“Last year, I had a life-changing experience at 90 years old. I went to space, after decades of playing an iconic science-fiction character who was exploring the universe. I thought I would experience a deep connection with the immensity around us, a deep call for endless exploration.
"I was absolutely wrong. The strongest feeling, that dominated everything else by far, was the deepest grief that I had ever experienced.
"I understood, in the clearest possible way, that we were living on a tiny oasis of life, surrounded by an immensity of death. I didn’t see infinite possibilities of worlds to explore, adventures to have, or living creatures to connect with. I saw the deepest darkness I could have ever imagined, contrasting so starkly with the welcoming warmth of our nurturing home planet.
"This was an immensely powerful awakening for me. It filled me with sadness. I realized that we had spent decades, if not centuries, being obsessed with looking away, with looking outside. I did my share in popularizing the idea that space was the final frontier. But I had to get to space to understand that Earth is and will stay our only home. And that we have been ravaging it, relentlessly, making it uninhabitable."
-- William Shatner, actor
@didgebaba and then a bunch of rich people that have been doing the ravaging cut him off when he tried to give a speech and sprayed him with champagne, because for them it was just an amusement ride.
He was clearly trying to express something profound about the experience, and Jeff Bezos is just like "Imma let you finish, but here's a fountain of champagne" and a bunch of other people in the background are cheering and spraying champagne.
@unlambda@Natanox@mral@trechnex@didgebaba This video is everything William Shattner seemed to have realized about humanity summed up in one minute. You just have to marvel at the beauty of the utter ugliness of the moment.
It's also a very good allegory of why we're fucked if we keep on going our current path in the speed we're currently still at.
And why I absolutely agree with Bernie Sandars that billionaires shouldn't exist.
They can't even correctly identify someone who's clearly feeling uncomfortable with Bezos not giving a single fuck. This is fucking dystopian in every dimension, I have no words.
And I can't believe I'm saying this! It's William Shatner! He's probably the cast member I'd expect to be least thoughtful and introspective about this, and yet here we are, billionaires dousing him in champagne while he tries to express the profundity of the moment.
@unlambda@Natanox@mral@trechnex@didgebaba
Shatner has a rep for being a jerque but I had a week's worth of daily contact w him as a hotel worker in Sequoia Natl Pk & he was nothing but cool. Left a very generous tip.
He also wrote a couple of pretty decent scifi books
@PeachMcD@unlambda@Natanox@mral@trechnex@didgebaba some humans change. Shat clearly went thru a period where he didn't treat everyone as well as he might have. But he seems to have aged well, into something at least close to wisdom. That's a hopeful thing.
My week of hotel service was decades ago, but the crew & I were all careful to talk about anything EXCEPT #StarTrek with our guest while he was on vacation 😉 Any #Trekkie knows that's key to getting along with Mr S
🖖🏼🤩🖖🏼
@Natanox@unlambda@mral@trechnex@didgebaba they're all sociopaths. it was a thing in the 1990s to screen for sociopaths and make them CEOs. who cottage industry of the "good" sociopath next door.
@trechnex@didgebaba That was the pivotal moment for me. Mid-sentence, expressing a heartfelt observation, and Bezos turns away with disinterested "whoo bubbly fountain ha ha!"
Yea ... these words, from that person, against the contrast with the environment in which they emerged are one of the best pop culture events I've ever seen I think.
So illuminating to see some wisdom being born as a sort of fragile sapling amongst mindlessly trampling beasts.
What's beautiful about Shatner's words, however much I'd read about the experience before, is he really conveyed the essence of the experience, that sudden deep blackness.
"...My experience in space filled me with sadness, but also with a strong resolve. I don’t want my grandchildren to simply survive. I want them, as an old friend used to say, to be able to live long and prosper.
I will do everything I can so that we can protect our one and only home."
@didgebaba Okay, yes, I knew this truth before he told me and before he went to space. But, dude, he went to space at 90 years old? 😳 THAT's impressive!
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