Edward Burtynsky states at the end of Manufactured Landscapes that if he had put this into a more politicized environment then people would be inclined to either agree or disagree. His choice was to focus on engaging people in thinking about what we are doing to our world. Burtynsky states, “many of us are in an uncomfortable spot of not wanting to give up what we have but realizing that we are creating problems that run deep … it’s not a simple right or wrong… it needs a whole new way of thinking.”
What is this new way of thinking? I used to think that if everyone came together and did the small things, over and over, the world would become a better place. So we used to think about cooperation; that if everyone put in two cents, we would get somewhere. But, thing is, small things are forever small. I'm starting to think that just doing your own part is a very self-absorbed way of seeing things. We are "one crew" of the earth. Just pulling our own weight and blaming failure on the ones that did not is not enough. If one fails, all fail. So to succeed, all must succeed. That is the challenge that lies ahead.
Colin, though, asks if perhaps we have the wrong questions. We cannot go back to how things were. Time and life only flow in one direction. There is no right or wrong path. There's just the path. He's right, of course, from a historian's point of view.
Perhaps, instead of being shocked at our current situation and wanting to "fix" the horrors of the world, make them go away, we have to acknowledge and accept them, and go forward. Tomorrow will be new and fearsome, but the world as it was yesterday is history. If you cannot go back, go forwards. That's how it goes in video games, right?
Except you respawn in video games. But hey, there's a lot more players in real life.
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