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** Civilization and Technology: Slavery and Destruction ** ** Opinion by Neil Schneeberg **

Black smoke billows from the tailpipes of large pick-up trucks and the smoke stacks of the factories cause acid rain to destroy a rain forest. Fertilizer drips from the lawn to the river and the fisherman catch nothing that day. 1,000 more teenagers were killed in car accidents. That mass-processed meat approved by the FDA just made thousands sick and genetically modified corn just ruined thousands of farmers lives. A city built below sea level flooded to everyone's surprise and countless lives were lost. A virus spreads with the help of city confines and planes that don't stop flying.

Our society is held together by small strings connected to tall wooden poles. It is fueled by death, and it is determined to make life a non-renewable resource. As technology increases and civilization spreads people begin to act more civilized; they begin starting wars, destroying the land, and desiring the domination of everything, including ourselves. All these things have been done since the dawn of civilization. For as long as humanity sees itself as the dominator of nature and not part of nature we will subject ourselves to our own slavery. Do we really want all this? Technology can only be maintained by work, that is, work induced by authority. If we want technology, it is a synthetic wanting. We must ask the question: if everyone was free to do what they want, to go to work or not, and for however long they want, would we still be able to maintain this level of technology? Is technology worth slavery? Is civilization worth destruction? There was once a time when man lived in harmony with the land around him and was prosperous; perhaps now it is impossible to return to this primitivism, but we can still live our lives closer to what our ancestors would have. The promise of a techno-utopia is a lie.