The Artist's Statement - Robert Steven
Connett
The Vomitus Maximus Museum
It is my opinion that society's ills are all in
some way linked to overpopulation. Our vast numbers and decreasing space create in us a
deep insecurity. This insecurity is well founded as the very space that we occupy is being
threatened. Our lives are more and more filled with feelings of foreboding and fear. Our
actions and decisions are apt to be motivated by our fear of losing what we think we have.
We are the victims of our own instinct to reproduce ourselves.
Lost in a sea of faceless, nameless people, many more of us suffer form a malady of
obscurity. We are quickly losing any concept of what is meant by 'unique' identity. We are
swiftly becoming part of a new 'hivemind'. Our new abilities to harness the powers of
information are pushing us further in this direction. The blessings that technology has
brought is also a curse, for it is physically impossible for us to fully absorb the insane
amounts of information which we are pummeled with on a second to second basis.
If you are reading this you are probably part of the rapidly shrinking percentage of the
worlds population who 'has' access to the power of information. Ours is fast becoming a
world of 'haves' and 'have nots', the latter being by far the larger group. The term
'middle class' is obsolete. The middle class is all but extinct ... and will soon join the
dinosaurs. What effect will we 'haves' have on all the 'have nots' when our tiny
percentage of the population controls 99% of all the information? You can begin to see the
growing schism already. What will happen to those who do not become one with the machines
that disseminate the power? How superior will we be compared to cultures who have not, or
can not, embrace computer technology? This is comparable to the
gap between the British and Africans a few hundred years ago. What did the English do when
they came upon these 'backward' people? They took over their land and enslaved them! I
believe that we will do the same. In 20 years how much more advanced will the
civilizations who harness this power be compared to those who do not? The rest of the
world will be blind, deaf and dumb compared to the few countries that have this power.
Will we then benevolently take pity on our poorer brothers and sisters? Will we extend the
helping hand of kindness and generosity? Do you think that our choices will be shadowed
when every square inch of this planet is populated by a hungry human being? Will we
sacrifice what we 'haves' have created for the overall good of mankind? Look to history to
find the answer.
We few may possess the power of technology, but we are far from immune to the symptoms of
our 'population disease'. How can most people possibly live up to the images of life which
we see every day on TV? We are bombarded by images that confuse us, and create in us
unrealistic expectations which we can never attain. The constant media blitzkrieg of
unreality confuses our ability to understand the difference between reality and fantasy.
Our confusions tear away at the fiber of our society, a society which was predicated on
the way things were in a time of less people. People scream to be heard over the cacophony
of 6 BILLION voices! ... Only the loudest and most EXTREME opinions are ever heard at all.
We fight one another to somehow rise to
the top of the heap. It is easier to be ugly than beautiful, easier to tear down than to
create. In our insecure desperation to prove that we are unique, we choose the easy way.
We become serial murderers to get seen on TV, and the rest of us aggrandize these
predators! We brainwash ourselves into believing the absurd things we profess in order to
preserve some demented sense of uniqueness. In so doing we are falling for our own twisted
hype. Suddenly we start believing that eating feces or having sex with the dead is cool
... And if YOU aren't into that ... you must be of less value in comparison to this 'high
art' of perversity ... We are creating a new reality which is based more on fantasy than
ever before in history. We are the product of the first human experiments with massive
media bombardment ... and we are becoming what our minds have invented.
We continue to charge blindly onward, down the path of pathetic self-consumption. We
destroy our
environment with our ravenous hungers and blanket our earth with our excrement. Mankind's
flatulence turns our once blue skies a sickly brown and the fecal matter rains down upon
us, turning our planet into a festering sewer. The planet is rebelling against us in order
to survive our assaults. Humankind is expendable. Our demise is a good and necessary thing
when judged through the eyes of the Earth. Just as we would rid our bodies of an
infestation of lice, nature will attempt to unburden itself of us, using any means
necessary. In only a few generations, we have developed newer and more malignant
antisocial behaviors. The world that you live in today is NOTHING like the world of 50
years ago. The madness is on a geometric rise! All things which serve to cheapen our lives
and kill us are escalating. These behaviors are harmful to us, yet good for our planet.
Our demise seems to be the natural order of things. Some of the less obvious manifestation
of this process of elimination are behaviors that reduce or eliminate reproduction of our
species. Sexual aberration, impotence and substance abuse are a few examples. More deadly
forms on the rise are violent crimes, suicides, mass murders, serial murders, child murder
and abuse, rape and the best one of all ... WAR. Nature brings on natural disasters such
as earthquakes, floods, droughts and pestilence. We help the process along by making a
garbage dump in our own backyards. Global warming, depletion of the ozone layer, acid
rain, oil spills and the occasional nuclear meltdown help hasten the inevitable outcome
for our species. Diseases like AIDS, incurable TB, heart disease and many forms of cancer
are doing their part to reduce the flock. The direct connection to our pollutants are
obvious. Insects grow immune to our pesticides, and disease grows immune to our medicines.
Due to our overcrowded situation, we can not properly nourish our people. Poor nutrition
and the exposure to a new range of pollutants are changing the overall patterns of human
development. In many parts of the world, we are no longer climbing the evolutionary
ladder. No longer are we genetically improving our species. In more and more cases, I
perceive that we are actually 'devolving.' As BILLIONS more are born into a world of
poverty and desperation, we descend further and further into a genetic morass. We are
spawning generations of mental and physical defectives, devoid of man's "higher"
qualities. These uncaring and unthinking semi-morons know little more than the instinct to
survive and reproduce. Morality or ethics are not to be found in the vocabulary of these
modern people.
To those without hope, life is worth little. So why NOT steal from thy neighbor? Why NOT
torture and mutilate for fun? If it makes you feel strong to make another weak and
helpless, why NOT rape and humiliate? And for the ultimate power play, why NOT kill?
Television teaches us that we can kill with impunity, so WHY NOT? If we should feel a
tinge of guilt or hear the knock of retribution at our door, we need only change the
channel or just turn off the set.
Human life is worth less and less as we swarm over the landscapes. Soon it will become
abundantly clear that people are worth more dead than alive. There are just too damn many
of us! I am not convinced that mankind will disappear from the planet entirely. I think
it's possible that mankind may find a way to survive and see the dawn of a brighter day.
However, I do NOT think it will happen until the population is greatly reduced. I foresee
that a catastrophe will occur to eliminate large numbers of us. This could be by a nuclear
war or perhaps a virulent new plague, who knows? Probably something that very few of us
will see coming. Hopefully I'll die of old age before it happens.
I want to say that I do not justify or condone murder or suicide or crimes against people,
animals or the planet. I am only stating my opinion that more people will kill others and
themselves as the population increases. In so doing, they serve as pawns to evolution.
What virtue and nobility is left to humankind
should be cherished and nurtured while it still exists.
In the year 1804 the world human population reached 1 billion.
In the year 1927 the world human population reached 2 billion.
In the year 1960 the world human population reached 3 billion.
In the year 1974 the world human population reached 4 billion.
In the year 1987 the world human population reached 5 billion.
On October 12th, 1999 the world human population reached 6 billion.
If you would like to know what the human
population of the
Earth is about now click HERE
a
possible solution?
|
