The Road: Civilization and Barbarism - Essay Example

Order 331266 Topic: geography- THE ROAD -Civilization and barbarism: The ultimate geographical question Introduction: The pages of human history daubed in bloodshed related to world wars, race and color prejudices, aggrandizement for territorial gains, religion etc. ask the crying question. How to make his Planet Earth, heaven-like? The answer is simple and straight forward. Eyes full of understanding, hearts full of love and the life that refuses conflicts—enough, these alone are enough! World peace is viewed from different angles by different politicians. The mention is made about the politicians, for the history of humanity reveals to us that the politicians (also the kings) are responsible to build or break peace. Politicians declare war; and they declare cease-fire! Within the interval of war and peace, mind-boggling destruction takes place. This death-dance has the telling effect on both the history and geography this planet. Apocalyptic fiction provides us with ample examples, the real-life stories as well as imaginations, how the civilization can come to an abrupt end with nuclear war, contagious diseases or other types of natural disasters. What could be the state of affairs of the civilization after such stunning happenings? What will be the position of the survivors, if there would be any, where only scattered elements of technology remain? With the experiences gained during the World War II, with the memories of the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the threat of total destruction, has brought about extraordinary reactions from the top political leaders who preside over the destinies of humanity. As for the question of word peace—it’s now or never! “It’s better to have the world united, than the world divided; but it is better to have the world divided, than the world destroyed,” said Mr. Winston Churchill at the time of II World War. This statement came at a time when the destructive power of the war-weaponry was limited. Nuclear weapons were introduced for the first time, and such arsenal was within the command of just one power, USA. During the last five decades, the scenario has completely changed. Nuclear control rooms exist in several countries and such a war would be controlled by buttons and probably last for some minutes. Perhaps none will survive to do report in from the war fronts. The mighty establishments of press and electronic media would have been converted in to burning charcoal! Enough encroachments have been done by the man on the domain of nature! When it strikes back, it will see that there is no necessity to strike again. By creating the arsenal of weapons of mass destruction, man is jubilant that he has conquered Nature! Nature will have the last laugh and ask the final question—why did you do this? Even the statesman of the caliber of John F. Kennedy gave a statement to defend world peace thus: “For only when our arms are sufficient beyond doubt, can we be certain beyond doubt, that they will be never employed!” Good, well-intentioned statement! But imagine for a while, what if any Nation comparatively less powerful, strikes first? What would the nature of such a war? War of push buttons or the war of nerves! The fate of the victor and the defeated will be decided in seconds! The apocalyptic literature and movies can no more be dismissed as fiction. They contain the warnings, the consequences of which needs to be taken seriously. The scientific progress has brought humanity to a dangerous precipice. “Today man is being destroyed by the inner conviction of uselessness and no amount of economic growth can compensate for this loss.”(Schumacher, Back Cover) Changes during the last few decades in man’s attitude to nature are bound to be catastrophic. “Modern man does not experience himself as a part of nature but as an outside force destined to dominate and conquer it.”(Schumacher, p.11) He even boasts of a battle with Nature, but he will be on the losing front, should he win the battle. He is now baffled by the illusion of unlimited power against the Nature, with the realization that he is moving in the wrong direction. He is actively working against his interests. Nature may tolerate the mindless confrontation of the human beings for some time but it will certainly not condone him! The world is already running into decisive bottlenecks, from the standpoint of environmental science. The single-minded pursuit of wealth, the stark materialism, is not appropriate for this world. The philosophy without the limiting principle ingrained in it, can not sustain for long. For, the environment in which it sustains, is strictly limited, be it economics, physics, chemistry or technology. They have no discernable limits. “Already, the environment is trying to tell us that certain stresses are becoming excessive. As one problem is being ‘solved’, ten new problems arise as a result of the first ‘solution’. As Professor Barry Commoner emphasizes, the new problems are not the consequences of incidental failure but of technological success.” (Schumacher, p.25) What Schumacher visualized in the 1970s, McCarthy is providing the graphic picture about the things that may happen, in the post-apocalyptic America in his book “The Road.” It tells the story of a man and his sons journey toward the sea and an uncertain salvation, as they walk through the smoking and shouldering ashes. The world they pass through is a ghastly vision of scorched countryside and blasted cities "held by cores of blackened looters who tunneled among the ruins and crawled from the rubble white of tooth and eye carrying charred and anonymous tins of food in nylon nets like shoppers in the commissaries of hell" (McCarthy, p. 181). (Reading….) Suddenly the world has turned so strange, devoid of all plant and animal life, either dead or dying, and the human beings have taken to cannibalism, they are eating each other alive. McCarthy elaborates the grim situation of the post-apocalyptic world in which "murder was everywhere upon the land" and the earth would soon be "largely populated by men who would eat your children in front of your eyes" (McCarthy, p. 181). As human dominion on the planet is on the increase, a section of the humanity still believes that man will ultimately conquer nature from all ends and in every area of science. Hardly has he realized that Nature will ambush him at the most unexpected time, and he will pay the prize many hundreds times more, as compared to his temporary gains. The pendulum is swinging viciously in favor of Nature. Man realizes it, yet he pretends that he doesn’t! He knows that he needs to find the solution urgently but he fails to do so! Climate Change: "The amount of greenhouse gas in the atmosphere is already above the threshold that can potentially cause dangerous climate change. We are already at risk...Its not next year or next decade, its now." (Tim Flannery, climate change expert) The research shows carbon emissions have grown sharply since 2000, despite growing concerns about climate change. During the 1990s, carbon emissions grew by less than 1% per year. Since 2000, emissions have grown at a rate of 3.5% per year. No part of the world had a decline in emissions from 2000 to 2008.” (Current….) OCHA, UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) presents a grim picture of the result of the climate change, which has resulted in increased number of floods, storms and draughts in the year 2007.The mega disaster related to climate change have begun to show. We need no more guess about the crisis, we are already in it. Under-Secretary General John Holmes reports that “Two years ago only half the international disasters dealt with by OCHA had anything to do with the climate; this year all but one of the 14 emergency appeals is climate-related.” (Current….)We are already in the process of causing huge and irreversible damage to Planet Earth. The present geographical distribution of culture on earth: This has turned out to be the highly complicated subject, that defies clear-cut definition or solutions, with materialistic civilization taking control in most of the countries, and it is deeply impacted by industrial and internet revolutions. The concepts of diffusion and the theory of migration still hold good. “The founding father of both American and the European diffusionist traditions was the geographer Ratzel. He took over the concept of ‘diffusion’ and the ‘theory of migration’ and analyzed the geographical distribution of culture elements (such as African bows and arrows), operating with the criterion of ‘form’.”(Kuper, p.203) The author’s references to ideas or images that have geographical nature serve as concept or tools to describe what was there and what is the present state of affairs. They indicate the level of destructions caused in the post-apocalyptic America. The author makes reference to “charred and limbless trunks of trees stretching away on every side.” (McCarthy, p.7)This highlights the destruction of the plant kingdom. Conclusion: “Yes, you forget what you want to remember and you remember what you want to forget.” (McCarthy, p, 10.)—this could be the mental level of those who have survived the post-apocalyptic America. McCarty has given a very interesting novel of the grim battle for survival of the father and son, when all human values are extinct. Father’s statement is devastating. He says, “On this road there are no god spoke men. They are gone and I am left and they have taken with them the world" (McCarthy, p. 32).This is the completely cynical father speaking as he faces the grimmest situations of his existence! The Road should make those who preside over the destiny of humanity to serious pondering and initiate urgent steps to remedy the past sins, before the Nature says, enough is enough!-now let me take over both your geography and history! +++++++++++ Works Cited: Current Environmental Issues- www.globalstewards.org/issues.htm - Cached - Retrieved on October 31, 2009 Kuper, Jessica: The social science encyclopedia; Routledge; 2 edition (May 1999) ReadingGroupGuides.com - The Road by Cormac McCarthy Cached, Retrieved on October 31, 2009 Schumacher, E. F. Small is beautiful; Radha Krishna, Delhi (India) 1977 . Read More