Eternal Parasites
by David Atkins
The "Curiosity" rover/lab landed on Mars last night, pulling off a nerve wracking and difficult landing stunt. It was a project over a decade in the making that will yield invaluable scientific insights.
These are the amazing men and women that a Macau casino magnate will spend hundreds of millions of dollars to say are greedy parasites mooching off "producers" like the vulture capitalist wannabe President. How small and pathetic.
Two hundred years from now, the world will not care that men like Sheldon Adelson, Mitt Romney and George Will walked this earth. If they are remembered at all, it will be with only mildest sneer of contempt.
But the fine souls who made this technologically marvelous contribution to the welfare of all mankind possible will be revered and remembered for their contributions to humanity as long as records and historians exist to tell the tale. And even after their individual names are lost to history, their fledgling accomplishments will live on as the building blocks of future generations of human endeavor. That advancement can take many forms, from science and medicine to academics to social justice. But helping along that advancement is the true purpose of our being alive.
Sadly, most of us living today are at great pains simply to eke out survival for ourselves and our families. That means that those fortunate enough to have spare time and resources have an intrinsic moral obligation to do our part to further that purpose on behalf of all those who will never have the opportunity to do so.
All people die. All memory of our lives eventually fades into dust. But what we did to advance enlightenment, make the world a better place and elevate humanity beyond our current chrysalis: that is eternal so long as sentient life is able to bear us witness.
Men like Adelson and Romney are worse than parasites. Worthy of nothing but disdain, they hold the keys to the temple but enter not within. They are dismal blots on the human existence destined for oblivion, dragging our species toward the darkness in an attempt to buy a true happiness and fulfillment that no wealth, prestige or hollow belief can deliver.
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