We often forget the fact that man is part of nature and that his behavior is an integral part of so-called natural phenomena: pollution, deforestation and devastation of environmental balances are simply the natural manifestations of man’s invasive presence in the overall ecosystem of the planet.
In other words, we think there is a spontaneous, harmonious coexistence of the different components of the great scenario of nature, one that is constantly endangered by the human presence.
Actually, if we look more closely at this great natural scenario, we see that it is a theater of violence, disasters, aggressions, an uncontrollable chaos that runs the risk of devastating not only the planet, but the entire universe.
Confucius, the Chinese sage who lived in the 5th century BC, saw the cosmos as a place of violent conflict between good and evil, light and darkness, yin and yang, an eternal struggle, to the point of endangering the very existence of the world. He said that there are no divinities to which to turn, that salvation can only come from man, that irrational, cruel, violent being nevertheless capable of ‘producing beauty.’
So only the presence of man and his balancing action can allow the world to survive this cosmic tempest; it is therefore our operative presence that saves the universe from global disintegration.
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