The Achill Island Essays 5
Don't Panic!
Don't Panic! That's the first helpful or intelligible thing anyone has said to me all day.
Douglas Adams, The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy
Looking around at the state of the world and trying to come to grips with the magnitude of its problems can easily lead us on a short path to despair. The job ahead of us is enormous. As individuals we are too small to make a significant impact, and there isn't any organized response at the community, national or international levels that appears up to the task. What is a desperate population on a besieged planet to do?
Well, to start with, we must not panic. The last thing that the world needs is six billion Chicken Littles running around in a fluster making the situation worse. We're taught that when you're lost in the woods, the first thing you do is sit down and assess the situation. Otherwise you end up wandering about in circles, wasting precious time and energy. No situation is totally devoid of hope, and we have to believe that the universe is on our side in this one.
There isn't a lot of time on an historical scale, but the world isn't going to come to an end tomorrow either. Over the next few decades we will be making decisions that will impact life profoundly in the coming millennium. It's important that we take our time and make the right decisions. Our situation can be likened to a super tanker at dock that has to be turned around. The only way to do it is to pull it out of the harbour, take it ten miles out into the open sea, then bring it back in the right way.
We have to have faith that the collective spirit of humanity will prevail to bring about the changes that will be required to ensure our survival as a species. We can't expect that some international organization or leader is going to emerge to lead us out of the abyss. There simply isn't time, and such organizations or leadership would be pressured to cater to those with a vested interest in the status quo. The world will be saved by the individual actions of five billion people (soon to be seven billion) who will start acting in harmony with one another. The individual actions will bring about change on a scale never before seen in human society. Collectively the results will be harsh. In some cases the individual actions will be brutal. But to do otherwise is to court oblivion.
Each of us must exercise our responsibilities in our own way. But first we must take a brief time-out to settle our thoughts, sort out the situation, and then decide what role we must play.
March 1996
About the Photograph: Taken at the Canadian National Exhibition Air Show.