This was another sketch commenting on our education system. Instead of a celebration of life, nature and the universe, it was a study of dead specimens. They were reduced to anatomical parts that required naming. Instead of the understanding of how they worked revealing a greater, more wonderful revelation, it merely reduced it down to something less than what it was. The sum of the parts was less than the whole. It was a chore to be learnt rather than a joy to be appreciated.
Biology should be a celebration – not a misery. It’s a wonder!
This was a simple drawing of what had been a much more intricate pencil drawing. I shall have to hunt those drawings out!
This was a very quick sketch . The original was a pencil drawing that was much more developed. It was a comment on our society. It represented people lost in the meaninglessness of the society, floundering around in search of meaning and purpose and drowning in the pointlessness. Desperate mental tendrils were being fired out like grappling hooks – looking for purchase, for something to cling on to, for some substance worthy of living for.
I can’t help thinking that things have progressed and become even worse since 1971 when Pete drew this. We are now heavily into celebrity culture and the shallowness is all too clear. Where is the purpose, meaning and substance?
We are being distracted with mindless entertainment and converted into consumer units to be bled dry. Too many mindless sheep for me. The cartoon takes on even more relevance.
The capitalist system runs on profit and depends on growth. There are always shortcuts. Legislation is circumvented. All that matters is the bottom line.
In the process nature takes second place. The environment is trashed for quick bucks and the planet suffers.
We are all part of that unique biosphere. Our numbers are out of control. Our activities are changing the climate. Our pollution levels, habitat destruction and expansion are killing wild-life at an alarming rate. We are trashing the planet. In the course of that we will end up wiping ourselves out. We are part of that biosphere and cannot live outside it. What fools we are.
If we wish to prevent Pete’s vision of the future (from 1971) becoming a reality we have to use our intelligence and take measures to put things right. I suggest:
All of that is possible. We just need to have the correct priorities.
We both felt that our Biology course was dire. Our Science education was reductionary and all about dissecting and breaking things down.
Science education should be about illuminating the wonders of the universe, celebrating life and the joy of living. Science is about investigating the mysteries. It should be life-affirming and joyous.
Looking at dead things through microscopes was a million miles from the happy life Pete and I had experienced in our childhood, wading through ponds and streams, climbing trees, lying in meadows while the dynamo of nature hummed around us and infinity was all around.
We wanted better education – better science!! More Wonder and Awe!!
A baby girl is born with all the eggs she will ever have – about 400,000. Not all of them will become eggs. Most will wither away.
A boy is born without a single sperm and won’t produce any until he reaches puberty. Then he begins to make up for lost time. He can produce more sperm in an hour than girls can produce eggs in a lifetime.
But inside us all is the DNA that is the future of the race – that gives rise to future generations. We all have the future generations of life within our bodies.
This was a quick sketch of a much more intricate cartoon. I’ll try and dig out all those full drawings later today.
The idea of this is very simple. We all have this questions, worries and fears locked up in our heads. They bedevil us. We also have solutions to conundrums except the solutions we have don’t solve our own problems. They might solve somebody else’s though. Only by coming together and helping each other can we make a better world and help each other come to terms with the things that worry them.
