In mythology, Hephaistos
is the divine blacksmith and he is also lame. He is the only
one of the greater gods who is lame, less than perfect, and the only
one who actually makes things. He makes wonderful things for the other
gods and overcomes his lameness by doing so.
In modern terms Hephaistos is the god of technology and he is lame.
Reflect upon that. Technology creates wonderful and amazing things that
can benefit everyone, but at the same time there are weaknesses, or
perhaps it would be better to say dangers, attached to the unthinking
use of technology. Marvelous flying machines now make it possible to go
from New York to London in only 6 hours time, compared to the
6 days that were required by the fast steamships of a hundred years
ago, or the 30 to 60 days required by the sailing ships of four hundred
years ago. These marvelous flying machines also spew forth tons of
pollutants that can interfere with the proper functioning of
the atmosphere. If we knock enough holes in the planetary
ecosystem we will cause our own extinction. As far as the planet is
concerned, the extinction of humanity would be a minor event
and any damage caused by humans would be naturally repaired in
just a few thousand years. Any plants or animals made extinct
by humans would be replaced by new plants and animals in a
relatively short period of time. Barring a cosmic catastrophe
of some sort, this planet still has several billion years
ahead of it. We should not exaggerate our own importance.
But at the same time, we should be concerned with our own survival,
both as individuals and as a species. Once upon a time we lived simple
short lives, living on whatever food we could find, with very few
tools, and living in harmony with the natural world. A few people still
live that way in the jungles of Borneo and the Amazon and a few other
places. But times have changed. We can no longer go back to
that simple way of life. We need high level technology. The
problem today is that we have not achieved balance in our use
of technology, we have not achieved Ma'at. This is partly a
matter of simple unavoidable ignorance, and partly a matter
of deliberately not thinking of the possible consequences of
what we do. A good example would be the Titanic disaster:
absolutely no one was interested in how many lifeboats were
on the Titanic until after it sank, and then there was a lot
of blame throwing and finger pointing, all of which could have been
avoided (and lives saved) if people had made some effort at thinking
about consequences beforehand. We are still learning how to use
technology and mistakes are inevitable.
I do not view giant corporations as necessarily evil. Big corporations,
properly managed, can serve as a balancing point against big
governments.
Ask Hephaistos for continued advances in technology and ask for Ma'at
in the
use of technology..
