After we talked I went for my afternoon jog and, among other thoughts, I pondered his thesis for a while. At first I was thinking a lot about hanging out with Toby in Miami in an upcoming weekend and how stoked I’ll be to stay at the Mandarin Oriental and stroll through Coconut Grove, but then my thoughts started drifting back to this hour of darkness and the larger implications that Travis addressed. I wondered: has humanity become so philosophically bankrupt that it now embraces the idea that it must hate itself? Have people become so philosophically ruined that Americans are so unappreciative of light and energy that we conspire to boycott it?
Before you cut off the lights, think about what makes it possible for you to even have an option to turn them on. As an addendum, notice that you were required to do absolutely nothing to contribute to the process and that this is a gift that has been given to you. For millions of years humans lived in total darkness, both figuratively and literally. Through even some of the richest periods in the history of civilization, there were no lights or electricity. Having a light bulb and requisite electric distribution system necessary to power it is still in its infancy. Both of these were non-existent 130 years ago and were not proliferated until the 1950’s and were only brought to modern standards in the late 1970’s, early 1980’s. If you are reading this, you are older than our nation’s ability to deliver electricity in the capacity that it is today. The smartest minds in Earth’s history contributed countless hours of passion, genius, and ingenuity to provide you the ability to illuminate your entire house by merely flicking your finger. And now the laziest, most spoiled slackers that have contributed nothing to humanity are calling you to cut them off.
Before you cut off your lights think about who is asking you to cut them off and why. It is not the achievers that have come out to request this of you; it is the regulators—the men that, instead of setting out to build a new world, set out to control it. They ask you to cut off your lights because they actually want you to cut off your spirit. Light is the symbol of human achievement and pride. Electric light is the tangible manifestation of the spirit of that is the best within us. What the world’s new leaders want, what they need, is for you to surrender this spirit because it is this spirit that makes you impossible to control. With it gone, you are a sheep waiting to be herded. To cut your lights is to bow in submission.
Before you cut off your lights, think about a world without light and all of the things of which light makes possible. Recognize that to truly “shut out the lights” (and not just be some hour long phony) is to cut off most of your existence and the existence of millions of people that depend on light and energy. If you are truly damning light usage, you are damning your entire existence. You are admonishing everything that light makes possible and has made possible over the years: your favorite movie, your favorite song, your cell phone, your electric stove, your toaster, your car, the computer screen you are now reading. Light has given us everything from machines that save lives to machines that make it a little easier to mix a drink.
So on Saturday night, if you cut your lights out…remember you are cutting off everything that those lights stand for…that you are killing everyone in the hospital, that you are making it harder for that nice old lady to find the pen she dropped in her garage at night, that you are making the streets unsafe to walk at night, that you are choosing darkness over light, that of all evil in the world, you are the second most wretched type of human being toxifying our planet. The second? Yes, it gets worse.
I must add: there is one type of person more wretched than the person that decides to cut their lights out on Saturday night…that is the person that cuts their lights back on. This person is the most deceitful fraud and is the greatest disease our planet faces. The person that thinks it is immoral to live a life of light, but does it anyway…to choose to punish and condemn a lifestyle in which they actively participate. This is the person that would cut off her lights off to kill a sick child, but cut them back on to save herself.
Clear your mind from this turmoil. Refocus your beliefs. It’s not the lights you need to cut off, but your television. Step outside into the warming night air and marvel at the lights of your city. Remember, people are good, life is good, LIGHT IS GOOD. Never condemn your lifestyle and never give in to the idea that the world could ever run out of energy. Human history has shown that mankind always builds a solution. Though every generation, energy has become more abundant. And with each generation of man, it gets cleaner and cleaner. This process will continue forever. Just as email and the internet are eliminating the need to use paper, eventually science and industry will find an energy source to eliminate oil and coal. Just as 200 years ago we stood in awe of the use an engine powered by steam, just as 100 years ago we stood in awe of an engine that used gasoline, in the next few years will we stand in awe again of a new engine using a new fuel and we do not have to punish ourselves in the process.
On Saturday night at 8:30, turn on all of your lights, pour yourself a cocktail and call your best friend, your parents, your romantic partner and take a brief moment to discuss the brilliance of modern technology, the decency of humanity, and most importantly the beauty and splendor of the natural world…and reclaim the belief that we do not have to condemn ourselves to admire it.
