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Page 17 text:
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The Disillusionment of Central Position cides. If we let our environment slide like this, the end may come sooner than we think. In 25 years, there will be no oil left on the earth. In 35 years, the ozone layer might be gone and skin cancer would become rampant. In 50 years, our government might be gone. In one year, our minds might be gone. R. Buckminster Fuller, called by many the ' visionary genius of our time, ' has written: ' Earth is a very small spaceship. We are all astro- nauts. Each human is a whole uni- verse . . . Coping with the totality of spaceship earth and universe is ahead for all of us. ' Our ' space- ship ' may be coming to the end of its voyage. Fuller has also pointed out that there are 28,000 pounds of explosives for every human being on earth. As we go to classes, parties, work, and take exams, these prob- lems seem far removed. Ironically, they are closer than ever, because at the university, people attempt to solve environmental problems. Research related to energy sources and conservation, pollution and other environmental concerns goes on all around us. Packed into the confines of the buildings and minds on this cam- pus, a world of knowledge is stored and explored. Thoughts and princi- ples of universal concern are passed from seeker to seeker with hopes that persistent study will bring solutions to universal prob- lems. That ' s what this school, this world microcosm, is all about. It ' s a universe-ity. 13
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Page 16 text:
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In our investigation of the animal sources of human behavior we need not, fortunately, give critical attention to such of our qualities as seem exclusively human. The Illusion of Central Position, if it exists, may perhaps be one of these. But before we pass on to a concept more appropriate to our investigations, one paradoxical footnote should be added to the brief little story of man ' s grand illusion. The theory states that maturity is achieved by the acceptance of reality and the capacity to absorb each disillusionment and still keep going. Nonetheless the theory grants that should a man ever attain a state of total maturity — ever come to see himself in other words, in perfect mathematical rela- tionship to the two and one-half billion members of his species, and that species in perfect mathematical relationship to the tide of tumul- tuous life which has risen upon the earth and in which we represent but a single swell; and furthermore come to see our earth as but one opportunity for life among uncounted millions in our galaxy alone, and our galaxy as but one statistical improbability, nothing more, in the silent mathematics of all things — should a man, in sum, ever achieve the final, total, truthful Disillusionment of Central Position, then in all likelihood, he would no longer keep going but would simply lie down, wherever he happened to be, and with a long-drawn sigh return to the oblivion from which he came. — from Afficon Genesis by Robert Ardrey Atheneum Publishers, N.Y.; 1 961 by Literat S.A. Ardrey ' s thesis is that as babies, we experience the Illusion of Cen- tral Position. All revolves around us, and we think that we are indeed the center of the universe. As we grow older we find this is not so. Each human experience becomes a Disillusionment of Central Posi- tion, and if we were to succumb to our more existential instincts, we might indeed lie down and return to the oblivion from which we came. Most of us don ' t, though, so either we have not yet achieved the final, total, truthful Disillusionment of Central Position (though armory registration certainly approaches this), or we choose to ignore it, and so, we continue to continue. We keep on keepin ' on. Yet we seem to have achieved a remarkable ability to jettison the pent-up frustrations of each disillu- sionment against others — other humans, other life, other environ- ments. Many say that mankind has, had, and always will have a natural instinct for destruction. (Remember Planet of the Apes ). Dr. Louis B. Leakey, the late anthropologist, said in the October 28, 1973 Washington Star, The nuclear bomb is not the only method of destruction. We encoun- ter daily thousands of events in which we are slowly destroying ourselves. Of course there is air and water pollution. Less known but equally important are noise pollution and the depletion of our natural resources. There ' s govern- ment pollution and ' mind ' pollution, both destroying our mental state. There ' s social pollution as incidents in our social lives cause inner tur- moil. Witness the increase in sui- 12
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