclusion
I’ll finish this piece with a little factoid that should scare the b’jesus out of anyone with a thinking brain. Those respected anthropologists and archaeologists mentioned earlier, they also estimated that if agriculture and animal husbandry had never been invented, the global population of human hunter gatherers (5-6 million pre-agriculture) would have increased by no more that one million by the 21st century.
Dennis Lakusta
March, 2023