Fuck -- progress is a four letter word

I am not primitivist, no recluse from civilization and certainly no social claustrophobe. Okay, I do feel a bit self-conscious (in numerous ways) when I am amidst a group of strangers intent on chitchat and small talk and am given to believe that the best conversations are serious (as opposed to the banalities of online chatting comprising mostly of "brb" and "phone") but that still doesn't make me very radical, does it?

And speaking of nature and conservation, ecological sensitivity, etc. I do love the outdoors, am an avid bicyclist and get a kick by using public transport (in carbon footprint terms) but that still doesn't mean I have a dislike for civilization, development, progress or whatever else my species is currently engaged in -- on this planet, earth.

But I do know one thing, have known it all the while -- that trees are sacred living creatures and certainly not things. And that is why -- whenever I see a bleeding stump of what was once a verdant tree -- I am increasingly of the opinion that all that we as a species label as "progress", "development", "advancement" and so on are nothing but manifestations of our absolutely unfettered greed; a greed that borders on the pillage and destruction visited on by civilization by the relatively wild hordes -- like the Mongols, the Tartars and so on...all through the annals of history.

And yes, though I won't call myself a pessimist (you wouldn't either if you know me) I am again increasingly of the opinion -- whenever people brush off the cutting of trees as a necessary evil -- that our species is like a bunch of cattle stampeding with no sense of direction or purpose, mooing all the while; stampeding ahead in the march for the next level of so called advancement -- its collective ass wired to the twin obsessions of money and (what money feeds) consumerism.

I do lust for lenses and other technological advancements and I will once again repeat -- I am no primitivist and I love boulevards and bright city lights as much as I love verdant expanses and the great outdoors, but if someone says it is "progress" which makes it mandatory for trees to be cut, I will say progress is a four letter word.

In this day and this age, we need to introspect as a species and ask ourselves how advanced and evolved we really are if we cut down living, breathing, singing creatures in thousands; without even blinking an eye, as if they were deadwood.

Especially in this day and age when almost every corporate and busybody with a communication budget (or intent on getting noticed for making all the right noises) seems to be focusing on "going green", "ecological awareness", "3R's", "forestation" and what not under their CSR and other initiatives.

Anyway, read this and maybe thereafter all you can also say would be -- Oh, Fuck!