Chapter 12 Chapter 1 Artificiality and Impermanence-6

The earth where you are reading this book now, if it is not destroyed by a meteorite first, will eventually become like Mars, lifeless.Perhaps a supervolcano erupted, blocking out the sun and killing all life on Earth.In the night sky, many of the stars we gaze at romantically are long gone and we see starlight from millions of years ago.And on this fragile Earth's surface, the land is constantly changing.The American continent we know now was only part of what geologists call the primitive Pangea 300 million years ago. But we don't have to wait 300 million years to see this change.Even in our short lifetimes, we've seen what we eat evaporate like water marks on hot sand.There was once a queen of India who lived in England, and her flag that the sun never sets flutters in every corner of the world.But now the setting sun is reflected on the Union Jack.The nations and races with which we deeply identify are constantly changing.Maori and Nahua warriors, who once ruled the entire territory, now live on cramped reservations, while immigrants are instead considered Aboriginal.The Chinese used to call the Manchus "them", now they are "us".Yet this constant transformation has never stopped people from sacrificing their lives to build strong nations, territories, and societies.How much blood has been shed in the name of political institutions over the centuries?Every system is formed by the combination of countless unstable elements, such as economics, harvest, personal ambition, cardiovascular health of leaders, desire, love and luck.Legendary leaders are not stable either, and some people are ruined because they smoke cigars but don't inhale them.

This complexity and instability continues unabated in international relations, as the definitions of allies and enemies change all the time.The United States once blindly and violently attacked an enemy called "communism".Even a people's hero like Che Guevara is condemned as a terrorist simply because he belongs to a certain political party and wears a beret with a red star on it.In fact, he may not be at all like the standard Communist Party member we portray him as.And just a few decades later, the White House courted the world's largest communist country, China, and gave her most-favored-nation status, but turned a blind eye to the same reasons that once allowed the United States to call for war.

In relationships, we also experience changes in friendships.A close friend with whom you have shared your inner secrets in the past can be your worst enemy, as he can turn those close friendships against you.President Bush, Osama bin Laden and Hussein fell out in front of everyone and couldn't handle it.The three of them had been close comrades-in-arms in the past, but now they are the most standard rivals, using their familiarity to carry out bloody holy wars, at the cost of thousands of lives, in order to implement the "moral" version believed everywhere. Since we take pride in our own moral principles and often impose them on others, moral values ​​have little value.However, throughout human history, the definition of morality has changed with the zeitgeist.America's meter of political correctness, or incorrectness, has been bewilderingly ebb and flow.No matter what you call a racial or cultural group, someone will always be offended.Game planning changes all the time.

In ancient Asian art, women were often depicted walking bare-breasted, and even in modern times, some Asian societies still accept topless women.However, due to the fusion of television and Western values, a new morality was introduced, and suddenly, not wearing a bra became a moral wrong, and women who did not cover their breasts were considered vulgar and even was arrested.What was once an open-minded nation is now embracing new moral values, ordering bras, and wrapping yourself up airtightly even in the hottest monsoons.Boobs aren't inherently bad, and they haven't changed, what has changed is morality.This change turned breasts into something so sinful that the FCC fined CBS $10 million for showing Janet Jackson's breasts for three seconds.