…This is the way the world ends
Not with a bang but a whimper.
— from the poem ‘The Hollow Men’ by T. S. Eliot, 1925.
The world has changed somewhat, in the century since the British poet T.S. Eliot predicted the world would end with a whimper.
Theoretically, we’re now a century closer to the end of the world, so naturally, things look different. It’s looking more like the world ends with a fatal case of heat stroke.
Probably not the worst way to meet your end, but who knows, really?
Of course, there were good reasons to question Mr. Eliot’s predictive powers, even back in 1925, because he wasn’t really a British poet. He was born in St. Louis, Missouri, which made him an American according to birthright citizenship. For whatever reasons, he moved to England, renounced his American citizenship, and adopted a British accent.
But the point I wanted to make this morning relates less to poetry and more to a current ‘hot topic’: global warming. I see where the Archuleta Democratic Club is hosting the former mayor of Durango, Dick White, for their monthly lunch meeting at Uncle’s Bar & Social Club, today at 11:30.
From the announcement that appeared in the Daily Post:
Dr. White is known as a frank environmentalist who is not afraid to advocate for stopping global warming. He will speak on the topic of his recent book, ‘Ten Commandments for Planet Earth.’
Global warming is clearly a hot topic these days. Although I usually hear it called, “climate change” rather than “global warming”.
I’ve often heard about the Ten Commandments that came from God — I’ve even read them myself, purely out of curiosity — but I had not heard that Planet Earth had also issued its own Commandments? According to Dr. White, this is the First Commandment:
I am Earth, the home of biological evolution. Let no human enterprise take precedence over me.
According to an essay I found, written by Dr. White and posted on EnergyCentral.com, he was raised Roman Catholic, and the ‘Ten Commandments for Planet Earth’ were written by Dr. White himself, even though he phrased the ‘First Commandment’ to sound as if it came directly from the mouth of Planet Earth. We know better. Planet Earth doesn’t talk to us. We rely on ex-mayors to tell us what Planet Earth’s Commandments are.
Considering Dr. White’s inspiration, I was naturally compelled to review the original version, in Exodus 20:1–17.
The First Commandment is pretty straight-forward.
I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. You shall have no other gods before Me.
The Second Commandment is rather detailed. It prohibits the creation of carved images and bowing down to them and worshiping them, because God admits He’s jealous and will not hesitate to “visit iniquity… upon the children to the third and fourth generation…” if such images get carved and worshiped. Apparently, worshiping carved images was quite the craze back in those days, and God didn’t like it.
When Dr. White wrote Earth’s Second Commandment, he made no mention of jealousy, or carved images, or visiting iniquity on future generations:
Preserve the habitats that sustain life.
As far as Planet Earth is concerned, we can worship carved images all day long and twice on Sunday. But we must do something much more difficult, which is to preserve the habitats that sustain life. That’s quite a challenge, given that the capitalist system itself is specifically designed to destroy the habitats that sustain life, for fun and profit.
Dr. White didn’t include any instructions in Earth’s commandments about keeping the Sabbath holy, nor about honoring your father and mother, or any prohibitions against adultery or the bearing of false witness or coveting your neighbor’s wife. Probably, the Earth understands that we’re going to do, or not do, all those things anyway, as the mood strikes us, so why make a fuss about it?
But I took note of the Tenth Commandment for Planet Earth:
Thou shalt not seek unbounded wealth.
This Commandment, I can follow easily. I’m a humor columnist in a small town in Colorado. No need to worry.
Underrated writer Louis Cannon grew up in the vast American West, although his ex-wife, given the slightest opportunity, will deny that he ever grew up at all. You can read more stories on his Substack account.