The Great Unfolding
Being at Peace With the Sixth Great Extinction
‘An optimist looks for a light at the end of the tunnel. A pessimist looks for a tunnel at the end of the light. A realist takes a deep breath… slowly exhales… and accepts that the universe is unfolding as it should’.
— Excerpt from essay titled; ‘The DNA of Collapse’
Some people think it a bit strange that I find peace in knowing that the universe is unfolding as it should, according to a precise set of laws and principles…the foremost of those being the laws of consequence and causality. That I find peace in knowing that our little ‘comings and goings’, our little ‘doings’, our little victories and defeats and all of our trivial accomplishments are like bits of dead leaves, twigs and other detritus floating upon the surface of a deep and mighty river (the Columbia River perhaps). Even those historical events which we consider to be monumental, revolutionary and groundbreaking, i.e., the invention of the wheel, agriculture, Columbus, the Renaissance, the Industrial Revolution, the computer age, space travel, etc. etc., are themselves equally insignificant bits of detritus floating upon the same deep and mighty river.
To understand the nature of human insignificance, we must first understand the nature of the river. The river is an oft-used metaphor and in this case it symbolizes the might, the depth, the flow and the timelessness of an unfolding universe. (Compared to these indomitable forces and the laws which govern this great unfolding, the notion of ‘human significance’ is laughable, truly laughable). The river’s surface represents the superficiality, the fleeting and tenuous vagaries upon which human perception is based. And yes, of course, we may ‘think’ we are the centre of it all, we may ‘think’ we are the crown of creation, we may ‘think’ we are the be-all and end-all but it is that very thinking process itself which is suspect. The human super-mind is (by default) totally confined to the vacuous realm of imagination, concept, ideation, fantasy and linear day-dreams. These illusionary states have no basis in reality but regardless, the human super-mind has mass-indoctrinated the hapless super-humans with bogus notions of self-importance, self-significance and self-deification.
Getting back to the metaphor, beneath the river’s surface flows a deep undercurrent. The under current may be hidden from view but still constitutes the basis, the foundation and the essence of the river’s existence. Myriad events, situations and trivialities may occur upon the river’s surface but the undercurrent – oblivious to these superfluities – continues on its inexorable journey towards some far-off distant ocean. The undercurrent (as per the above metaphor) represents the fundamental laws which govern all of creation, i.e., the inescapable and unyielding laws of consequence and causality.
The whole point to this and other related essays is to establish, once and for all, the utter insignificance of man’s laws in comparison to nature’s laws. Man’s laws are tenuous, arbitrary, self-serving and elitist-driven, and, like the subspecies of advanced primates who manufactured them, will exist for only a few micro-seconds (in universal time) and then disappear, never to be heard from again. Man’s puny laws are consistent with the aforementioned dead leaves, twigs and other detritus floating upon the surface of the deep and mighty river.
It’s the knowing of this truth that bring me peace.
It’s knowing that the despots, tyrants and war-mongers of our time, the state, the establishment and the religious ideologues, the billionaires, the trillionaires and the New World Order will ‘strut and fret’ their few moments upon the stage and then disappear off the radar…vanish into thin air…with nothing to prove they ever existed save for a few insolent ‘skid marks’ scrawled into the barren and dusty plain of posterity. It’s knowing that the fruits of their life’s labour, i.e., the genocides, the Holocaust, the raping and plundering, the conquest and colonization, and the desecration of this once beautiful planet will evaporate (like a bad dream) into the morning mist rising above the deep and mighty river.
It’s knowing that this failed (human) experiment can now be culled out of existence, as it should have been done back when we super-humans first came up with the idea that we could begin taking control of the planet away from nature. That we could interfere, meddle, manipulate and tamper with the laws and forces of nature. The audacity.
It’s knowing that the next (and imminent) extinction event – so brazenly and so unconsciously handcrafted by a subspecies of advanced primates with aberrantly over-sized brains – is actually an opportunity for the Earth to restore itself, to cleanse itself, to detoxify itself, to heal itself…an opportunity to sweep away the filth, the disease, the dust and detritus in preparation for a rebirth, a renaissance and the next iteration of life on planet Earth.
It’s the knowing of this truth that brings me peace.
Dennis Lakusta
October, 2024