Star Fish Poem and Complex World

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Starfish Poem &
the Anthropocene/Complex? World
9/27/15

One day an old man was walking along the shore just before dawn. In the distance he saw a young man picking up stranded starfish and throwing them back into the sea.
As he got closer he called out, "Good morning! What are you doing? Why are you throwing starfish in the ocean?"
"The sun is up and the tide is going out. And if I don't throw them in they'll die."
"But, young man, don't you realize that there are miles and miles of beach and starfish all along it. You can't possibly make a difference!"
The young man listened politely. Then bent down, picked up another starfish and threw it into the sea, past the breaking waves and said- "It made a difference for that one."

                Living in the complex world which is not as simple as it used to be can be very depressing for most of us. Especially, on how to assess the significance our respond to alter its conditions. Our enlightenment legacy enabled us ‘to control’ the world through reason, analysis, and individualism. Tradition and nature had no longer determined our lives. Moreover, we were able to discern the cause from its effect that in the end enable us to easily manipulate the world according to our needs. All of our scientific achievements are the result of this progress. Yet, the world has becoming more complex. There are more things that we cannot comprehend. On the one hand, our individual choices seem insignificant but on the other hand all are connected. We hardly know what we should do to change the outcome, but at the same time we perfectly understand that our action gives impact to both of our social and physical lives. In fact, some scholars define our current moment as Anthropocene world, in which many significant conditions and processes of the nature life are profoundly altered by human activities. Altogether complicate choices of responds to our world.
                Our last week instance on the Great Pacific Garbage Patch is one of the example of this complication. The invention of plastic has indeed improve our lives. It is durable, low cost, and malleable. But this characteristics also the one that create problem such as this marine debris. It seems that with all of those forces we cannot do something to alter it. The success of “Beyond coal” campaign in the US gives us hope that any small action can make a difference. 

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