Welcome to noonespecial.ca
Why is this site called No One Special? Because I am no one special. That’s fine because you’re no one special either. None of us are. In the grand scheme of things we’re utterly unimportant. As individuals, most of us will be forgotten (to the extent that we’re ever known) in 100 years. As a species we have no cosmic significance whatsoever.
Why hold and promote such a cynical worldview? There’s nothing cynical about it at all. I feel that when we separate ourselves from our ego and understand and accept our place in the universe is when we can be the most successful. As you’ll gather from these pages, I don’t have a low opinion of humanity or of myself. I don’t have low expectations for us or for myself. Its just that my expectations are very different…
It would be easy to blame all our problems on human nature but that blame would be misplaced. The 6.5 billion (and counting) of us are not all responsible for this overpopulation. We’re not all responsible for the current period of mass extinction at a rate not seen since the fall of the dinosaurs. None of this was humanity’s doing. The Yanomami had nothing to do with it. Neither did the Kalahari Bushmen, the Dongria Kondh or the uncontacted tribal people of the Peruvian Amazon. No, this was only our doing, the civilized… the special.
And God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth.” -Genesis 1:28
I believe that our culture’s sense of entitlement and perception of inherent specialness is what has gotten us into this position. We have even invented gods to ordain us masters of the universe. What happens to the planet or any of the other species on it doesn’t matter. Perhaps most tellingly, it doesn’t even matter what happens to other human cultures like the numerous tribes destroyed by our expanding civilization. The entire biomass of earth is being rapidly converted into human biomass; us and the food we like to eat. This is all happening not just with us going about our business. Read that Bible quote again, it is our duty.
I reject that duty. I reject humanity’s innate specialness. I reject the idea that magical invisible omnipotent beings exist and believe we’re more important to them than any other animal. I reject the idea that the entire universe — or anything for that matter — was created for us. I reject the idea that our cultural ancestors many thousands of years ago were special enough to have special knowledge of gods. I reject the idea that people today are special enough to have said knowledge of gods and creators. I reject the idea that this planet is ours to do what we want with. I reject the idea that we are somehow the pinnacle of evolution.
Frankly, we are nowhere near that special. Our culture is arrogant, selfish and self-absorbed. Our destruction of the ecosystem is being fuelled by myths of entitlement, destiny and the notion of continuous growth. We’re not special enough that we can’t cause the collapse of the ecosystem.
It is quite likely we are approaching the tipping point if we haven’t already past it. But I have hope. Our problems are not the results of a fault in human nature. This is not humanity’s doing. This is the fault of one culture. We don’t have to change humanity, just one single culture…. ours.
We need to drop the notion of entitlement. We need to lose the superiority complex. We need to stop thinking and acting as if we are special. We’re not special. Accepting that is what will give us a ray of hope for our future. Embracing it is what will enable us to fully take our place in the community of life. If we are to lead let it be by example, not decree.
And so, I am no one special. I am atoms with ego. I am utterly unimportant and cosmically insignificant. I am going to help save the world.