Friday 11 September 2015

The ship in the boundless dark ocean

Think of a wonderful vessel, surrounded by infinite airless emptiness and cold. The ship is beautiful and inside, it is warm and bright, and all its passengers large and small have everything they need to live happily and peacefully.

They have no need to worry themselves about how any of this happens (how the air is pure and the water sweet, how they are neither too hot nor too cold, how to find the food they need for sustenance) as the ship itself operates sophisticated automatic systems to ensure everything is just right for everyone.

The ship has existed since before anyone can remember, and since before anyone can remember has been doing this work. It will continue to do so for all time, unless something terrible happens.

Then, one day, some of the passengers decide they would like to take control of the ship for themselves, because they think they are clever enough, and think they are not getting their fair share of the air and the water and all the other things the ship provides for them.

For a while things appear unchanged. The passengers in command are pleased with themselves and start to grow in numbers and help themselves to more food and water, to the detriment of some of the other passengers, who, being meek and mild, then wither away and die. This goes on for a short while. The clever passengers ever increasing in number and demanding more air, more water, and more food.

Soon, however, it starts to feel hotter; water is at first not very pleasant to drink, and then becomes scarce. Food is harder to find. The passengers supposedly in charge start to argue about whose fault it is that the water is gone, that food is scarce and that it feels so hot.  Things become so heated that the fabric of the ship is threatened. Some passengers have even made firearms, and started shooting at the others. Stray bullets might pierce the fragile and delicate outer walls of the ship and let out all the remaining air and let in the emptiness and cold. Death for all might be the result.

We do not know how this little story ends. We are the clever passengers who thought we could do better than our mother ship. We still have time to change our ways and let the ship do its work.