Recent events made me re-think the whole "I want to remember and honour someone so I will light a candle for him" thing.
- To understand why we are all such pyromans when it comes to paying respect... would mean to study a lot about symbolism, and certain religions ( jewish, catholic, northern barbaric...) and I suspect the synopsis would be something like this: It is a symbol of life...and... it makes the person/object alive again for us ...
- So it is a cultural/archetype thing. Ok, no problem let people burn the candles, if it makes them feels good or in other wordss gives them greater utility.
- For if people have greater utility, plus some economic subjects make a decent profits out of this habit, then we not only make the population happier, but also increase the national GDP. It is a win win situation right?
- Wrong. Because in order to maximise the proftits it is logical to make the product more complex ( a simple candle won't do) so you can increase your added value to it and sell it for higher price. But that takes some extra natural resources. And what is that magical resource? Yes it is plastic and wax. And guess what is the main ingredient for those two? Yes our precious friend the oil. And oil is getting more and more scarce these days, because we really like to burn it for all kinds of more or less practical reasons.
- Furthermore, burning oil produces Co2 emissions and without much scientific ( not public! ) doubt that increases the global temperatures. And that makes our weather more extreme. Just remember the recent floods in europe, severe draughts in Africa and floody hurricanes in US.
- So if we return to the whole symbolism thing, a burning candle is becoming a new symbol in its own. A symbol of our civilisations unecessary destruction of our enviroment and ourselves. To put it simply: The end of life.
- A deadly hurricane certainly blows all the candles away. What about our habits and symbols?
3 comments:
Isn't it a bit apocalyptic to say lighting candles will bring about the end of our world? I mean compared with all the other things we do, it's nothing. It's even less than all the fires that erupted sometime in the history without human fault... and we're still alive!
It reminds me of an article I read today about conspiracy theories made up by the Republicans with the aim to win this election: Osama only killed more soldiers in Iraq this month to help the Democrats. If you vote for the Democrats, you vote for terrorists. If you light one more candle, we'll all be doomed!
I know lighting candles and Republicans don't have much in common, but your theory as well as theirs are quite huge extremes (although neat ideas :)
And about your symbolism thing: the flame is lit for the soul of the dead one, to remember him/her, but also to in good faith that it will indeed burn forever (in heaven and not in hell)
Again, we agree lighting a candle is a symbol for remembering someone, for believing his soul will keep us warm and light us forever.
But it is also becoming a symbol for our hard headedness and slowness when it comes to reacting to scientifically proven problems ( global warming and lack of oil ). It is becoming a symbol for all OTHER BAD THINGS WE DO ( inefficent, unjustful usage of resources ), just because we believe they are right. Or are not worth changing because it is too hard and besides our parents thaught us they are ok.
If you want more matter on the subject I recommend The Inconvenient truth. ( a bit oversimplified, but it gets the message accros.)
Nice republican twist ;), but the message is somewhat different: Just stick to your old beliefs and habbits and watch inocent children die. If the US thirst for oil ( iraq...) won't kill them rising water ( bangladesh for ex.) will. Hm, perhaps the USA will have to invade even more countries to get oil for the candles we will light for these poor souls.
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