Pebbles on a Road

WHAT’S THE WORLD COMING TO?

The age of the Earth can be approximated to 2 billion years over which a myriad of changes are said to have taken place. But has the Earth really changed? In the beginning the Earth was a big ball of fire, smoke, water and a cocktail of gases. Today, the Earth is still a ball of fire, smoke, water and a cocktail of gases. The basic instinct of the Neanderthal was survival which continues to be the basic instinct of the modern man. It was a daily struggle of the early man to find him his daily bread, which is still the daily struggle of the present human being.

Change, however, has taken place. It is so agreed. The presence of science and technology make it so evident it can even go unsaid. The basic thoughts and instincts of humans remain the same, what influences these thoughts is that which has changed.

We, the only animals with a developed sense of intelligence or so we call ourselves, have brought in various new concepts, ideas, inventions, all in the scope of “improvement”. But how far have they improved our lives?

Probing into the science of the nucleus of an atom has brought about the hydrogen and atomic bombs, the two most individually deadly weapons against human kind. Industrialization led the development in many countries, but lack of precautionary measures has presented before us the problems of pollution & global warming. The creation of ‘democracy’ has given way to ‘corruption’. This cyclic thinking had invaded even divinity, as is evident with the believers of different deities battling out the supremacy of their lords. The most recent addition to the list of miseries is terrorism.

The acts of individuals or organizations against mankind have left the world shaken. The policy of terrorists seems quite obvious: “no country shall be spared”. They have done it. From the far west to the Far East, they have instilled terror. Till quite recently, it was a belief that the common man alone may be affected by these acts of terror, which is then later to have an effect on the politician, but the recent assassination of political leader Benazir Bhutto leaves us gaping at a troublesome reality. The situation has grown quite bad for now, an incentive; a prize has to be given to control pollution and war which is, by way of life, the duty of every human being.

These phenomenons beat the track to the same consequence, the extinction of life on this Earth. They would probably even bring it back to the way it all originally began- a mass controlled solely by the forces of nature. The sun will eventually turn itself into a dwarf that shall no longer support planets; the scientists predict another ice age in a few million years. These will eventually lead to the elimination of any living existence on the face of this Earth. Terrorism, pollution, and the prediction of a third world war may, however, turn this world lifeless sooner than foretold.