Human Beings Are Losing Touch With the Natural World
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Lifestyle

Human Beings Are Losing Touch With the Natural World

And their own nature too.

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Human Beings Are Losing Touch With the Natural World
John Mark Arnold

Modern human beings are becoming increasingly unfamiliar with the sense of tranquility and wholeness that nature provides. As humans acquire higher education and more specialized skills, society inevitably advances as a more industrialized, complex place characterized by the creation of new innovations and the formation of new ideologies. As a result, human beings have lost contact with the very parts of themselves that constitute their human nature as well as the natural world around them. In fact, throughout the course of time, humans have been trying to conceal the very things that make them human. Instead, a new emphasis is placed on perfection, modernity and self-individuality. While there is nothing inherently wrong with any of these concepts, to demand that we understand these ideas to be the only ones of importance in our lives is to undermine our own humanity. Consequently, we distance ourselves from nature, we begin to think only of ourselves and we yield to the belief that materialism is the sole source of happiness. All of these emerge at the expense of our appreciation of our own nature as human beings as well as our respect for other living things, which we often forget, are just as valuable as our own lives and are forms of life that we were meant to coexist with, not necessarily control. To put my point into perspective, consider the various problems that global citizens and leaders are confronted with: climate change, human rights violations, labor exploitation, gender inequality, to name a few significant examples. Other more personal issues that relate to the implications of a modern society relate to low self-esteem, depression, poor body image and the like. All of the aforementioned examples are, in large part, symptoms of the modern world. As society becomes more progressive in terms of technology, education and ideas, people tend to stray from their human roots. So, people slowly but surely become under the impression that it no longer serves someone to cultivate his or her inner peace and happiness, to help others consistently and to respect other forces of nature. The way I see most people operating in our world today stems from a need to survive and thrive, by any means necessary. There has been a shift from a willingness to co-exist harmoniously to a desire to dominate others. To add, value has become invested in material goods; recognizing the inherent worth of every human being has become a less common practice. In order to achieve a healthy balance in an ever-growing and ever-changing society, people must always keep close their nature as human beings, engage with the natural world and never lose sight of what truly is important in life.

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