The Irish Elk

The Irish Elk, also called the giant deer or Irish deer, is an extinct species of deer in the genus Megaloceros and is one of the largest deer that ever lived. It is said that the Irish Elk evolved a set of antlers so large that the weight of its own unique characteristic led to it being unable to run from its predators and comfortably eat food which, inevitably, led to its own demise.

Human Brain

Human consciousness, similarly to the large antlers of the Irish Elk, can be seen as our own unique characteristic. Humans are classified as “super-predators” in the circle of life, does that mean we are immortal? Far from it – the super-predator is the class of species which will be responsible for their own demise. We have been granted the complexity of consciousness as a large collective being with no coherence and unity. With the lack of unity, comes the lack of understanding our own complexities – a chain reaction. Our naviety and ignorance for the world we live in brings chaos. The question arises – can we ever achieve coherence and complete understanding of our complexities?

No.

Consciousness has been revered as our single greatest trait but alas, heavy lies the crown. To achieve coherence of a song, we will need to unravel the mysteries of being. And, that, is precisely what we set foot to achieve. Human consciousness, as a collective, has pushed to develop a multitude of ways to develop our “quality of life”, increase productivity, and many more reasons for the rise of technology, engineering, business, law, and other practices to sustain life. In our pursuit, we lost meaning. We lost the “why” to everything. We created machines that create human art, using our own art and natural resources, so that a group of powerful men can discuss about their own benefits from the invention. Our collective consciousness has betrayed us greatly – society sees no harmony and lacks perspective due to a meticulously crafted scheme to manipulate the same consciousness into a single narrative.

With a dysfunctional unique collective characteristic, what can be said about it on an individual level? Individual consciousness, as famously described in the popular television series, True Detectives, is a misstep in evolution. We are lowering the level of abstraction to face the main issue – did our own minds lead us to our inevitable extinction? I am aware of throwing around evolutionary, scientific terms while mainly combating philosophical ideas but the very essence of this essay highlights our misstep – we grew too conscious beyond science and that is what my words imply. We have produced a world where consciousness no longer benefits our happiness, “quality of life”, or any trait imaginable. We question our meaning and purpose and expect a holy answer to grasp onto for our own comfort. We create solutions for the problems we created, just to introduce more problems as a consequence. Consciousness – evolutionarily, scientifically, and philosophically – has been the greatest misfortune to the human species.

Progress does not come with the intent of greed but rather must come with the intent of harmony and equality. Human species would’ve seen success the day everyone lived with the magnitude of happiness and sorrows. Rather, progress in human consciousness grew on the parasite of greed to form a species that lives on the sacrifice of their own members. We plagued the collective conscious because we failed to make peace with our individual conscious.

Yes?

A hopeful answer would be – yes. We will achieve harmony as a species. We must first find harmony and peace with our individual conscious: mind you, this need not be the complete understanding of the complexity of consciousness. We will never achieve that. We will never achieve that in a billion years. Rather, finding peace in our own lack of answers is what we must strive to do. Life is absurd and meaningless. Striving to understand the intricacies of our existence will lead us to no productivity but rather a state of paralysis for every challenge we face. Relaxing our quest for the answer for the idea of life, meaning, and purpose while aiming for peace and harmony as a collective will see restoration to this planet. Chip off the crown, you never needed it to thrive.