The Bloody YOLO Mentality!

Few things get me going like hearing some idiot has used YOLO as a reason to do something totally stupid.  No, I don’t mean foolish or silly.  I mean STUPID.

You Only Live Once, that’s what that is all about right?  So based on that you should completely disregard how your actions and words effect other people around you, forget about saving for the future, not care about anything really because none of it matters?  You only live once, and then you die right?  So who cares…

To me this way of thinking is not only self destructive but it is in fact destroying our entire planet.  Hear me out on this one.  For thousands of years, much of the world has maintained the "life followed by death followed by ‘eternal’ judgement" theory.  As though existence were a straight line with a clearly defined beginning, middle and end.  This may, or may not, be the case … no one REALLY knows for sure but everyone has their theories.  With that theory in mind it becomes easy to think of the world as something that we can use and abuse as we please with no ‘real’ consequences for our actions.  After all , you only live once right?

Here’s the thing that causes me to stumble there.  Doesn't science say that energy cannot be destroyed but instead simply, changes forms?  What if, and I’m not saying this is the case either just sort of a… what if, everyone grew up believing that after we die we do reincarnate?  Would that change how we treat the planet and all the creatures on it?  It seems to me that if we all thought we would end up coming back here we might just care a little bit more about where the world is heading.  Dealing with issues that will only be a problem in 150 years would become almost as important as dealing with things that are a problem right now.  Would those big companies that are slowly killing us all still do so if they believed that one day that will be their drinking water, or that in the next life they would be forced to breathe the harsh stale air of a dying earth?  I’m thinking, probably not.

If you believe that the problems of the world are your problems, and how you treat other living creatures does matter in the long run then how could a person of any real intellect make the decisions these ’powers that be’ seem to make so freely?  In this writers opinion, the wars we are fighting, the air we are polluting, the wildlife we are killing freely … none of these things would be happening an a society where we all realized that ultimately we are all one in the same.

Just saying ...
JT Bear