Not much change since Chekhov’s day

“MAN has been endowed with reason, with the power to create, so that he can add to what he’s been given. But up to now he hasn’t been a creator, only a destroyer. Forests keep disappearing, rivers dry up, wildlife’s become extinct, the climate’s ruined, and the land grows poorer and uglier every day.”

With Keystone COP26 – note Joe Biden’s 22-vehicle motorcade – dominating the news bulletins, who do you suppose is the author of the above quote? Greta Thunberg? Chris Packham? Sir David Attenborough? The Prince of Wales?

There’s a clue in the use of the word “Man”, which rather dates it. The author is Anton Chekhov (1860-1904), the Russian dramatist whose plays are “concerned with the difficulty of communication between people”, from Uncle Vanya (1897). Yes, all of 124 years ago – or rather, four generations ago.

Human DNA does not alter over the generations; indeed, our generic inheritance challenges the notion that the planet’s movers and shakers will abandon their hardwired ambitions and greed to save humanity (the planet and nature, in some form or other, will survive).

And do you suppose President Xi Jinping will abandon a single ambition to compromise his becoming the most powerful person on the planet? Well, he did cop out of COP26. The smart money suggests he will take a chance with the future of humanity rather than give up his ambitions.

“Power [and greed] tend to corrupt, and absolute power [and greed] corrupt absolutely.” Oh, and absolute power and greed makes people go bonkers – see Proverbs: “Whom the gods wish to destroy they first make mad.”

Huw Beynon Llandeilo